• Any island:
  • find a sunset sail/cruise
  • go to a Luau
• Kauai:
  • Go on a Tasting Kaua’i food tour
• Maui:
  • Visit the Maui Ocean Center
  • Try out Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate
• Big Island
  • Take a trip up to the top of Mauna Kea

Sunset Sail:
We’ve done this on both Maui and the Big Island. We need to go back to Kauai to do one. The photos are Lahaina, and Waikoloa x2.

Luau:
There are lots to choose from, and the good ones include a lot of Hawaiian history. The photos start with the original settlers from Tahiti, the cowboys of the Big Island (King Kamehameha was gifted with cattle), and twirling fire.

Food tour:
We went on our first one in Dublin, years ago. Since then, we have tried to see if there is one where we are. It’s a great opportunity to get out and try things you might not otherwise, meet some interesting people, and have fun. Tasting Kaua’i does several different tours on the island. We did the South Shore tour, which is a driving tour, going to several different locations around Poipu and Koloa, including Monkeypod Jam (they ship, and also teach classes), the Kickshaw food truck, and a local grocery store (poke that’s out of this world!)

Maui Ocean Center:
The ocean center is a mix of museum and interactive exhibits. The posters I’ve seen over the years are likely based on the tanks at the center, with a plethora of different fish and other marine animals. The photos are a Yellow Pualu (Surgeonfish), a black-tip reef shark, and a series of corals.

Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate:
The Ku’ia chocolates are made on-island, and are an intriguing mix of chocolate with island flavors. The chocolate is from either their estate plantation (which is a few miles into the hills of Maui) or Ecuador. They manufacture in their Lahaina location, which is in a little light industrial area on the west end of town, and do tastings in their upstairs lanai. You can also do a tour of the estate. The view from the lanai includes their estate. The “OMG” chocolate is a combination of blood orange, mango, and guava, and is indeed OMG. They have a variety of collections, and they were great gifts once we got home.

Mauna Kea:
The trip up to the top of Mauna Kea is a several hour long journey/tour. I recommend going with Mauna Kea Summit Adventures. They will pick you up (either side of the island), drive you with a great narrative about the areas you’re going through (Parker Ranch, etc), feed you while you acclimatize a bit to the altitude at the visitor’s center (9200′), and then take up up to the top (13,986′) for sunset. You stop again at the visitor center for star gazing, and then head back to your starting point. Well worth the time and cost. They will provide heavy coats/gloves if you didn’t bring your own, as well as carrying a pulse oximeter and supplemental oxygen. Do consider pre-treating for altitude sickness, although you’re only up at the top for about 75-90 minutes. Do bring your fancy camera and tripod for sunset and timed shots of the stars.

The tour guide, Eoin, explained the history behind the places we were seeing. He referred to The Troubles and their place in history. And it became evident that much of that divide still exists in Belfast.

These walls and many others are covered with murals depicting important people in the history of Belfast, and people world-wide who have been important in terms of supporting and fighting for oppressed people. You can get more information from the Virtual Belfast Murals Tour site.

The spectre of Brexit weighs heavily on the Irish, particularly with concerns about a formal border again. The pound was at near historical lows compared to the dollar and euro. Despite this, there was construction going on throughout town as well as renovations on historical buildings.

Although we were definitely in relaxation mode, both of us were on programming. I was a participant on a panel titled “Medbots, Tricorders, and More” about the future of medicine, and moderated a panel titled “Weapons of Westeros” about the various mostly medieval/renaissance weapons used in the show. Stephen reprised the workshop on tea that he did in Dublin.

There were about 20 people from the Bay Area in attendance, which was somewhat surprising to many folks (although not us). Although there was less emphasis on the related timing than there was in 2014 (Loncon 3 and Eurocon/Shamrockcon), it made lots of sense for those of us with long trips to spend extra time in Ireland after Worldcon was over.

In case you didn’t know, the show is filmed in Belfast, at Titanic Studios, just adjacent to the Titanic Museum.

There are six pieces in total, which were installed in April 2019.

One of the most amusing things to me is the different statements on the side warning folks:
It’s a long way down… Ascend at your own risk.
Climb at your own risk – for the step is steep and full of terror.
Remember Bran Stark – Climb at your own risk.
If you fall, no one will bring you back… Climb at your own risk.
But nothing to stop you from climbing up.

More details here on the Visit Belfast site.

We took the train from Dublin to Belfast… with a “side” bus to finish the trip because they are working on the train lines. The Hilton Belfast hotel is just across the street from the train station. It was (of course!) raining when we arrived, so we put Stephen into a cab with all of the luggage and the rest of the group walked.

The next day we went to the Titanic Museum, which was a nice walk along the Lagan river. There were several interesting historical posts along the fence, as well as fantastic #GlassOfThrones artwork along the way (see here for more details).

I hadn’t realized just how big and busy a port Belfast was. Nor had I realized that they have been one of the premier ship building locations for 200 years. Harland & Wolff were premier shipbuilders, and then branched out into wind turbines and other newer technology in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, they declared bankruptcy about a week before we arrived. There are two huge hoists that dominate the Belfast skyline, known as Samson and Goliath, marked with H&W and used to move ships and other large objects.

I strongly recommend visiting the museum, and suggest you allocate at least three hours to go through all of the exhibits, especially going to see the SS Nomadic, which was one of the tender ships paired with RMS Titanic. Nomadic has been refurbished as she was in 1912, although she is in permanent drydock.

We started on Wednesday afternoon with a tour of the CCD Auditorium, and had a chance to meet the professional staff. We verified our plans (made from afar with just drawings of the auditorium), and solidified our volunteer staff.

We got a chance to see how the auditorium would work and the views from the upper level on Thursday evening during the Opening Ceremonies and Retro Hugos. And were able to do some blocking work on the stage Friday morning as they were setting up for the evening’s orchestra/music event.

Contestant meeting, final tech prep, and then tech rehearsals all started before 10am on Saturday. We had four of the professional staff helping us, Stage Manager, Sound, Lights, and Video, alongside our volunteer crew. Rehearsal finished by 5:15pm, so we all had chance for a brief break and some dinner, before we opened the auditorium at 7:00pm, with two waves of seating. The show started on time at about 8:02pm.

We had a total of 35 entries cross the stage. About half were novices. A couple were folks who had first competed in Helsinki 2 years ago. The performance went very smoothly.

Our halftime entertainment was Pecha Kucha Karaoke, led by our MC, who has hosted many Pecha Kucha events featuring both prepared presentations and karaoke presentations. The audience was entertained while the judges deliberated.

More photos can be seen in this Flickr album.

We coordinated with several friends and opted to stay at an AirBnB in the Silicon Docks area, just across the River Liffey from the Convention Center Dublin (CCD) where the bulk of the convention was being held. It was an even better location than we realized when we booked. There were several local restaurants within a block or two as well as a grocery store and bank just a long block away.

Most of us were involved in running the Masquerade in some fashion. We wanted a bit of time to relax before we got started with the work, so we all traveled in the weekend before.

We learned how to work with the local transport system (TFI: Transport From Ireland) as we took the bus up to the office of Shamrock Rosettes to pick up the Masquerade ribbons. EPIC The Immigration Museum was just across the river on the way to the bus station. We did a day trip with Elegant Irish Tours down to Glendalough and Russborough Estate. (Thanks to Debbie for arranging it!)

More photos on Flickr here

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To get there from our hotel, we needed to either walk “up and over” a portion of the harbor, or take the ferry across.  We opted to take the ferry over and walk back.  We walked across a small bridge to Skeppholmen, to see a sign with a QR code for a mobile guide.  We went past the af Chapman, around the Moderna Museet, to the ferry — we went across the harbor to Slussen and then back across to Djurgården.  We got to see the rides at the amusement park Gröna Lund while on the ferry.  One of them looked pretty gnarly — it’s apparently called Insane and is one of a handful of “4-D” coasters around the world.

We walked around the corner from the ferry to the ABBA Museum.  As we got our tickets, they asked if we wanted the audio tour as well, and then handed us a device about the size of a banana which played back audio clips when we held it over an indicator in various places in the exhibits.  Most of the audio was one of the four band members talking about a specific part of the exhibit and their history.  They also had different interactive stations where you swiped your ticket to later review your “audition” as a 5th member of the band, your sound mixing, or your on-stage performance.  Needless to say, I was taking close looks at all of their costumes and took lots of detail pictures.   We were told that one of the reasons they wore such wild outfits had to do with taxes, and if they weren’t something you would wear on the street, they weren’t taxed.   I’m sure we will find an excuse to make a set at some point – maybe the kimono-inspired ones.  The exhibits also included a section of Eurovision costumes, although Verka Serduchka’s wild silver outfit wasn’t there.

The ship sank on her maiden voyage — hadn’t even gotten out of the harbor — in 1628.   She was found and brought up in 1963, in amazingly good condition.  The sulfur content of the harbor water ended up decreasing the amount of oxygen in the water, and prevented degradation.

Museum technology has changed a lot since I was a kid.  There is no one path for folks to follow.  And the audio files that tell you about different sections of the exhibits are now downloadable in your language of choice.  And unlike most museums, this one allows flash photography.

Analysis of the wreckage, as well as contemporary tales of the ship, made it clear that she was not only top-heavy (and did not have enough ballast), but all of the gun ports were open, so she capsized from water pouring in when she tipped.