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.

Attending a Jeopardy! taping session - take four

Back in December, we decided to join a group that was going to run the Ryan Bonaminio parkrun in Riverside CA on January 25th. Mrs Notthat and I decided to tack on a Jeopardy viewing the following Monday (the 27th). What made this especially fun was that it was to be the first day of taping of the Jeopardy Invitational Tournament (JIT). We had no idea who would in the JIT, but it would likely be people that we've seen before - it would be a blast!

And then early January happened in the LA area. The devastating wildfires put this trip in, well, jeopardy.

When Jeopardy cancelled the tapings for the week of Jan 6th, it made our date seem pretty fragile. The wildfire news just seemed to get worse and worse. The group trip to Riverside was cancelled. It was all pretty grim.

Then we started hearing that local businesses that were not directly affected by the fires were suffering due to the lack of people wiling to visit the area - LA is a HUGE area and most of the city was operating as usual.

Also, there was rain predicted for the weekend we would be there. We kept checking the Jeopardy On-Camera website and the taping was still on, although it did look like they were moving the regular shows that were to be taped earlier in the month to our week, so, likely no JIT for us. That was a little disappointing, but still, even normal Jeopardy tape days are a lot of fun.

In the end, we headed to Riverside on Friday and on Saturday ran the parkrun, then headed to Playa del Ray to enjoy the weekend while waiting for Monday. Saturday stayed mostly dry, but Sunday was pretty damp - not huge dumps of rain, which would have caused their own issues, but scattered showers. That night, on top of the rain showers, there was lightning and thunder (and new worries about what the lightning might do, which was apparently nothing bad).

On Monday, we headed to the Sony Pictures lot, determined to not be late arriving (see the post from our last time attending a taping). We still were not sure whether we were going to be seeing a regular set of shows or JIT shows, but one thing made us feel like there was something special about these shows - James Holzhauer and a number of other Jeopardy veterans we recognized were all in the same check-in area as us!

I wish I knew what book that was - likely not Sudoku for Dummies.

When you check in as an audience member, you are given a wrist band. One thing that we had not seen before was that, in addition to the purple bands (that friends and family of contestants get) and blue bands (that us normal people get), there were a few people with gold bands! I don't know who these people were, but they went to the front of the line, even ahead of James!

The person wearing #18 is Rowan, who most of you will likely remember from their appearance in last year's Second Chance Tournament, where they did exceptionally well! And it was kind of sunny!

It turned out that the shows were indeed regular Jeopardy shows, and that the JIT shows had been pushed back a week. And the explanation for why James, Rowan, and a few other Jeopardy vets were there was because they had friends playing. (In James' case, he had been coaching a guy that you will likely really like once these episodes air.)

A slightly unusual thing is that we have no idea when these episodes will air - they will be the first shows after the JIT, and since those shows haven't been recorded yet, they don't know how long that tournament is going to go. (As viewers, we also don't know how long the Tournament of Champions is going to go either, although they obviously already know that.)

And that's about it. I got to talk with Rowan for a bit during a break (I teased them that Ken had made a big deal about James being in the audience but failed to mention that they were there too - all Jeopardy royalty should be acknowledged!). The three shows we got to attend were entertaining, as always. The banter between Janes and Ken between shows was also entertaining.

This makes five regular shows total that we've been able to watch (two in Feb of 2023), along with three Masters (in April 2024) and three 2024 Tournament of Champions shows (in Dec of 2024) we've been able to attend.

From the Department of Odd Timing

The three TOC shows we saw in early December 2024 were set to air starting on Jan 27 - the same date that we were attending this taping! Once we made it home, we were able to watch those shows (we have a Tivo to record broadcast TV shows).

I took this picture off our TV screen. Best thing - there is Sam!

It's amazing how much we had already forgotten about those shows, including not being all that sure who won each of them. Certain moments and comments were pretty memorable, but for the most part, it was like watching the shows for the first time!

If you are curious about what's involved in attending a taping, you can see my earlier posts for some details. It's free, but there's a LOT of waiting around until you finally get into the studio. 

The waiting is worth it.

That's it - move along…

The Ryan Bonaminio parkrun - California is up to two parkruns again!

 If you search for the top attractions in Riverside CA, the top of the list is The Worlds Largest Paper Cup.*

I have a hard time believing that cup is made of paper. (It's not - it's actually concrete.)

Second on the list is to go to the wonderful Ryan Bonaminio park on Saturday morning at 7:30 AM and run the Ryan Bonaminio parkrun.**

* Probably not first on the list. I didn't really check.

** Being second on the list will be true soon. (I know this isn't how footnotes work, but I didn't want to make you have to scroll to the bottom only to roll your eyes and mutter cruel things under your breath. You're welcome.)

Ever since parkrun restarted after the COVID shutdown, there had only been one parkrun in California - Byxbee parkrun in Palo Alto. (The first parkrun in California, Crissy Field, was unable to restart.) So it was a bit thrilling when a new parkrun opened in Riverside in early November of 2024. And in December, Mrs Notthat and I decided to come down in January to run the event and tie it in with going to a Jeopardy taping the following Monday.

Then, well, January happened to the LA area. Devastating wildfires all over the place.

Jeopardy cancelled the tapings for a week in early January and it sounded like it was a REALLY bad idea to come down for a visit. The Riverside area had not been directly affected by the fires, but the fires were not done directly affecting people. We were on the fence about whether to come down when the Hughes fire broke out and temporarily closed the primary freeway into the LA area.

It was looking bleak.

Then the freeway opened back up. And even better, there was rain in the forecast. Not a torrential rain that would directly lead to other issues either - a nice rain that would bring at least a bit of relief to this area. I watched a news bit about how, because so many people were staying away, a lot of businesses that rely on tourists were struggling. So we decided to drive down on Friday, stay the night in Riverside, then go to Playa del Rey for a couple nights and Jeopardy on Monday, as planned back in the before times.

It's ironic that the Ryan Bonaminio (rhymes with Fryin' Gonnawinio, sort of) parkrun starts so early to try to beat the heat. There was no heat to beat on Saturday - it was 42º F and felt like 20º (when it's even a bit cool in California, it always feels colder than that just because you're in California and, dang it, it's not supposed to be cold).

In case you are curious how the park got it's name.

An interesting mix of shorts, t-shirts, and puffy jackets at the start.

The RB parkrun has been slowly growing in size, but compared to Byxbee, it was nicely cozy (we had 23 finishers at event #10, tied for the most ever, if you don't count the first event). A fun thing they do is have everyone pose for a group picture before the start.

Pre-run photo by a parkrun volunteer. Mrs Notthat is the one in the tan puffy jacket, which she did not actually run in. But running in it was still on the table at this point.

The course is a double out-and-back. In my early days, I didn't like out-and-back courses much, but now I like them a lot since you get to see all the participants several times and I can't believe how much I don't notice along the course the first time through it.

I hacked this course map together. (You probably already figured that out.)

You start on a gravel bit of trail.

After a short bit, the gravel turns to concrete.

That's the eventual first place finisher already heading back on his first lap. He was WAY ahead of me. 

The far turnaround - you loop around that tree.

In spite of what my GPS insists is fact, I did not climb over that tree or end up on the grass. 

These cones kept you from adding bonus distance to your 5K (that blue bit on the course map).

Mrs Notthat, sans puffy jacket, heading out for her second lap.

The start area turnaround. Probably could use a sign here like the far turnaround, although it really is pretty obvious. (The wetness is due to the park people washing the benches and such.)

What my GPS showed for the start/finish area. No tree climbing implied.

At the end of my second lap, I finally got to go through the finish chute! Fame and glory!

The actual run was pretty uneventful, but fun. It ended up being my fastest 5K so far this year (which, sadly, is not saying much). By the second lap things had warmed up a bit and I could start to feel my fingers.

It turned out there was another runner there from Byxbee, Martin, and even cooler, this was his 25th parkrun milestone! 

I tried to take a selfie with the sign, but it did not go well.

It makes me laugh that the official volunteer photographer took this shot of my failed attempt to take a selfie.

In the end, Mrs Notthat talked someone into taking a proper shot. I can't explain why we are all bent over though. Maybe low-flying aircraft.

A picture was taken of the women who ran today.

And that's about it! A HUGE thanks to Alex, the Event Director and today's RD, for starting this event and making it so enjoyable! I suspect that 90% of the time, that 7:30 AM start time is very nice to have to beat the heat, so I won't complain. The park is great with toilets fairly close to both turnarounds and lots of parking. (I was amazed at how full that lot started to get later in the morning - this park is really popular.)

You should definitely add this event to your itinerary - I suspect it's going to continue to grow as local people start to understand what's going on (there is always so much suspicion about anything that's free - there just has to be a catch). 

That's it - move along…

PS: Here is a link to the thing I wrote about Byxbee parkrun. And here is a link to a thing I wrote about the Jan Alfano parkrun in Arizona.

Attending the Jeopardy! TOC

For the third time, Mrs Notthat and I attended a live Jeopardy taping. For being veterans, we made a rookie mistake and almost missed out. 

Yikes!

I've previously mentioned all the details of attending a taping here and here (for that first one, COVID was still a big deal), so I'm not going to get too much into those details. If you are interested, go here to see what shows are upcoming and request some free tickets.

As we have learned, it's best to go to a morning taping since you will generally get to see three shows (the afternoon taping allows you to sleep in a bit, but you only see two shows). Our tickets said to show up by 10:00 AM, and we got there about 9:55.

And we were nearly too late.

I had failed to remember my previous posts where I recommended getting there at least 30 minutes early. When we got there, there were already a LOT of people there. We got in line and kept moving forward, until ominously, we were all told to move back a bit. They had filled all their seats, but we were on standby since they were still waiting for some contestant guests to show up. (We were told they were waiting for about a dozen people. We were fifth and sixth in line, so it felt like we had a fair chance of getting in, but there were no guarantees.)

So we stood there and waited. Finally, they decided to let a few of us in, and as it turned out, Mrs Notthat and I were the last to be let in at that session. There were about twenty people behind us - those people were told they would likely get into the 2:00 PM session (and there was a bonus third session at 4:00 PM).

I couldn't believe how close we came to missing out.

After standing in the standby line and finally getting in, we were back to waiting, this time outside the Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune store. Mrs using the mock host podium like a bar made me laugh.

A happier picture of Mrs Notthat. Fun thing - note how tall the exclamation point is - this podium is the only place that it's like that! Next time you watch the show, you too can be an exclamation point nerd!

Once you are in though, it doesn't matter much when you got in - normal people get a blue wristband while the special guests get a purple wristband, and get seated first. 

We all walked down to the outside of the studio, then stood and waited some more.

The first two times we were there, we were seated on the contestant side - fine seats, but not the best view of the contestants. Ironically, this time, after nearly missing out on getting in, we got pretty nifty seats more centered. Even better, we were about three rows directly behind where Sam Buttrey was sitting with Ken's wife!

Important Note: You are not allowed to have your phone out at all while sitting in the studio. There are a number of people constantly watching for people trying to sneak a picture. (I talked to the main "guest relations person," whose job is not unlike herding cats, and she said if anyone is caught taking a picture, they will indeed not only make them delete the picture, but will make them go into their recently deleted folder and delete it from there as well!) It was funny - in between shows, we were standing to stretch our legs and I went to look at my watch to see if I was missing stand credits, and she told me looking at your Apple Watch is not allowed either! In any case, this is why I have no pictures of anything that happened in the studio.

Jimmy McGuire, former member of the Clue Crew who is now the MC for the taping, came up with an idea of a contest in one of the breaks. He asked me to stand up, then another guy a few rows back of me, then a couple others. One thing that was apparent was that we all had gray hair. Jimmy's idea was to have a Sam Buttrey lookalike contest. I think only one of us didn't have a beard, so that guy won. Sam pledged that this contest would never happen again. 

In between the second and third shows, we went down to the area behind the studio, where you're allowed to take pictures, and I got this shot of Sam (in the teal shirt) talking to one of the contestants. Sort of.

In the above shot, one of the TOC contestants said "hi" to Sam and Sam, who is now a Jeopardy employee, had to tell her that he could not talk to her at all (so he spent time talking to her guests instead). It was kind of odd, but it was the only time Sam wasn't bubbly. (Between the first and second shows, we stayed in the studio and ended up getting to shake Sam's hand and talk to him a bit - he really is the nicest, funniest guy in person.)

During that second break, Mrs Notthat got Sam to pose with us. If only he had a beard, I might have won that lookalike contest!

One thing I hadn't realized previously, is that the door to the contestant green room is back in this area, and we ended up seeing several of the second show's contestants hanging out with their family/friends. I had been down to this area before, but hadn't been down there in a while - I think I'll now make a point to go down there no matter what.

The walls are filled with Jeopardy memorabilia like this.

And that's about it! The shows we watched will be broadcast January 27, 28, and 29. It is a bit of a spoiler that we know who won those games, but it will still be fun watching them air - because of where we were sitting, there's also an excellent chance we can be spotted in the audience shots. 

In the end, we were there from about 10:00 to 2:30. There are no food or drinks allowed, and the bathroom is in another building and you can only go there between shows, so you need to be pretty solid during that time.

And patient. SO patient.

But it's worth it - the actual games fly by. During the first break of each game, Ken answers questions from the audience, which is fun. At the end of each game, Ken does a Q&A with the contestants that is really fun and interesting (and I think you can see them on the Jeopardy website once the episode airs). It's also fun to see the odd things they do during the breaks - the pickups where Ken may have stumbled over a word or two (Sarah the producer thought Ken was sounding too happy when he said the word "battle" and made him do a couple more takes to get it more somber!). 

What a fun morning (once the stress went away!).

That's it - move along…