Autographs — Wil Wheaton

 

Wil Wheaton was scheduled to sign his new book at Vroman's on August 31^st:

I was there early. Quite a few folks came. Shortly after 7 pm, they apologized and said they were trying to contact him. After 7:30, they said they had no news. Just before 8, they said it wasn't going to happen. They also said they would try again, and they took our names, promising to notify us as soon as they knew more. As I wrote at the time, everyone hoped he was OK. The next day, he was posting on Facebook, with no mention of the book signing he had skipped.

On September 23^rd, I received an email saying that he would be at Vroman's on October 26^th “for real this time”. I would be out of town (Houston trip). I asked if I could drop off my book ahead of time and pick it up when I returned. I had to write three times before they answered, but they said OK, and that's what I did.

(Index to autographs)

Houston — Oct. 2022

Link to more photos. (View the photos individually to see the captions.)

In February 2020, I booked flights for a trip to Houston a few months later. When COVID shut things down, that was the first of five trips I had to cancel. Now it's the last of them to finally happen. Rice's "Golden Reunion" weekend, my 50-year reunion, was the obvious time to go.

The trip included family, Rice, and several Houston sights, some new to me. We stayed with cousins Joel and Joan in Fulshear, 35 miles west of Houston. Victor particularly loved taking their dogs for walks.

We had dinner one night with more family: Warren, Lisa, Lauryn, Jason, Spencer and Ryan.

Around Houston, I first showed Victor the Rothko Chapel and Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk sculpture in front, which I've always liked. We continued to the Menil Collection. I was surprised by how much they continue to acquire. I had not previously seen their Flavin Installation. (See the photos.)

Because we had recently been to Hobbiton in New Zealand, we had to stop at the Hobbit Cafe. 

The rest of the day was at Rice. I particularly wanted to see Duncan Hall and the Turrell Skyspace. Duncan Hall did not disappoint, but there's really not much to see at the Turrell work unless you're there at dawn or dusk, which we did not manage to do.

The next day, we started at the WaterWall. I showed Victor the Galleria, including the ice rink. The mall has expanded over the years; it is much larger than I remembered. After lunch, there was heavy rain, so I abandoned plans for other sights, and we went directly to the Rice reunion dinner location. As the rain let up, we saw large rainbows over downtown Houston. 

In the weeks before the reunion, I asked several of my classmates whether they were going, and all but one said no. So I only knew a handful of the reunion attendees, but the reception and dinner were fine.

All around the region, when you tell someone that you go to Rice, the most common response is, "You go to Rice? You must be smart!" While I was attending Rice, someone made this T-shirt, which I still have, and which I brought to the reunion:

(I read that someone later made a bumpersticker of that, and Rice students often put it on their cars upside-down!)

New Zealand — Sept/Oct 2022

 Milford Sound

Link to more photos (As always, click any photo to enlarge it, and view the photos individually to see the captions.)

(And don't miss the link to a second album of Hobbiton photos below!)

I have long wanted to visit New Zealand. When I saw a sale price for this short tour, I signed up. Plus, I had sufficient airline miles for our round-trip flights.  But in the following weeks, there were changes. Certain activities were not going to re-open before we were there, and we made substitutions. In the end, we even cut Christchurch entirely and made the already short trip a full day shorter. 

I was not surprised that it rained at least a little almost every day, but it was also colder than I expected. I never wore any of the short-sleeve T-shirts I brought.

We started in Auckland. We walked around a bit, including Albert Park. Few people wore masks. Although we were in downtown, it was difficult to find a restaurant open for early breakfast. We then had a day-long tour of the city and surroundings, including Mount Victoria, both the Pacific and Tasman Sea coasts, the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, and Arataki Centre. We walked a tiny bit of the [Edmund] Hillary Trail in the rain forest, saw giant ferns, large kauri trees, and Piha Beach with gray magnetic sand. (See the photos.)

From Auckland, we went by car to Rotorua via Hobbiton. Despite the drizzle, it was fun visiting Hobbiton. See my separate photo album there. 

Victor and Rodney at Bilbo's house in Hobbiton

In Rotorua, we went on a Duck Tours ride in an amphibious WW2 "duck" landing craft able to drive on city streets and become a motor boat in water. We did both. That evening, we saw the Maori presentation and had an indigenous dinner at Tamaki Village. 

From Rotorua, we flew to Queenstown on the South Island. The Rotorua Airport is a welcome throw-back: no security check, no metal detector, no ID check, and family and friends welcome at the gate. But our flight was canceled due to fog, and we were booked for a flight more than 7 hours later! We spent all day at the airport.

The next day, despite great weather in town, the morning Milford Sound flight/cruise was canceled! When I called, they set us up for a later time, and that worked. The flight was a bit bumpy, but beautiful; lots of snow-capped mountains. (See the photos, of course.) On the cruise, there was more beautiful scenery, a dolphin, and seals.

The following day, we walked a bit, including Queenstown Gardens, a bookstore, and an art gallery.

A cold front came through on the day we departed, so Victor saw snow falling for the first time, even though it was only a few flakes.

Crossing the International Date Line cost us a day when we flew from Los Angeles to New Zealand, but the return was weirder: We left NZ 8 pm one evening, and after a 12-hour flight, arrived in LA at noon the same day!