No Regrets!

Another 8am workout. Kudos to Scott for motivating us. Gray skies and rain started the day, so we lingered over breakfast, sipping drinks, and relaxing at a table. Eventually, the skies cleared, and we made our way to the pool.

Floating in the hot tub, Scott and I watched the hypnotic, crashing waves of Turtle Bay. I already had something in mind when I asked Scott, “What’s one word you would use to describe the waves?” “Relentless,” he replied, without hesitation. Exactly the word I was thinking of. Dave didn’t come up with the same word, but two out of three ain’t bad.

Several drinks in, Scott began to morph into Dr. Scott, sharing unfiltered insights about me and Dave after spending the last few days with us. He rubbed his chin and labeled us both as pessimistic, negative, and traumatized. When I explained to Scott the distinctive flavor of Jewish humor that Dave and I share, based on self-deprecation and cynicism and annoyances, Scott said that things made a bit more sense, and he walked his comments back a bit. Now he understands why Dave and I are such schmucks all the time.

Turning things around, I have observed a different side to Scott on this trip. After a few drinks, Dark Scott slowly reveals himself, sharing opinions with passion, raising his voice and pointing his finger to do so, and even throwing the occasional barb. Belligerent-adjacent. It’s not quite Jekyll and Hyde, but it’s interesting to watch the gradual change. The distinctive giggle never goes away, though, so the Scott we know and love is still there.

Nick Allen has left the building. I miss Nick Allen.

After a quick walk around adjoining Turtle Bay Beach, we headed out to the highly rated Seven Brothers for a quick but delicious burger. Chickens hopped around us and jealously watched as we devoured our lunch.

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Another morning workout, another chia pudding parfait and banana for breakfast with a backdrop of swinging palm trees and crashing waves. Life could be worse. Sitting at our breezy breakfast table with the boys, I told them my Claire Danes story, probably the best story I have about myself, one about building character, seizing opportunities, and living life with no regrets.

We spent most of the day sitting poolside, with gentle Hawaiian music strumming from speakers in the distance. Scott and I liberally applied the resort’s thick and cakey sunblock to our faces and bodies until Dave joked we looked ghost-like and ephemeral. We lack the thick, leathery hide commonly found on Floridians. For lunch, I devoured a delicious grilled shrimp caesar salad and then had fun with AI filters on some of our photos. It’s crazy what you can do with AI now.

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As our trip draws to a close, yesterday was spent reminiscing about trip highlights and celebrating our friendship over drinks in the hot tub. It took a while for us to figure it out, but pouring our off-property alcohol into aluminum resort water bottles is sure a lot better than drinking $25 poolside cocktails all day long.

I spent some quality time catching up on my blogging in the cabana. Blogging this trip became an interactive experience, with Dave and Scott listening to the daily entries and filling in details I may have missed. Dave even started keeping a companion blog. My blog captures the larger experience and is made for public consumption, but Dave’s private blog captures some of the debauchery and his passions for giant waves and great food.

Some rain blew in over the course of the afternoon, but we were covered. Cabana for the win. The rain cleared just in time for sunset, but as we watched from the hot tub, everyone agreed that it was the most disappointing sunset of our trip. We chatted with a newlywed couple from Tennessee on their honeymoon. When the wife learned that I was keeping a blog, she urged me to get on TikTok, trying her hardest to convince me I could become a big TikTok star by making video clips of what I am doing in Hawaii. I was skeptical. Why would anyone give a shit about what I’m doing in Hawaii? No one even reads my blog.

For our farewell dinner, we donned our matching Duke Kahanamoku aloha shirts and headed back to Roy’s Beach House. A bottle of wine was consumed, laughs were laughed, souvenir coasters were stolen, and it was a delicious meal, as always. You can always count on Roy’s. We also started thinking about where our next trip might be, since it turns out we all really enjoy traveling together. Japan? Italy? Greece? Spain? Croatia? So many good options. The only requirement is that the next place we visit needs to be a little more social than Hawaii.

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Hawaii with my 3GD friends last fall was such a success that, upon returning home, conversations quickly turned to where we could go next as a group. Alas, Scott has a lot of things going on in his life and has bowed out of a trip this year, leaving me and Dave to choose our own adventure. So the next trip will be 2GD, not 3GD. (more…)

Credit to Dave for the witty title. Occasionally, he throws out a gem.

After a call with Dave to hammer out the dates and basics, it was time to dive deep into Japan research. It’s a monumental effort, partly because I’m unfamiliar with the country, but also because there’s so much to do and see. And the Japanese names for everything tend to run together, making it hard to keep things straight. (more…)

Flights are booked! Now it’s time to hammer out all the details.

ChatGPT has helped us fine-tune the itinerary for our 2 1/2 weeks in Japan, with a focus on making our route and even daily schedule as efficient as possible. This is… too easy. And all the planning culminates in the most beautiful nerdgasm when it’s neatly laid out in a properly formatted Google doc. Dave teases me about my love affair with AI and Google docs, but that’s OK. It really is a magical combination for trip planning. (more…)

The planning continues. It took some patience with surprisingly clunky and poorly translated Japanese websites, but all of our accommodations for the trip are booked!

As expected, Dave opted for the bougiest hotels he could find for our big city stays, and he’s really outdone himself. The two-bedroom suite we’ll be sharing in the Bellustar Tokyo looks exquisite, and the Four Seasons Kyoto is just as nice. He’s also booked the W Osaka, which is as beautiful as you’d expect any W property to be. (more…)

In just three weeks, Dave and I are off to Japan. We’ve both been working feverishly to fine-tune our itinerary, with my focus being activities and transportation logistics. This has been surprisingly tedious and complicated, as my assumption was that, in a country where toilets have more buttons than my TV remote, I assumed the online booking experience would would be sleek and efficient. But it turns out that many of Japan’s booking websites and apps look like they were built by a high school student in the mid-90’s, don’t work they way they should, and sometimes don’t work at all. (more…)

As preparations for our Japan trip wind down, I turn my attention to more thoughtful ponderings on the place we are going, a place with rich history and a culture perhaps more different from my own than any other. (more…)

So the baseball gods frowned upon us, knocking out all Tokyo teams and sending the Hanshin Tigers and Softbank Hawks to the Japan Series. Games will be in Osaka and Fukuoka, too far for us to reach easily from Tokyo. Alas, there will be no live Japanese baseball for us on this trip. We will have to settle for the local sports bar experience in Tokyo. (more…)