Attending a Jeopardy! taping session - take five

Because the timing worked out, we decided to make another run down to Culver City to watch a Jeopardy taping on Tuesday, March 4th. As usual, we booked the morning session since you get to see three shows (the afternoon session only sees two shows).

In the past, we would watch the taping then make a mad dash to try to get out of LA before traffic got really bad with the afternoon commute. This didn't really work though - we would get back to the car at about 2:00 PM and would find that it was already too late, and on top of that, we would be pretty hungry. All in all, not a fun post-show experience. 

This time we changed things up a bit and decided to not try to escape LA, but instead go back to our hotel in Marina del Rey, and head home mid-morning the next day. (We generally take two days to go home, using more scenic routes and giving us time to do things along the way. We come down in one day on I-5, which is efficient, but not at all scenic, and it's kind of a long day, so it's really nice to break up the return trip.)

A fun benefit of not leaving right away is that, once our session is over, we can get back in line to see if there are any openings for the afternoon session. I had checked the night before, and tickets were still available for both the morning and afternoon sessions, so it seemed likely that we would be able to, for the first time, attend all five of that day's games.

And that's exactly how it worked out - we got in line, got up to the table and explained that we had just seen the morning session and wanted to see if there was any room in the afternoon session, and there was!

So many lines to stand in! But at least it was sunny, if a bit cool.

The drawback of doing this is that you have to do all the waiting, hiking, and lines again. Also, you get no chance to grab some lunch.

You're not allowed to bring your own food, snacks or drinks past security, and supposedly they will find anything you try to smuggle in. Mrs Notthat is a bit of a rebel though, and she brought several protein bars in her purse, which the security guy had to have seen in the morning, but let them go. (It would have been hard to leave her behind in Jeopardy Jail, but, well, she knew the risks.)

So, as we were standing in line to go through security for the afternoon session, we ate our bars and drank a bottle of water that Mrs Notthat had bought in the Jeopardy store. (No, it was not Smart Water, but wow is that a missed opportunity!) 

Note: There are vending machines right after security, so you could grab something from them instead of trying to sneak stuff in. You could also potentially go to your car and eat something there before going through security, but there really wasn't a lot of time and we didn't want to push it, but I suspect you would be fine if you hustled a bit. Also, you can't eat anything in the studio, but there are opportunities between shows to leave the studio.

The only other thing to talk a bit about is the wristbands and studio seating. A long line is formed before the hike to the studio.

• The first people in line have gold wristbands - these are studio/show people that have nothing to do with specific contestants.
• The next group in line have purple wristbands - these are friends and family of contestants. 
• Then there are the rest of us with green wristbands - we bring up the rear (and are the largest group).

Once you leave on the hike to the studio, the order that you are going to get seated is pretty set. It doesn't guarantee anything though - it's pretty random. And I was not nearly as wobbly walking around as this implies - GPS is challenged a bit on the narrow "roads" on the lot surrounded by fairly tall buildings.

You don't get to choose your seats or even which side of the studio you sit in:

• The right side (as you're facing the stage) is where friends and family of the contestants sit. It's also where contestants can sit after they've lost. You get a good view of the big board, but you are nearly edge-on with the contestants, and can't see their scores (the scores are displayed elsewhere though, so it's not a big problem). Also, you will likely not be in that opening audience shot since the camera starts its swoop right over you.
• The left side gets a good view of the contestants and an OK view of the big board. You will almost for sure be in the opening audience shot.

We've been on both sides, and we've had unique experiences on each - you really aren't going to lose with either; there really are no bad seats, which is good because you can't really control where you are seated.

Mostly.

Mrs Notthat has gotten really good at knowing where to stand in the Jeopardy store/waiting area so that we can get in line as close to the front as possible (right behind the purple wristbands) - this enhances our chances of sitting in their area on the right, which we found fun this time since Mrs Notthat has social skills and got to learn a bit about some of the contestants by talking to their guests.

Even better, we were able to see and talk a little bit with some of the contestants that had been in the previous game - it's fun to see them up close and marvel at how well they've handled the stress of the day.

Watching five games in one day is a bit tiring. Working those five games is very tiring - by the fifth one, Ken was making a few more mistakes than earlier in the day (which is still not many, considering how complicated and quick the process is and all the variables that can come up).

It was fun though - we keep getting emails about ticket availability. I suspect that after all the tournament shows, the fires, and given the dreariness of this spring so far, there is a bit of fatigue that's keeping some people away. I have four previous posts about us attending there if you want to learn more of the details of attending a live taping.

This is a shot I grabbed from an episode we attended back in January - we were seated on the left side that time (I'm in the gray shirt on the aisle, pretty much in the center).

We don't have plans yet about going back, but we undoubtedly will.

Mrs Notthat can't wait to challenge the security guard again.

That's it - move along…

Visiting Maui in 2025 - Making Our 42nd Anniversary the Ultimate Answer

According to Deep Thought*, 42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. 

It's quite likely that Deep Thought made a mistake.

Regardless, our 42nd anniversary seemed like a worthy milestone to celebrate with sun, warm breezes, and way too much sand. We chose to go to Maui since it was the first of the Hawaiian islands we had ever gone to (about 30 years ago), and it seemed wrong that we had never been back. We worried a bit about how appropriate it was to go there after the devastating fire in Lahaina, but everything pointed to it being a good thing to help the recovery by visiting.

The night before we were to fly there, the Bay Area was hit by a moderately ferocious storm - the kind of storm that wreaks havoc on seemingly fragile SFO airport and its flight schedule. So we were a bit nervous on the morning of the flight - would it really happen? Would it be delayed? The internets assured us that all was well, but the weather was still a bit wild.

Flying between the cloud layers.

As it turned out, we boarded on time, but then sat for a bit waiting for a runway to open up. Eventually we hit the air and were on our way. (The first part of the flight was a bit rough as we fled the storm.) We ended up landing only a few minutes late in Maui.

Once in Maui, our first issue was being wildly over-dressed - the heat wasn't oppressive (upper-70s), but it was so different from what we had left. This was a good problem to have. 

I marked up this map to help you orient yourself to where things happened on the trip. You should be able to tap/click it to see a bigger version.

We stayed at a motel in Kahului - not the most glamorous part of Maui, but fairly central with reasonable access to the glamorous parts of Maui. It was right on the water - not the ocean but the protected Kahului Harbor. Still, there was a nice beach area and the satisfying sound of (small) waves crashing the shore.

The harbor beach from the edge of the motel property. It was nicely relaxing to sit here and feel the breeze and listen to the small waves hitting the shore.

Our room was up on the second floor, looking out over that pool.

By law, there are wild chickens everywhere. Loved this one with all the chicks.

Mrs Notthat taking a picture of one of the MANY flowering plants that were everywhere.

Our central location meant we could walk to a number of restaurants, shopping opportunities, and a Whole Foods Market. All of which we did on that first night.

Friday

Friday was Valentine's Day, and what better way to spend it than hiking on a sun-drenched, hilly, and rock/root-infested trail. 

The trail is 2.2 miles long, but what they don't tell you is that there is no shortcut back, so it ends up being 4.4 miles total. There was a sign that pointed out that it was going to be a 2.2 mile uphill climb (about 1,500 feet). There was not a sign that pointed out that doing this in the heat of the day would make it harder, or that you were not going to believe how many rocks, roots, and stairs you would encounter.

This is about halfway up, looking back down on Kahului and our motel.

The views were astonishing. (That creek you can barely see taunted me so badly - I would have loved to splash around in it.)

Mrs Notthat always makes the views just that much better!

Me taking a bit of a rest. (As we got higher, we ended up under the clouds, which helped a lot.)

Mrs Notthat trying to order us umbrella drinks.

Seriously - stairs! (This trail must be a sloppy mess when it rains.)

The good thing about a trail that is consistently uphill to the end is that it is consistently downhill on the return trip. It took us an hour and a half to get up there, but only an hour to get back down. Note that down wasn't always easy - the trail was seriously washed out in places and could be really challenging to navigate.

A fun thing are these roadside, umm, cafes. We stopped at this one for lunch before the hike, then stopped there after the hike for ice cold smoothies.

That night it was challenging to find a place to eat since it was Valentine's Day or something, but we eventually wandered into, of all things, a taco truck. 

It was awesome.

Back at the motel's beach, looking at the city lights across the bay.

Saturday

Saturday was mostly a rest day with some shopping thrown in. And eating. So much eating.

Sunday

Sunday was whale-watching day. We drove to a beach in Kaanapali (on the western shore, above Lahaina). A guy we had met on the Friday hike told us that there were a LOT of whales to be seen - you would have to really work at it to avoid them.

He was correct.

I didn't get any great whale shots - it was much more fun to just watch them.

The boat was a twin hull thing that they basically just ran into the beach a bit, dropped a couple sets of stairs, then got the people on and off. You timed it all based on the waves, with guides making suggestions when you should or should not get on/off for least wetness. A funny thing in retrospect - I'm pretty sure this was the only time we ever actually touched the ocean, getting on and off this thing. 

Mrs Notthat (in that coral-colored top) sitting up near the front. I stayed safely clinging to a side bench.

A fun thing was when this guy (in the above picture) dropped a microphone into the water so that we could listen to the whales talking. (It turned out they were mostly placing bets on how long it would be before I leaned over the rail and gave up my breakfast.) (They were being jerks and I showed them by keeping my breakfast.)

If you look hard, you can see a whale spouting on the left. I like that it looks like Mrs Notthat is trying to get the whale to move to the right and do it again, maybe this time with more feeling.

 

About the best shot I got of a fluke.

Mrs Notthat taunting my whale photography skills.

And that's about it. This was pretty easily the most entertaining and enjoyable whale watching boat thing I've done. The boat had an open bar (which some REALLY took advantage, but I resisted since I didn't want to push my luck) and we got a sandwich wrap for lunch.

Afterwards we drove a bit further up the coast to go to a beach where we might see turtles, but man, that northwest part of the island is really for the high-rollers staying at the very high-end resorts. 

So we gave up on that and made what turned out to be a bad decision - instead of driving back the way we came (which the GPS on our phone strongly suggested), I thought it would be fun to go the shorter route around the top of the island. Unlike the infamous Road to Hana, this is all paved and rental cars are not forbidden from driving on it.

Maybe they should be.

For a while, the road is fine, and we stopped several times to get breathtaking shots.

But then the road becomes a single lane, and in some places, not a very generous single lane. There wasn't a lot of traffic, but you had to white-knuckle it a bit in places, not knowing if there was a tour bus coming at you around the corner. The road was very windy and pretty steep in places with few areas where you could pull over to let someone get by. A couple times we had to stop and back up to a place that was just barely wide enough to let a car go by. 

This was pretty stressful, and soon I was wishing I had listened to the GPS. 

But the views, when I could bring myself to look, could be awesome.

Eventually the road becomes a two-lane road again and we were able to work our way back to our motel.

Monday

Monday we decided to watch the sunset from the top of the Haleakala volcano (dormant, thankfully). (We had tried to sign up for a tour to do this, but it was booked up - in retrospect, it was nice that we did this on our own.) 

A fun thing about the top of Haleakala is that it's just over 10,000 feet of elevation - it's nearly as high as Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. For that reason, it has significantly different weather than most of the island, and the biggest difference is that it gets cold there. Really cold. Like, it's been known to snow up there.

That high altitude provides some unique sunrise and sunset views, which is why there are many tours for both. Surprisingly, the sunrise is much more popular (when I'm on vacation, getting up at 3AM to watch a sunrise seems a bit non-vacation like). While you have to have a reservation to enter the Haleakala National Park any time between 3AM and 7AM, no reservation is required for the sunset.

As were were driving up the mountain, we were pretty sure we were doomed to not seeing a sunset - there was nothing but clouds overhead. As we kept going up, we entered the clouds, and as we continued to go up, we emerged above the clouds - this was pretty cool! (Well, very cool. Maybe even cold.) 

Up near the top, looking down on the cloud tops. People were already setting up for the sunset.

Then the clouds started to come up to us - maybe our sunset really was doomed.

Not to worry - we (and MANY others) got our sunset!

Mrs Notthat really wishing she had brought gloves and a puffy jacket. It was in the upper 40s, but the wind made it feel much colder.

We headed back down after the sunset - we had planned to stay and look at the stars, but we were both pretty cold at this point. We drove back down through the clouds and were surprised to find that, not only was it back to being warm, it was raining! (We were not prepared for that since the weather app insisted it was going to be dry.)

Tuesday 

We chose Tuesday to take a ferry over to Lanai (or as it is also known, at least by me, Cat Island). It's an hour boat ride over to the island.

Another twin-hulled boat, but this time boarding from a proper dock.

The ride over was reasonably smooth, and we managed to spot many more whales. We sat on top in the open and all went well. Once we docked in Lanai, we got on the shuttle (apparently there is one Uber, and one taxi, but the main way to get around is to either rent a car or take this shuttle). We first went to the town center for lunch then took the shuttle to the Lanai Cat Sanctuary.

The Lanai Cat Sanctuary was very worth a visit. Spread out over four acres or so, it currently has over 700 cats - many were feral cats and strays brought over from Maui, including many that were left homeless after the Lahaina fire. There are several fairly open areas where most of the cats hang out, and then a number of smaller areas where senior cats and those that are a bit aggressive are kept. They talk a lot about how this sanctuary is saving the lives of thousands of birds (the large areas are open on top, so there is nothing to stop a very dense bird from showing up - the walls are constructed such that the cats can't get out though).

Purradise indeed.

Me with a new best friend. I would end up with a lot of new best friends. I got a little emotional when we left - you just have to really feel for all these cats, although they seem very content there.

Most of the cats were pretty skittish - if you walked up to them, they would move away. I learned that the best thing to do was to just sit and let the ones that wanted attention come to you. 

There were many little houses, platforms, and climbing things for the cats to use.

Mrs Notthat giving treats to a random kitty.

I could have easily spent a whole day there, but visiting hours end pretty early, so we went back on the shuttle and back to the harbor to wait for our ferry ride back to Maui. Along the way the driver chuckled and said "you all are going to have a fun boat ride!" I immediately started getting nervous - Mrs Notthat picked me up something that was to help me if I got seasick, and I kept that bottle clenched in my fists.

When we boarded the boat, we sat out in the open again, on the top deck. A crew member came out and said it was going to be rough and those along the sides would likely get wet, even as high up as we were. We were in the center, and felt reasonably safe, but were getting a bit nervous. 

The crew member came back a few minutes later and said that we would definitely get wet, even where we were sitting, and worse, we would not be able to change our minds and head inside later since it would be to rough to try to walk around on the boat.

That got our attention. 

Another passenger said that she takes that ferry often and had never had that kind of warning before, so she went inside. We followed her.

And WOW was it rough. Sure, we saw a few whales, but the waves splashing our windows were what was impressive. It was funny that a woman with a few kids decided to stay out in the open, and every time a big wave crashed on them, you could hear the kids squeal with joy - this was better than any amusement park ride for them! (Well, most of them. At one point someone struggled inside to grab a barf bag for one of the kids.)

Meanwhile, I was trying my best to keep it together, focussing on staring out the window. A woman sitting ahead of me to the right wasn't able to keep it together, and another bag got used. I was determined to not look at her and redoubled my efforts to look out the window (Mrs Notthat kept going "wheeee!" when a big wave would hit). I was squeezing that bottle extra hard now - it said to wait to drink it until you were starting to really feel queasy, and telling myself that any time now we would enter the harbor in Maui.

I would occasionally take out my phone to see how close we were getting - I thought it was funny when I looked at the weather app while we were between islands - we were no longer in Hawaii, but in the United States! (I have the motion cues feature enabled on the phone, and I swear they were working up a sweat to keep up with the rocking!)

And it worked - I never had to drink the bottle or fill up a bag. It was a near thing though, and not a fun ride for me.

Once we got off the boat and I kissed the ground, we found a restaurant - today was our actual 42nd wedding anniversary!

A beautiful night with a beautiful Mrs Notthat!

Wednesday

Time to head home. We checked out of our motel and had a bit of time to kill, so we found one last beach with one last view.

Look, I'm not a fan of sand, but I am a fan of views. 

One last fun thing- note the flight number! I want to believe they did this just for us, but it was just a fun coincidence. Probably.

The flight home was periodically a bit rough (we were in the air for an hour before the seat belt sign was finally turned off), but was fine. It was nice to get home to our own cat ("hi Mango") and dog ("hi Princess") and, well, cold weather. 

I'm not the biggest fan of Hawaii - sand, sun, heat, and so many tourists (funny how all of that but the tourists are selling points!) take some of the joy out of it for me, but we managed to keep this fun. (Well, not counting the amusement park ride of a boat trip. Or the shivering on a volcano, although that was a pretty funny thing to experience. Or that stupid narrow road.) 

Buh bye Maui!

We flew on Hawaiian Air and mostly it was fine, but they managed to make a few things way more difficult than necessary. The motel we stayed at was fine, but the pool was nearly always filled with kids (this was over the Presidents Day weekend, so that may have played a part) and parking could be challenging (even though they charged for it). 

But we had a really great time and ate lots of great food, and we came home a LOT more tan than when we left. 

And we even managed to get in a fair amount of lounging around!

That's it - move along…

* This is from the historical document "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." There is also a documentary film based on that document. They are both amazing.