Winger the last ?!?

Last night we went to Rainbow Bar & Grill to see Winger. It was a free show with 2 $15 drinks. I had to work earlier and customers came last minute, I worried about the parking and catching their show on time. Luckily we found a free parking and we arrived way before Winger started. Plenty of time, we put our names on the waiting list for the indoor restaurant seating and waited until the table was ready for about half an hour.

Nice rock bar inside!

Good table! We ordered 3 beers and salads. Surprisingly toilet wasn’t trashed badly because crowds were all old folks who have etiquette

I think they are Bullet Boys. They played Van Halen’s Everybody Wants Some

I was afraid of too many crowds, but everything went smoothly. It’s been so long since we attended outdoor festive concerts.

Winger started with one of their new songs that I don’t listen much followed by Seventeen. This time Kip didn’t alter his lyrics to older age.

Kip said it would be their last concert but never say never. Winger is one of my favorite bands still gigging so I was very sad to hear the announcement. At the same time, I was so glad that we caught this show and thankful that we live in the area. Reb looked really into the show enjoying and ripping. His solo might have been his own song that I heard on the music magazine’s supplement long time ago. I recognized it. I was surprised that they included Rainbow in the Rose in their short set list. My favorite song

It was Reb’s birthday! We came to his 60th birthday show at Whiskey a few years ago. He was very drunk at that time He was in better shape last night

We have seen Michael Angelo walking around in the crowds in different occasions before. He came in front of me last night during the drum solo. I wasn’t sure if he was him because he looked the same! I meant he never ages I thought he should look much older now. I took a selfie with him. An amazing guitarist walking around not too much bothered by audience. Guitarists are tough unless they have a big hit.

Their last song was Madalaine and then they invited their friend musicians to play together Van Halen’s Ain’t Talking Bout Love. My favorite musicians are influenced by my guitar god Eddie. Maybe that’s why I like them.

Recently I feel old and was surprised how old I am On my medical chart on computer, I saw my name with my age. It’s funny that my mind is still the same as 30 years ago. Winger is a band of so much skilled musicians. It was an excellent sound and performance, but I was sad that we all age and not continuing what we do. I wanted to retire at age of 55 but the reality wasn’t as easy as I thought. I have to keep working to make a living; however I reduced my working days to 3 days a week from September. Since I have more free time, I need to find something meaningful. Performing on the stage with guitar is hard for female musicians for many reasons is my excuse. This weekend we are going back to the neighborhood for Ken’s gig at Whiskey

Swimming at Lake Tahoe

I believe it’s been 5 years since we came here last time. I am in love with this crystal clear water. So beautiful We drove 7 hours for this! There were many choices for secluded coves. We carefully chose the easiest one to get to the water. The first spot we chose was unfortunately tides were there and I couldn’t get into the water for the safety reason.

We moved more south closer to the big rocks with more sunshine. Since it was little tricky to go down to the water and water temperature was cooler than the average, Ken decided to stay under the tree.

Snow on the mountain.

We walked around the gondola place to find something to eat but we ended up with going to Chart House on the hill. It is a franchise restaurant and I like the one in Dana Point. They always have nice views.

View from the balcony in our room.

Second time at Patholes

We kept postponing Tahoe trip because of fire or temperature was low but this time we decided to hit the road the day before yesterday. First we stopped at Modesto to see Ken’s brother. He just got out of hospital. He looked better than I thought. Then we spent a night at Jackson Rancheria Casino Hotel where we stayed before. Love the nice and super clean room with a huge balcony at no tax rate! August 5th, after the breakfast, we headed to Patholes, my favorite place.. This is a vista point of Caplse Lake on the way. Nice weather!

I didn’t know Patholes were at 8000 feet high. Ken had a hard time on his heart While hiking, we saw remaining of fires.

Here we are at Patholes!

We found a nice place with small water falls. Ken was soaking his foot. I had to cover his fatty parts He forgot to bring his swimsuits so we had to buy this Hawaiian pants at Walmart

Our hotel at Ridge Crest is awesome!!! Huge one bedroom with a bathtub in the bedroom and balcony looking up the crest ridge view with lifts. There is a full kitchen so we decided to cook in the room so that Ken could limit sodium intake. It was a great steak! Ken slept on the sofa bed in the living room so I didn’t need earplugs

Day 5 leaving day

Already we are leaving tonight. I think it was a good length. Finally perfect sunrise!

This tree looks like my drawing from my college days.

Today’s curry was so salty East Asian cafe was better choice

Before we check out, I wanted to go to the sandbanks again to take better pictures.

After getting out of water, it was difficult to see the iPhone screen in the sun. The selfie lense got foggy and the images were not successful again

Bye bye 118 water villa!

After checking out, we went to the library which was only place that was air conditioned. We had almost 5 hours before the seaplane time. We kept swim suits on.

Ken stayed in the air conditioned room and I went to get soaked in the ocean.

Near the edge of the beach, there was more fish. I thought it was a fish, but it was a fish sized shark!

Then a white gold shark kept me a company

What a treat! Thank you for showing up before we left!

Time for the seaplane.

They had to balance the airplane and Ken and I got to be seated in the front again. Landing view was amazing!

The sunset from the airport. Our flight to Turkey is in a few hours.

Day 4 no whale sharks on whale shark tour

Every morning, I tried to catch the sunrise. Near the equator, it gets 12 hours of the sun.

We had to hurry up for the whale shark tour starting at 9AM.

We had breakfast at East Asian cafe. The restaurant is over the water, closer to our villa and more food choices, but we chose Mixe for 3 days because I liked their Indian food.

The gap was where I almost drowned

A lot of fish underneath the restaurant.

Ready for the whale shark tour!

Well, we couldn’t see whale sharks (as I kinda expected), trying not to have too much hope because I didn’t want to be disappointed. Instead, they let us do some snorkeling. Tiny but beautiful fishes. Coral reef looked all in beige and not very colorful. Ken decided to stay on the boat taking pictures of me snorkeling.

Back to our island. It was close to 2pm and the water level was high. We gave up going to sandbanks.

We went to Senses and Veli Pool bar, but it was too hot and nobody came to serve us drinks, so we went to the other side where a lot of private beach villas were located. Much calmer and we found a nice spot to chill.

Carring a backpack in the water is hard

Beach villa has almost a private beach!

Walking around Beach villas.

Water is high

Sunset

We had a dinner reservation at Allegria at 7pm. We postponed our anniversary dinner since the Valentine’s Day was $400 per couple Actually California is about a day behind so it was perfect timing. We had to wear a formal clothing.

Dinner. They decorated our table with Endless Love.

Live music

I had King crab fettuccine, salty

Ken had Creamy Gnocchi, yummy

We never walked around at night. Nice!

Stars

Day 3 Anniversary

Happy anniversary!

We started a day with our favorite breakfast at Mixe.

I have been wanting to go on the sandbanks. Today we decided to cross the water from our villa to get there. We were prepared enough not to be drowned Underneath our room.

It was all shallow and we just walked in the water to get there.

Water looked cleaner than swimming pool water.

We arrived at the next island! I did snorkeling and met a nice looking sea turtle eating seaweeds. I stayed watching it for a while. It occasionally swam up to get the air and back down for the food. What a nice treat! It was worth wearing tons of protection for snorkeling in such a beautiful place. I need to come back to take better pictures Later I suffered from sunburns on my legs

Saw a couple of sharks!

Our room was made when we got back.

There was a complementary photo session afterwards. Everyone dressed up nicely but we didn’t

Since I took for a long time to choose the photo we wanted, we were told to come to the studio later. We had to kill time at Cafe Rouge.

We waited for a long time to get this photo. The camera man was only 19 years old. When we told our anniversary was 24th, he was impressed because it was longer than his life. This is the photo I choose.

Day 2 in Maldives

I really didn’t sleep last night staying on the hanging bed all night. Time is totally opposite from California. Might as well enjoy the sunrise at the sunrise side.

On the way to go to our breakfast, a shark was there

Beautiful morning!

At the reception area, waiting for the shuttle. Coffe is free only in the morning. I had affogato and Ken had coconut coffee.

We had breakfast at Mixe, international cuisine. Delicious curries and omelet was so good

Next to Mixe, there is a Veli bar. Nice infinity pool. We have to come back!

Start seeing more fish today

Walking back to our villa made us hot and we jumped into water from our villa. Checking if our gears were working right before the house reef snorkeling at 2:30pm. When Ken decided to go into the ocean, the shark was there He didn’t see it but I did. We quickly got out of water and it made Ken scared. I shouldn’t have told him Then a small manta ray was swimming underneath our villa! I couldn’t get the pics but we saw it!

Complementary house reef snorkeling tour wasn’t as nice as we expected because we saw no fish! Just made Ken so tired to catch up the boat.

Sandbanks are still not connected. While Ken was drinking on the beach, I went to see more fish snorkeling.

When I went the other side of the sandbank, my feet were touching the bottom but on the way back, it got deeper and the current got stronger so quickly. I tried twice to go back to the other side by myself but I realized that I didn’t have a life jacket. Once losing confidence in swimming, it is dangerous. I almost drowned. I had to go back and asked for a help to a nice couple on the sandbank. They held my hands and guided me to the otherside of the beach.

I felt how Ken was feeling. He is scared even wearing a life jacket.

Today’s activities made us so tired and we stayed the rest of the night in the room ordering a room service.

Arrived at South Ari Atoll!

Turkish Airlines offered an affordable rate to Maldives during our anniversary. I thought it would be my dream’s dream, but my dream came true! The trip beginning wasn’t very good. I paid for $179 each for extra leg room for the flight to Istanbul because it was the longest flight I’ve ever taken. However, the aircraft was changed and our reserved seats were moved to regular seats. It’s ok if they give me my money back but they haven’t I can’t believe how difficult to get the refund which we didn’t get the service for. I was transferred around departments and still not solved yet. $358 total is too large amount to be ripped off! I have to put my anger on hold and might as well enjoy the trip

During 13 hours of layover, we reserved Yotel Airside.

This hotel is unique that we got to stay in the airport without passing a passport control. I wanted to reserve my energy to go to Maldives so we rested well. We planned to take a free 4 hour Istanbul tour offered by the airline company but we were too tired and decided to stay in the hotel for whole time. Bye bye Istanbul! See you again on our return!

The second flight was shorter but still 8 hours That was the tightest seat but I got to enjoy the views flying over the islands

I was so excited and thanked my mother for giving birth to me! When we arrived at Male Airport, the worker from the hotel was waiting for his guests with a placard. Ali was really nice taking us to the hotel lounge until our third airline was ready.

Seaplane! I had been wanting to experience it.

Here we go!

The island for our stay in South Ari Atoll!

Our room is one of them, probably the right side of the propeller.

Arrived!

Our feet landed on the white sands of Maldives!

The lady who took us to our room wasn’t very good. Probably she was frustrated because we didn’t book much extra things for activities. Also we got disappointed because the room was facing the sunrise side. I studied and it was supposed to be the sunset side but I found out all pool villas were on the sunrise side. Carrying my heavy bag that she didn’t offer carrying. Taking a picture while she didn’t want to stop

We saw two Japanese couples. I guess this hotel is popular among Japanese?!? I am so picky when it comes to a room. I studied and saw the room online. It is just as I expected which isn’t too nice. I really wanted to have a hot tub in a wider room instead of the depth. Also I would rather have an authentic luxurious room than modern cool designs. This room is really for a young couple. I almost changed the hotel for these reasons but I sticked because of the landscape of the island and more choices on restaurants, and a whale shark tour.

No fish but what are they? Sea cucumbers?!?

Hermit!

We couldn’t go beyond this point on the sandbanks. Need to come back when lower tide.

We took a free golf cart shuttle to the other side of the island to see the sunset.

These must be hot tub water villas I saw online. I wanted both pool and hot tub but that kind of rooms were sold out

Staffs were setting up a romantic stage for a couple for their anniversary.

They sleep there

The direction of lighting on our faces

Tree of wishes. We will be back if we want to do it.

We checked almost all restaurants. Most of them needed reservations or buffets that cost us $90 per person. Finally we found a restaurant which offered a reasonable price and ready to serve us. It happened to be a Japanese restaurant, Umami I didn’t know I was gonna eat Japanese food in Maldives. Chef was a nice guy and offered us a free crab salad which was delicious! Chirashi was funky with fresh water eels, shrimp tempuras and avocados but that’s the way Kenny likes (Americans ). My Yaki Udon was not bad!

I ended up staying all night on the outside deck. I couldn’t take Ken’s snoring but it is a quiet experience sleeping outside at night. I started liking this hanging bed. I wanted to down grade and take a cheaper room with a hot tub but I might stay here for this hanging bed. I got 7 bug bites though

Munich

Soon after we had breakfast at the hotel, the clock show started! Five minutes to 11AM, church’s bells started followed by chime music. Dolls didn’t move until about 5 minutes later. The top one started moving as you see below, highlighted by a soldier in a gold armor kills a soldier in a silver armor. I filmed it but I didn’t take the picture. Then the bottom row started moving. The bottom one wasn’t as exciting as the top one. Just guys were dancing in circles

Nice to be able to watch the show from the hotel room right in front of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.

Then we caught another clock show at noon from the Marienplatz.

After the show, we tried to go to the top of the tower, but nobody was at the box office. We decided to visit Residence Museum first.

It was supposed to be only 6 minutes walk but we couldn’t find the museum in Munich Residence. No wonder it was hidden behind the construction We found it one hour later.

We were at somewhere in Munich Residence but not in museum.

Where is it?

Inner yard had nice Christmas market going on.

Even trash cans are cute!

This is Germany to me!

Walking around to find the museum.

Finally found the box office whew!

I saw this part on the internet and decided to visit here. I was so impressed by Vatican and I thought this was similar to it.

My iPhone camera takes blur pics recently. Need new one.

Ken was already yawning

I want this!

This is where Ken belongs: music pit.

Painters didn’t include blood at this time.

Love ceilings

This room was where my shoulder came out Because nobody was there, Ken and I were posing in many ways then my shoulder came out of the socket. This shows how easily it comes out after Finland’s dog sled. I know how to put it back but I needed a place to lay my body and drop my left arm. I needed a tall table which was higher than my arm length. The chair was too short so I had to use the narrow shelf at the bottom of the window (behind me in the pic). I needed a weight and Ken had to pull my arm. It went back in! How embarrassing but luckily only one or two families passed by this room while my shoulder was out.

Shoulder went out after this pic.

Peaked outside

Tried to include ourselves in the pictures

After two hours of a long tour, I got numb on beautiful paintings Modern art in Louis Vuitton’s showcase for refreshment

We don’t see this kind of shops in US.

Back to Marienplatz.

Next is St. Peter church.

Then we came back to do the tower! The box office was actually inside of the tourists information center.

Views from the tower.

Our hotel and the behind, inner yard must be the parking lot we got charged double

We draw ourselves on the note before we left the tower.

Looks like 2034 From the future!

Inner yard.

Back to Marienplatz.

Got another cups with 2024 written on them. Total of 9 cups we are bringing home

Actually outside of Marienplatz was calm and nice.

Wow you can eat in gondolas!

Cheese!

Very German fashion!

Music started!

We decided to enjoy it from our room.

We ate fish sandwiches and salad which we bought from the market outside the Marienplatz.

Then after I bathed, I went to get deep fried pizzas by myself again while Ken was sleeping I gained weight after I lost from food poisoning before the trip. I don’t know when we can eat these delicious deep fried pizzas anywhere next time. It’s called auszogne, a traditional pastry of Austrian and German also called Kniekuchle. One with sour cream and cheese is the best!

It’s 1AM. Only a few people in Marienplatz. We are flying tomorrow. Great time in Munich

Munich Christmas Market

Checked out at 11AM.

Romantische StraBe is so popular in Japan. Even road signs are written in Japanese!

Lechfall is in the direction of Fussen and only less than 10 minutes away so we stopped by. Mostly it rained during driving and stopped when we got off the car. The weather worked out well

Bye bye Cinderella castle Ken said Romantic Road was like driving in a golf course. Vast green fields looked like all lawns.

We tried to stop by Garmish-Part but we couldn’t find the exact location of the nice view so extra driving was in vain. Anyway it was raining so we decided to just head to Munich. Today’s agenda was to check in our last hotel on this trip, return the rental car and take a train back to the hotel. Driving the big car that doesn’t handle turns well made me nervous about parking in the city center. I didn’t know how the parking worked so I ended up with paying twice (double) to park for only 20 minutes or less. No ticket was given at the entrance and we were supposed to pay when going out but I paid when we parked doh!) at the machine. By inputting the license plate number, the machine found our car!

This hotel is in front of St. Paul’s Church. We successfully checked in.

Wow! The view from the window in our room I reserved knowing this and pay the high price but it was really blowing me away!

Anyway, we had to get going to the airport to return the car.

Successfully we found the gas station and returned the rental car showing the existing damages ( we were charged for the existing damages in Switzerland so we made sure to take pics when picked up). The guy who checked the car was the one who helped us setting GPS in English. Nice guy! With some struggles to buy train tickets to Marienplatz, we managed to come back to the city center. And oh wow I was so impressed by the beauty and the size of town hall which was just lit up for the night.