The Rest of FurFright

So, normally, the Bear Squad is not a breakfast crowd, so we passed on breakfast, our plans for a lunch at Singo Sushi, which we had enjoyed immensely the year before.

Alas, the best laid plans of bears and mice...

We ended up gathering quite a large crowd to go for food. This is a somewhat natural thing, as furry cons tend to involve people you haven't seen for a while. So, our friends from New York wanted to get lunch, and a friend from New Jersey wanted to get lunch, and everyone invited friends, and...

Well, Singo Sushi wasn't able to accomodate our group of 11 immediately when we called them, but they promised us a spot about an hour later, at 2 PM. So we sort of dithered, then got there, slowly accumulated into a group, and...

And nothing. At 2 PM, Singo admitted that it would be another hour. Since none of us had eaten, we decided to forgo their sushi for the day, though we vowed to try and make it back later.

Instead, we ended up at the Manor Inn. This is a nice, somewhat divey little pub with a menu largely devoted to Italian food. The food was decent, not spectacular. A literal "nothing to write home about" sort of place, although I'll admit that the veal dish I had was pretty enjoyable. Even the odd little politcal conversation we had with our server was kind of interesting. Maybe I'm giving Manor Inn a bum rap...but, y'know, it was no Singo Sushi in terms of food quality.

After that, we cruised back to the hotel, butn ot before stopping at Rogers' Orchard. This place is really charming...they have cider served on a honro system...which I honorably paid to drink, while watching their huge rabbits cavort in their cage. They also had homemade fudge, awesome produce, and some of the tastiest cider donuts I've had in a long time. The Other Half was not impressed with their caramel apples, however, and this evolved into a coversation about the goodness, or lack thereof, of jimmies/sprinkles. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all.

Back at theh otel, we quickly changed and headed to the CoCoKey Water Park. The price for this attraction is a little steep...our con had whittled the price to $25.00 per person, and even that was pushing it. They do have 2 totally enclosed tube slides in the dark and a body slide...but that's about it for adult fare. There's also a large water playground for the kids, and there's a lazy river tube area. We ended up spending a large amount of time racing each other around this river. The other attraction we really wanted to use...an indoor/outdoor hot tub, was closed. We were promised it would be open later, so, after we had our fill, we decided to check back later as our tickets were for all day.

After drying off, we sort of flopped around the hotel room, eating the food we'd brought back from the Orchard. This more or less led to none of us wanting dinner, but it did ultimately make us want to swim more. We also snuck some Rock Band II in there, somewhere. Great game. I love wailing out some vocals while the others play the instruments, and I got several compliments on my singing, which was kind. Thank you, whoever you were.

We swam in the hotel pool, because we found out the hot tub was still closed, but I avoided the hotel hot tub, especially after several of our friends who didn't avoid it quickly ran off to take showers to wash off the protein foam that the previous guests had left in it. Very nasty. At the end of the day, we played a bit more Rock Band, then settled in to play a boardgame...the old Dungeon boardgame from the 80s.

The next morning, there was more Rock Band, and we introduced our New York friends to it. We soon realized that a lack of food the previous night had made us hungry. We decided to go out for an earlyish lunch, and the Other Half suggested we try to seek out the Turkish restaurant we had spotted from the highway on the way to the hotel on Friday. There ended up being only 7 of us, and the restaurant in question, Anatolia, was mostly empty.

Let me tell you friends, this was an excellent choice. Easily the best meal of the weekend, and maybe the best food I'd eaten in months.

For appetizers, we had hummus, baba ganoush, red lentil soup, and a host of other little salads and nibbles. We also had some hot appetizers, and we split them all up between the seven of us, so it wasn't *too* much food. Our main courses were various kebabs, from tradition lamb and chicken to swordfish! All of the meat I had was well-seasoned and tender, and it sat on a bed of well-seasoned rice pilaf.

For dessets, we said, what the heck, bring us one of each and plenty of Turkish coffee. The two standout desserts were definitely the baklava and the milk pudding. Both spectacular desserts.

Back at the con, we tried a board game with our friends called Touch of Evil. I highly recommend the game. We played the cooperative mode, which really helped us feel like we were banding together to fight a vampire. We were constantly aiding each other with cards and sort of "role playing" our way through the story. When we finally launched our climactic battle against the Vampire, it was gruelling, but we were victorious.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. I left some business cards for the Happy Bear's Guide in a public spot, and the Bear Squad headed home, already looking forward to the following year.

Oh, yeah...and we stopped for McDonalds sweet teas on the way home. ;)

- The Happy Bear

New Zealand: The Arrival

Kia Ora! from New Zealand! After over 24 hours of solid traveling, we touched down in Auckland at 4:30 AM local time (about 12:30 PM the previous day back home in Boston.) We met our guide, who gave us a couple of hours to freshen up and then whisked us off for an orientation walk of the area around our hotel. I feel a bit conspicuous; these folks have obviously not seen many bears around their city.

Our hotel is quite interesting. It's called the Mercure Windsor, and it's in what seems to be the city's main downtown area. It's only been a hotel for about 3 years. Previously, it was a bank. So the room shapes are a bit...shall we say quirky? It's a nice hotel, though, with posh bath facilities and a large spa pool (think big, tiled jacuzzi.)

We enjoyed a late breakfast/early lunch at a place called the Vulcan Street Cafe, in the nearby Vulcan St. area. I had a "Hash Brown Tower", which was a delicious pile of fried egg, bacon (closer to Canadian bacon than the strips back home), hash browns (imagine McDonalds hash browns...but good.), baked beans (they make theirs in a tomato-based sauce, mushrooms, and a savory gravy. There was so much food that I split it with my other half. The Otter had corn fritters with smoked salmon. All in all, tasty food and friendly service.

We then headed to the Auckland Museum. Should you find yourself in Auckland, you *must* go here. The Museum is amazing, with the world's largest collection of Polynesian artifacts, including Maori houses and a Maori war canoe. It also has an excellent exhibit about the New Zealand Wars and the participation of New Zealanders in the wars outside, like World War I & II and the Vietnam War. I was even willing to forgive them a stuffed black bear in one exhibit.

Dinner was at a harbor-side restaurant called Neptune. It was okay...the Other Half and I had Surf and Turf - a steak and two prawns. The prawns were small and okay in flavor, but nothing special. The steak was tasty, with a nice sauce and caramelized onions. The side was kumara potatoes, which are a sort of sweet potato that're actually fairly savory. The Otter had grilled snapper in an orange sauce served on steamed vegetables and kumara. Dessert was vanilla ice cream with bits of "hokey pokey" - a sort of crunchy honeycomb candy. The Otter and I liked it (bear and honey...go figure. ;)) The Other Half was not convinced. ;)

This morning, we had breakfast at our hotel. I created a sort of de-constructed version of my Hash Brown Tower, as well as having a bowl of granola cereal. Very nice and largely filling.

We set out by cab for the top of Maunga Fo, also known as Mt. Eden. This beautiful volcanic mountain is one of nearly 50 volcanoes around Auckland. The sides are terraced, because the Maori people would excavate terraces to live on, defending them as mountain fortresses. Our guide was Prince Davis, a Maori who can actually trace his lineage back to the last Maori King of the region. He was a warm, friendly guy, who, along with his two sons, showed us around the mountainside. He told us all about the Maori experience, racism, history, local flora, his own travels in the U.S. and more. At the end of the tour, Prince introduced us to his wife, Katherine, who served us tea (or coffee), camembert, brie, peppery crackers, and ginger kisses (spongy ginger cakes with a sort of icing center.) Then Prince and his sons performed the Haka, a Maori war-dance. That, along with the singing in the Maori language, was very moving and intense.

After that, we broke away from our main group, heading to the Sky Tower, a huge 600+ ft. "space needle" sort of tower. We headed up for spectacular views of the city, including Rangitoa, the 800 year old volcanic island which is the newest addition to Auckland's geography. We had some drinks in a cafe overlooking the city, before heading down and spending a few coins in the local casino.

One last food stop before returning to our hotel...we paused in a local McDonalds. Now, forgive me, but we had to try the Kiwiburger. Basically, think of a large McDonalds cheeseburger...now add beets and a fried egg. Very interesting!

We're heading out for pub grub tonight, and tomorrow is our departure to Rotorua. I'll sign on again before too long. Be good, y'all.

- The Happy Bear

Southern Sunshine at the Sign of the Golden Arches

Better living doesn't have to be all five-star restaurants and fine dining. Heck, it doesn't even have to be all about food (although that's part of it.) But to prevent anyone from deducing from my comments so far that I'm an food elitist, I present to you something else tasty...the new(ish) Southern-Style Chicken Sandwich and Sweet Tea from McDonalds.

The sandwich is tasty and filling, dressed with nothing but a bit of butter and some slices of pickle. The piece of chicken is generous, and I quite enjoy the spices in the batter. In addition, it's served on a steamed bun, which I quite like. The chicken is also available at breakfast time on a biscuit, but I think this is a less successful experiment.

The sweet tea, on the other hand, is my current favorite fast food drink. Icy and nicely sweet, this refreshing drink comes at only $1.00 for 32 ounces. Now, admittedly, a fair amount of those ounces are devoted to ice, but still, this drink is a bargain when compared to the overpriced and dreadful Coke products McD's provides otherwise. This lovely drink arrived in the middle of a hot, humid summer here in Happy Bear Valley, and I've been drinking it rather regularly. When I'm heading somewhere alone, I often get two...one for now, one for...as soon as I'm done with the first one.

- The Happy Bear