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Hollywood, The Mob and Ghosts at Lake Arrowhead

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by Bob Sparrow

Bracken Fern Manor

Yes, they’re all part of a most fascinating history of this pristine alpine lake that I had the good fortune of hearing about from an interesting character and owner of the Tudor House and Bracken Fern Manor, John Connor; more about him later.

Notorious mobster, ‘Bugsy’ Siegal got the Chicago Mob to fund the Atkins Brothers building of a resort in the mountains – Bracken Fern Manor, an alpine inn in the San Bernardino mountains just above Lake Arrowhead, which opened as ‘Club Arrowhead in the Pines’ in 1929.  It catered to the rich and famous, including many film stars.  Back in the day, many from Hollywood came to Arrowhead as  Bracken Fern Manor offered gambling, illegal liquor, as this was during Prohibition, and ‘ladies of the evening’.  The brothel continued operation through World War II.  An interesting side note is that when authorities realized that many of the mafia men spoke Italian, they offered them a ‘get out of jail free card’ if they would use their language skills to spy on the Italians, who were part of the Axis powers. 

The Tudor House

Gambling continued as a profitable business with a move across the street to the ‘speakeasy’/casino, called the Tudor House and continued operations until 1955.  This is the building where our group watched the football games on a big screen on New Years Day and were served drinks, pizza and desserts by John Connor and Bridger Zadina, more about him later too. The Bracken Fern Manor was turned into a 10-bedroom hotel which was said to be haunted by the ghosts of a ten-year-old boy, who was struck by a car and a prostitute who jumped from an upper-story window.  Enough hotel guests had paranormal experiences that both OC Ghosts & Legends and Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures have broadcast from the hotel.  Owner, John Connor gave us a tour through, what is today, the hotel, starting in the wine cellar and working our way up to the second floor where there was a secret window where one could ‘peek’ into the room and watch the goings on.  The rooms were small and shared a Jack & Jill bathroom.  We won’t be checking in anytime soon!

While walking back to the Tudor House from the Backen Fern Manor, (It is said there were secret tunnels connecting the two buildings to accommodate brothel customers stealthily moving between them), John showed us where the first power lines that brought electricity to Lake Arrowhead from San Bernardino were put up using live Ponderosa pine trees as telephone poles.  Look closely at the photo to see the ‘make-shift ladder’ still attached to the tree.  The grounds also include a wedding venue and an amphitheater seating four hundred for summer concerts.

OK, what about John Connor and Bridger Zadina?

John (with cigar) and Bridger

John is an 80-year-old energetic man who was born on a farm in Maryland and worked on it until he was 17, then decided that he didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do, but he knew it wasn’t working on a farm.  As it turned out, he was quite brilliant and went to Drexel Institute of Technology and earned a degree in particle physics, where he unknowingly worked on a neutron bomb for the Department of Defense.  He attended graduate school at Duke University, was recruited by the US Air Force to develop weapon systems during the Vietnam War (he gets pretty emotional talking about this), worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, worked on some of our very first computers, helped with the construction of the Alaskan Pipeline, was on Ronald Reagan’s transition team, started his own tax consulting firm, moved to Montana to retire and do some ranching, then moved to Arrowhead to open the Tudor House and Bracken Fern Manor, making it a theater, restaurant and hotel.  During pauses in the action of the football game we were watching, he would sit down at the piano and play a few show tunes – a true Renaissance man and a real character.

Wishing you a happy new year from the Lake Arrowhead Hotel

Bridger Zadina is a 30-year-old, who was very unassuming and always had a smile on his face.  He mentioned that he helped put on and act in some of the local theater shows that are done at the Tudor House theater.  Other than just being a nice guy, he just smiled and made sure we had plenty of food and beverages.  What we found out later is that he was born in Wisconsin and came to California to be an actor and model.  He’s had TV roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Bosch and Better Things; he also starred in the 2014 movie Sins of Our Youth.

An alpine lake, beautiful mountains, memorable characters, and a fascinating history made this a most memorable start to the new year.

PS: The last time I was at Lake Arrowhead was about 30 years ago and it was dead, with vacant buildings and empty streets. No longer – the place was happening; stores opened and lots of people.  

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Hong Kong and a Photo Phinish

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by Bob Sparrow

Hong Kong

Hong Kong night view

Our ship arrived in Hong Kong on a Tuesday morning and the regular schedule was for us to fly home the next day, but we wanted a little more time in the ‘Pearl of the Orient’, so we extended for another day.  We were sad to leave our ship, as it was our first time cruising with Celebrity and our first time in a suite; it was great to experience a great ship at a luxury level.  Our hotel was right on Victoria Harbour, so we had a great view, although we spent little time in our room.  We took about a 30-minute walk to Temple Street, a place Linda had to get to for some shopping, but as we learned later, it was mostly a ‘night market’.  We did return the next night and had dinner – again, not sure what we had, but it was very tasty! 

Squinting man with attractive blonde at Peak Tower

We scheduled a full-day tour the next day that included a trip on the world’s longest escalator, a ferry ride, a delicious lunch, a visit to the old police station/prison/museum, which displayed the history of Hong Kong, and then a ferry ride from Hong Kong Island to the sky tram to the Peak Tower.  At the top of the tram, Hong Kong spreads out before you.  Just spectacular!!   Back to our hotel, we walked through what seemed like miles of mall to get to the pier for the ‘light show’.  The mall had every high-end fashion store in the world, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent,, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Tiffany & Co., and many more; and it went on for what seemed like miles. We knew we weren’t in Vietnam anymore! The ‘light show’ occurs nightly at eight o’clock and features all the tall sky-scrappers on the water lighting up their building in various colors – it was nice, but a little unspectacular.

Hong Kong is a great, modern, bustling city, even the airport has all the high-end shops in the world.       

Final word . . .

I have to say, this cruise exceeded our expectations, which were fairly high to start with.  Great cities, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, DaNang and Hong Kong – each a great city in its own right.  Singapore stands out as a favorite.  It’s a city that is so clean and so diverse.  Linda and I both thought that with a trip of 18 days, we would be so ready to get home, but that was not the case, we loved every day, but it is great to be home!

Because we were traveling alone, we ended up sitting with and befriending a variety of people – a traveling circus owner from Quebec, an interesting couple from Ireland, a Korean couple that lives next to Debo Samuel of the 49ers, and many others, mostly from the UK. Oh yeah, we also met a couple from Yorba Linda!

Unsurprisingly, I reinforced a belief that you can’t diet on a cruise.  I did get to the gym fairly regularly, but when the food is so available and good and you get in the habit of having dessert not only for dinner, but for breakfast and lunch, your pants will be much tighter.  So, I learned a new phrase on this Asian cruise:  Mi Tu Phat

Thanks for coming along!

Photo Phinish 

Lunch – I only recognized the fruit
Hoa, our Saigon tour guide (on the left)
Wat Plai Laem, translated: Need a hand?
Cave in Ha Long Bay
Dinner on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok

Top of US Embassy – Last helicopter out of Saigon – 1975
The same US Embassy today – small brown building in the middle

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Good Morning, Vietnam!

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by Bob Sparrow

Jeep tour of Saigon

Our first port of call in Vietnam is Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. I asked if it mattered which name I called it.  I mistakenly assumed that people from South Vietnam called it Saigon and those from north Vietnam called it Ho Chi Minh City – not so.  Our guide for the day, from the north, called it Saigon.  I learned you don’t insult anyone by calling it either name. But Saigon is not a ‘port city’, so we had to take a van from the port to the city center, which was about an hour-and-a-half drive.   We scheduled a private jeep tour of some key highlights of the city, so Linda and I toured the city in an old Army jeep, with a driver and a guide, Hoa (Who-ah).  I’ve often said, ‘Your guide makes or breaks your tour’ – Hoa made it!  He was about five feet tall and looked to be in his thirties – he was 57 and hilarious! 

We first visited the requisite Buddhist temple and learned the importance of incents – the smoke takes your prayers to Buddha.  We then visited Independence Palace, which is the president’s residence, like our White House.  We passed by Ho Chi Minh Square and the Opera House as well as the Saigon’s Notre Dame – we see a lot of the French influence in the architecture here.  Our most memorable stop was at the War Remnants Museum, which was quite graphic in its depiction of the devastating effects of the Vietnam War.  I have to say that walking through that museum was very gut-wrenching. We finish our full day tour with a great meal at a downtown Saigon restaurant – delicious!  No, I don’t know what I had, I just pointed to a photo that looked good – and it was! 

Tourist on Thu Bon River in Hoi An

Our next port was DaNang, and again we had about an hour and a half drive from the boat dock to the city, and while we drove through the big city of DaNang, we continued on to a smaller town called Hoi An.  We spent time visiting all the ‘tourist shops’ looking for bargains – Linda found some and I was able to purchase another mask for my back-bar collection.  I have to say, for a communist country there sure are a lot of entrepreneurial capitalists trying to sell us stuff!   

Back on the boat and heading north to Hanoi, where we will arrive, through Ha Long Bay, the next morning.  We are in the harbor at Ha Long Bay for two days and we decide to take the tour of the bay to see the amazing islands that are formed and a spectacular cave where we hike up to the entrance and entered – spectacular!!! 

Spectacular Halong Bay

For our second day in Hanoi, we looked at the tours to go into the city and perhaps visit the ‘Hanoi Hilton’, but we discovered that the tours were 10-11 hours in length and that the ride into Hanoi from the harbor took three-and-a-half hours each way!  That’s 7 hours on a bus for a 3-4 hour tour, so we passed and did a fascinating tour of Ha Long City. 

What made Ha Long City so fascinating is that it’s a city right on the water with awesome beaches, five-star hotels, and lots of high-end condos . . . but, everything was empty, not just no people in the buildings, but no furniture, just empty beautiful buildings.  We asked our golf cart driver what was going on in this Vietnam ‘ghost town’ and because he spoke very little, we didn’t get much of an answer.  So, I Googled it and discovered that a Vietnamese lady investor, basically bilked billions of dollars out of the government to build up the city, but she did it all on false promises and is now in prison and may be sentenced to death. 

We get back to our boat that pulls out of port that evening heads for Hong Kong, our last stop of this awesome trip!

Thursday: Hong Kong and a ‘Photo Phinish’     

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The Celebrity Solstice Heads to Thailand

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(I believe a user error occurred and parts of this blog were previously posted for a few minutes. It’s confusing being on the other side of the planet!)

The Ship

A few days before we left for this trip, Linda got on the Celebrity website and saw that bids were being accepted to up-grade our ship’s cabin for a suite.  She decided to give it a try and so she made a bid.  The indicator that shows your possibility of getting the up-grade showed “slim to none and Slim just left town”.  But apparently Slim came back into town as we got the up-grade.  This up-grade put us in the front of every line checking in – they treated us as if we actually had money!  Then we got to our room.  “Oh, my goodness!!”  There is a desk by the entry, that opens to about a 12’ x 20’ living area with two large couches, an easy chair and TV.  There is a master bedroom with a king-sized bed and walk-in closet and a large TV.  The bathroom has two entries, one from the master bedroom and one for guest to use by the entry.  Needless to say, we love the room! 

Us, pretending we are rich!

The rest of the ship is like most cruise ships, lots of bars and restaurants, a large event theater and a staff that is very helpful and friendly.  I understand they have a gym here as well, hopefully I’ll be able to find that over the course of the 13 days we are on board.

At this writing we’ve only been on board for two days, so I’ll keep you posted on any of the other features of the ship as we learn more ourselves.

Koh Samui

Lunch on the island of Koh Samui

Our first port of call is Koh Samui, a Thailand island just off the coast of Bangkok.  We tendered into shore and we had a tour set up of the ‘Highlights of Koh Samui’.  We are met by a very nice Thai girl, with a great sense of humor, who will be our guide for the day.  Our bus takes us along the coast on the only road around the island of Koh Samui, stopping at several Buddhist Temples until we arrive at our luncheon destination, a very nice beachside restaurant and hotel, where we have lunch, that consisted of , , , well, I’m not sure what it was, but it was good!  After lunch we are back on the bus and headed to a cocoanut plantation.  Once there, we walk out into a cocoanut tree grove and one of the workers there gives us a demonstration on how to pick, shave, split and harvest the meat as well as shows us how to make cocoanut water.  We are let off by the tender, where I am able to purchase a ‘Thai mask’ for my back bar collection. 

When we get back to our room, our butler has placed a nice fruit basket along with some champagne on ice and beer in the refrigerator – this must be how the rich people live!  I could get used to this!

A typical two-bedroom condo in Bangkok. NOT!

Bangkok We have an all-day tour set up and it’s literally all day, starting at being picked up at 8:00 am and returning to the ship at 10:00 pm.  It is about an hour-and-a-half drive from the port into Bangkok, and we are lucky because we arrived on a Saturday and if it were a week day, the drive would have been at least three hours!!  Our first stop is at the Royal Palace, which is quite spacious and aesthetically beautiful, in a colorful, albeit garish, to us.  Our guide tells us about the history of the kings of this land and some interesting history.  We get back on our bus and drive through the very big, very busy and not-to-beautiful city of Bangkok.  We stop at a nice river-side restaurant for lunch, then get on a boat and visit the royal boatyard where all the past king’s river craft reside on display.  We get back on the bus and visit a few Buddhist temples, and to be honest, we’re not all that impressed with Bangkok . . . until. 

We have a night dinner cruise on the river, Chao Phraya, that runs through the heart of all the fancy hotels and restaurants.  We are on an open-air boat, where we enjoy a delicious dinner, while taking in the spectacularly lit buildings along the river – music and fireworks are included.  A breath-taking evening.  We felt that this portion of the tour literally saved the day and made the long trip to and from the port into the city, worthwhile.  Although it was a long bus ride back to the ship and the driver did get lost on our way, but eventually we arrived back at the ship at 10:30 pm . . . exhausted. 

We spent all of the next day in port and on the ship as we didn’t have any other Bangkok tours planned.  It felt good to relax and explore this wonderful ship.

Next: Good Morning Vietnam!

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THE ROAD TO SINGAPORE

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By Bob Sparrow

Singapore Airport Waterfall

No, this is not a review of the old Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamor ‘road movie’, although I believe I did get some of my wanderlust from repeatedly watching them growing up. Rather, this is about our first leg of getting to our Asian cruise beginning in Singapore. We departed LAX around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night for a 7,300-miles, 15 hour and 40-minute flight to the Philippines. And apparently we were flying so fast that we flew right through Sunday and arrived in Manila on Monday morning at 5:40 We then had three-and-a-half-hour layover before our four-hour flight to Singapore. Linda and I have had a longstanding practice of not up-grading to first or business class, as we reason that the significant amount of money we would spend to up-grade would be better spent at our destination. I’m thinking that that practice may need revisiting! Actually, it wasn’t that bad as we did have a seat between us on both flights. As always, those of you who are coming along vicariously, have the most comfortable seats!

Singapore: As we watch the weather report prior to coming, we were expecting nothing but rain, but it was clear and warm, and this city is beautiful. Tall, beautiful business buildings surrounded with lots of greenery. When we landed, we were anticipating getting to see the ‘famous’ waterfall in the airport, but the person picking us up said we were ready to go as soon as he saw us. We pleaded for just a couple of minutes to run over and see the waterfall; it was just a few minutes away. The driver said OK, so we got a chance to see the uniquely spectacular airport waterfall. We arrive at our hotel after about a 30-minute drive through the city, which is not only beautiful, but exceptionally clean. We check into the very nice, Dorsett Hotel, then decided to take a quick walk-through neighboring Chinatown (it ended up being about a four-mile ‘quick walk’), which was a most interesting spot for eateries and souvenir shopping. We stopped at a famous food court, called Hau Pat Sat, filled with dozens of great food places and had dinner. I’d tell you what I had, but I don’t know, it was.

We cannot get over how clean this city is; in fact, it is known as “A Fine City”- you get fined if you litter,

Marina Bay Sands Hotel

you get fined if you spit, you get fined if you smoke in the wrong place, etc. The next day, our only full day in Singapore, we had dedicated to cram in seeing all the ‘famous tourist attractions’ in the city – and there are plenty. We started with a Hop on, Hop off bus. We tried to buy passes, but the bus driver just waived us in – not sure why and we wondered if he would let us get off! Maybe he knew something, as within the next few minutes as we were riding on the partially covered roof seats of the bus through Little India, the rain started, and let me tell you, Singapore knows rain. It came down in buckets, reminding us that we were here during monsoon season! It’s no wonder everything looks so green here! So, we “hopped off” for good and had lunch. After lunch, with me trying the local Tiger beer and Linda appropriately having a Singapore Sling, we tried our hand at the local subway system. Fortunately, we got some help from the very friendly people here and managed to make our way to Marina Bay, where many of the tourist attractions are. Our first stop was the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Oh my gosh!!! It is truly one of the most magnificent, no it is the most magnificent, hotel I’ve ever seen. While wandering through the lobby, we met a couple who was staying there at $1500 a night, and they said the breakfast, at $100 each, was amazing! I would hope so! We wandered through the hotel, now festooned in Christmas décor, with our jaws dropped. We then took the elevator to the 57th floor observation deck. The weather had cleared so the view of the city was magnificent. There is a pool on top, but only guests of the hotel are allowed into that area.

The Flower Dome and Cloud Forest

We then headed over to two other amazing attractions in the area, the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. I could try to describe how beautiful these two botanical domes are, but I wouldn’t do it justice. I would encourage you to go on YouTube and take a look for yourself – truly amazing! We hop on the subway (now we’re experts!) and stop in Chinatown again for dinner, then walk back to our hotel. Tomorrow we will be boarding the ship. Interesting side note about Singapore: Earlier this year at the United Nations climate talks, Singapore, who has been a leader in water management, introduced a new product, NEWBrew, a beer made from treated wastewater. I had to try one, if for no other reason than when I’m back home and taste a bad beer, I can honestly say, “This beer tastes like piss.” 肆

See you in Bangkok

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An Early Thanksgiving at Sea

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by Bob Sparrow

Singapore’s Changi Airport

First, let me give a snappy, albeit tardy, salute and a “Thank you for your service” to all those VETERANS out there – who are mostly not given enough credit for their willingness to put the ultimate sacrifice on the line for our country.  It was a most interesting blog that Suzanne wrote last week about our grandfather’s time in the Army during WWI and WWII.  If you missed it, it’s definitely worth going back to read.     

My next blog will come to you, assuming there will be adequate connectivity and sobriety, from the South China Sea.  Linda and I will leave L.A. on Saturday, Nov 23rd, change planes in the Philippines and ultimately arrive at one of the world’s most beautiful airports on Monday afternoon, Nov 25 in Singapore.  Yes, we will entirely miss Sunday! We will shake off the jetlag and spend three days exploring Singapore, hopefully seeing things like the Gardens by the Bay, Flower Dome & Cloud Forest, and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  All the while enjoying some amazing and very different, possibly spicy, food.  

Then we will be boarding the Celebrity ship, Solstice on Thanksgiving Eve.  Thanksgiving Day will be ‘at sea’, but because we’ll be on the other side of the International Date Line, it will still be Wednesday back here, so perhaps I’ll let you know how this years’ turkey tastes a day before you get to taste it.

Celebrity Solstice

Our first cruise stop will be at the small Thailand island of Koh Samui – Yeah, I’ve never heard of it either, but it’s known for its stunning beaches, its iconic Big Buddha, the colorful Wat Plai Laem temple (what ever that is), as well as some interestingly and probably spicy food.  We then head into Bangkok, where we spend two days and have set up tours to see the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, the world’s largest reclining Buddha, not to be confused with the world’s largest ball of twine, which is in Kansas, just west of Manhattan.  Never mind, I guess you wouldn’t confuse those two.  Meanwhile, back in Bangkok, we’ll probably have some more spicy food and get back on the ship for another ‘day at sea’.   

We will be traveling north to Vietnam.  Our first port of call there is Ho Chi Mihn City, or as many of us

POWs at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’

remember it, Saigon, and we certainly didn’t want to Miss Saigon. We have a tour for exploring the Cu Chi Tunnels, well, I have a tour to explore the tunnels, Linda gets a bit claustrophobic so, given her interest in opera, she may be visiting the Saigon Opera House; it’s probably best that I’m missing that as I’m ‘opera-phobic’!  Back on the boat and heading north to Nha Trang. Hold it!  We just received word that due to port construction issues, we will not be visiting Nha Trang, so we get another ‘day at sea’ before stopping in Danang and Hue (pronounced ‘whay’).  We have one more Vietnam stop in Hanoi, where we will spend two days, and have set up tours to visit the ‘Hanoi Hilton’, where captured U.S. soldiers we held as prisoners of war.  We have also scheduled a tour of the military museum there.  We have heard that it is a bit bias in their presentation of the war, but, as they say, winners get to write the history. So we’ll try not to act like ugly Americans and just eat some spicy food, and get back on the boat.

We have another ‘day at sea’! OK, we will now have had four days ‘at sea’ and we should have explored every nook and cranny of this boat, which essentially means we’ve been in every bar and by now they’re probably out of pina coladas!  Now that I think about it, we could probably visit the gym, although web will have no idea where it might be. 

‘Pearl of the Orient’ Hong Kong

Our final port of call is Hong Kong, where we originally had only about a day and a half before leaving for home, but we added another day to see more of the ‘Pearl of the Orient’, and have set up daytime and nighttime tours of this magnificent city.

Then a short 12.5 hour flight home in the back of the bus.

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An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

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by Bob Sparrow

Susan, Dennis, Linda and ‘what’s his name’

I spent most of last week in Las Vegas, so this week’s blog won’t give you the typical erudite, cogent presentation on a thought-provoking topic that you’ve come to expect . . . elsewhere!  Linda and I met Dennis & Susan Nespor in the real ‘city that doesn’t sleep’ for some fun and games.  Although we had a lot of fun, we didn’t win at too many games; except for Susan who finished the week with a nice ‘one armed bandit’ win.  Fortunately, I wasn’t in the typically generous mood that comes over me in Vegas, but neither was Vegas.

We had seen it advertised many times, but just never pulled the trigger on going to ‘The Mob Museum’.  But this time we did, so we drove downtown to an old court house building, two blocks off of Freemont Street, the main drag of ‘downtown’ Vegas, for a tour.

Electric chair in Mob Museum

I have to say that I’m not a big fan of The Mob, the Mafia, the Sopranos, etc.  I know, I’m in the minority on that one, although I did enjoy the Godfather books, so I was sort of looking forward to the tour, and everyone else wanted to see it, so I couldn’t refuse.  As it turned out, it was fantastic!

The museum takes up three floors and a basement of this old federal building.  We had an option of three additional paid events during our self-guided tour:

  • Firearm Training
  • Crime Lab
  • Distillery Tour & Tasting

Freemont Street

A bit hung over from being ‘over-served’ the night before, we did not trust ourselves to handle any firearms, so we passed on the first one, but did the other two.  In the Crime Lab we analyzed our own fingerprints to see what criminal had similar fingerprints.  We also analyzed bullet marking to see if we could match them to the right pistol.  We also got to analyze an image of a cadaver that that seemingly had been beaten and had some serious wounds on his body.  Based on the wounds, we had to figure out how he died.  We concluded that we didn’t want to be forensic pathologists.  Without a doubt our favorite tour was the Distillery Tour & Tasting; It may have been the ‘tasting’ that got us hooked.  While we took our seats inside a working distillery in the basement, we were told of the Mobs activities during Prohibition, and getting samples of three types of ‘moonshine’ that was typical of the beverages that were distilled by the mob.  The moonshine wasn’t bad, but it was a little strong!

After the tour, we walked the two blocks to Freemont Street and walked down the middle for a block or two, which was just enough to let us know that it was time to go back to our hotel.

Speaking of our hotel, we have consistently stayed at South Point, which is at the way south of the strip and we love.  It is several steps above of the hotels downtown, but not as big, glitzy or expensive as the hotels on the strip.  It has seven great restaurants, over 120 bowling lanes, movie theaters and a huge arena that features everything from full on rodeos to college basketball tournaments.  And of course has every game of chance that you want.  But, another great advantage of South Point is that it has our favorite act, the Bronx Wanderers, performs there many times during the year in an awesome, intimate theater that doesn’t have a bad seat.  They are a band made up of a father, his two sons and two other members who were the son’s friends growing up in New York.  They play music for every generation, but it is particularly entertaining for those who have experienced and enjoy the long history of rock & roll.  Linda and I saw them for the third time last week and I know Dennis and Sue really enjoyed their first exposure.  They are awesome, if you get a chance, spend the whopping $45 a ticket!!  You won’t be disappointed.

 

 

 

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As Suspected, I’m Better at Cruising than Golfing

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by Bob Sparrow

Pride of America Golf Ahoy ship route

I left you last as we were just boarding Norwegian Cruise Line’s ‘Pride of America’ on Saturday afternoon in Honolulu.  If I’m being honest, it’s not the best ship we’ve ever been on, in fact, it might have been the worst – it’s fairly dated, with small cabins and marginal entertainment and food.  We’ve sailed on Norwegian before and have been very happy with the ship, but this one is a little tired.  But that is made up for with the fabulous golf courses we will be playing over the next week and the fact that this ship does have the ‘unlimited drink package’, which in Hawaii, is a very valuable thing.  Where else would you even try a Rebellious Fish, a Funky Monk, or a Sparkling Garden?  Yep, I tried them all!

Interesting fact about Honolulu: Waikiki Beach is almost entirely manmade.

Sunday: We spend the night, apparently going in circles as Maui is only a short distance away, so when we wake up on Sunday morning, we are docked at Kahului Harbor, by the airport.  Our driver meets us at the ship and we travel past the devastated-by-fire remains of Lahaina (so heartbreaking), on our way to the Plantation Course at Kapalua.  As many of you know, the Plantation Course is where the PGA opens their season every year in January and it is a very difficult course, with lots of elevation.  It seems I was really focusing on the beautiful views that day rather than golf, as I continued to litter the grounds with a number of my golf balls; at least I know they have a beautiful final resting place.

Monday: Our ship stayed in Maui and our driver picks us up at the ship in the morning and takes us to the other end of the island to the Emerald Course at Wailea.  It was another beautiful day, on another beautiful, and more friendly, golf course.  No balls put to rest on this day.  After the mandatory ‘after-the-round-cocktail’ our driver picks us up and returns us to the ship.  We have dinner reservations at Cagney’s Steak House on board and have a very nice meal.  Entertainment was a little light, as we saw a comedian, who was sometimes funny.

Mauni Lani

Interesting fact about Maui: Maui is home to the largest dormant volcano in the world – Mt. Haleakalā

Tuesday/Wednesday: We wake up this morning on the Hilo side of the Big Island, so with a day of rest from golf, and nothing we haven’t seen or want to see in Hilo, we hang out on the ship.  That evening, the ship sails around to the other side of the island to the Kona side, where we get off in the morning and play golf at Mauna Lani, a beautiful oceanfront golf course that is magnificent!  Jack & JJ Budd, who are vacationing with their grandkids on the Big Island, meet us prior to our tee time.  Another beautiful day as we are amazed by the homes on this magnificent golf course.

Back on the boat and we make the evening voyage from the Big Island to Kauai.

Interesting fact about The Big Island: Mauna Kea Volcano is the tallest mountain in the world from the sea floor at 33,000 feet (Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain on land is 29,032 feet)

Linda & me with Tracy Sanborn

Thursday/Friday: We awake the next morning in Nawilwili Bay on the island of Kauai, where we disembark and are met by our driver, who takes us to Poipu Bay Golf Course.  The course and day are beautiful, but very windy, so golf takes a back seat to great views and putting some balls in their beautiful final resting place.  We stay docked in Kauai for the evening and play Kohalani Ocean Course, with many holes right along the coast line.  Yes, I put some balls to rest here, but they didn’t mind, it is a beautiful, tropical golf course.  A bonus was that we were met after the round of golf by my cousin, Tracy Sanborn, who I hadn’t see in over 50 years (her mom and my dad were siblings); she just happened to be staying at her timeshare in Princeville with her son, daughter-in-law and their 6-month-old baby boy.  Great to see them!

Interesting fact about Kauai: Kauai is the wettest place on earth, Mt. Waialeale receives an average of 450 inches of rain a year!

Friday morning we are back in Honolulu, where we disembark, head to the airport for our flight home, full of golf aches and pains, and some extra baggage at the belt level from that ‘unlimited drink’ package, but also filled with lots of great memories.

 

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Hawaiian Cruising & Golf Adventure

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by Bob Sparrow

View from our room at Hylton Hawaiian Village Hotel

I’m coming to you this week from Hawaii.  Linda and I, along with long-time friends and neighbors, Mark & Kathy Johnson, departed for our 50th state on July 4th.  We are on a ‘golf cruise’, called Golf Ahoy on Norwegian Cruise Line; the cruise includes time in Waikiki and golf on Maui, The Big Island and Kauai.

We arrived on Oahu on the afternoon of July 4th, and headed to the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach, where we caught some Independence Day fireworks.  It was the first time Linda and I had spent any time on Oahu since our honeymoon nearly 45 years ago.  We enjoyed a great 4th of July dinner at Aoki Teppanyaki, with a most talented and humorous chef, then stopped at the Tapa Bar for a night cap, which is conveniently located crawling distance to the elevator to our room on the 14th floor.

Friday morning Linda and I were picked up for our tour of Pearl Habor (the Johnson had already been there, done that).  As expected, it was an informative and moving experience, starting with our bus driver/tour guide, who was full of amazing facts surrounding the events leading up to the Japanese surprise attack.  Once on-site, we saw a short movie on Pearl Harbor, toured the museum, and then I went on a separate tour on site (Linda’s claustrophobia prevented her from joining me) that was of the USS Bowfin, a submarine stationed in the Pacific during WW II that sunk 44 enemy vessels – amazing how tight those quarters were!  We then got on a boat and went out to the Arizona Memorial.  You only get to spend about 15 minutes at the memorial, where 1,177 men are interned in the Arizona, where you can still see oil leaking up to the surface.  An interesting fact is that 25 crew members of the Arizona that survived the war and have since died, asked that their remains be taken back to the USS Arizona, where they can join their fellow crew members.

USS Arizona

In the afternoon Linda and I went to the Hale Koa Hotel, a military hotel right on the beach where I could show my Veterans ID card and get a discount on our lunch and drinks.

Friday night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Bali Oceanfront restaurant, noted for it’s great steak and seafood, where, during the middle of our dinner, we left our table and went outside on the beach to watch the five minute ‘Every Friday Night Fireworks’ on Waikiki.  Awesome!!!

Yes, Waikiki was a little crowded on this holiday weekend, maybe a lot crowded, but it’s easy to see why, it’s amazing!!  I don’t know how many times I said, “I love Hawaii’, but I love the people, I love the vegetation, I love the weather, I love the sunsets, I love the tropical drinks, I love the feel, I just love Hawaii.  I know Linda gets tired of hearing it, but . . . it just gets me!  And I get it!

Saturday morning, we had time for a nice breakfast, I had to haave the macadamia nut/banana pancakes; we were then picked up and taken to the ship, the Norwegian Cruise Lines’ ‘Pride of America’ to start our Hawaii-Golf adventure – and with my game, it’s always an adventure!  All Aboard and stay tuned!!

Bali Oceanfront Restaurant – Waikiki

Waikiki Beach fireworks

NCL Pride of America

 

 

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The Road Trip: The ‘Mother Lode’ Country and Back Home Again.

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by Bob Sparrow

Murphys Hotel

With Dennis at Murphys Hotel Bar

We left Lake Tahoe around 8:00 a.m. on a beautiful Thursday morning heading south; we took Highway 50 to Highway 49 heading into the ‘Gold Country’.  We drove through a good deal of burned forest, caused by the fire in 2021 that scorched more than 346 square miles of the Sierra Nevada Forest, destroying 1,000 structures, with over 50,000 residences being evacuated.  A real blight on an otherwise gorgeous drive.

We eventually hit Angel’s Camp and Sutter’s Mill, the place where gold was first discovered in California, leading to the gold rush of 1849.  We fortunately arrived one week after the famous, Calvaris County Frog Jumping Contest, made famous by Mark Twain, so the place was not overcrowded with tourists, like us!  I had called an old friend from Yorba Linda Country Club, Dennis Despie, who had relocated to the Mother Lode County, and we agreed to meet him at Murphys Historic Hotel ‘Queen of the Sierras since 1856’; in downtown Murphys for lunch.  It is a classic old hotel, with a great bar and bartender, Kurt, where we sat and had a delicious lunch and a cold beer and heard about the history of the place.  It was so good to see Denise again as he told us all about the area and how he and his family were doing.  After lunch, Jack and I took a walk around this quaint little town and we had to buy a T-shirt.

Don & Barbara Stutzman back in the day

Susan (Stutzman) Scarth (Remember her from our Novato visit!) had set up another meeting for us in this area with Barbara Stutzman, Don Stutzman’s, second wife and widow, she owns and operates a wedding venue site that we understand to be one of the premier wedding venues in America.  It’s called Union Hill Inn, you can check it out online.  We met and talked with Barbara for about 30 minutes in her cottage on the property and then she asked us if we wanted a tour, we said yes and got in a golf cart parked near by, and went about 50 feet and then the battery died.  That was the end of the tour, so, like you, we’ll have to check it out online, but it looked spectacular!  We headed into the quaint downtown of Sonora, where we walked down the main drag and found, of all things, a bar, The Iron Horse Saloon, where the bartender liked the story of our road trip so much that he bought us a drink, maybe two.  We spent our last night on the road at the Hotel Lumber Jack in Sonora.

A five-hour drive the next morning got us back to Santa Maria and, just like our journey’s beginning, we had dinner with Sharon and Deb & Steve Rau, but this time at their newly remodeled home – beautiful!  I spent the night at Jack & Sharon’s and drove home early the next morning.  Happy to be back home to Linda and my own bed, but filled with some extrodiary memories.

Days on the road: 10

Miles covered: 1,987

Number of counties visited: 32

Number of clouds seen during the 10-day trip: 3

Spending 10 days with my brother visiting friends and some of the most beautiful and iconic places in California: Priceless!