Omaha, NE - Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting (over the years)

This is what you see when you arrive at the airport in Omaha.  Yup, I guess that goodlooking young fellow turned out alright!



What?  No way, that's not photoshop...

Well, here we go again!  I started my 2015 trip off at the annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway.  We departed for Omaha on May 1, 2015 and Lisa and I left for Istanbul on May 3 (Amps & Iris went home to Vancouver).  Every year, the Berkshire shareholder meeting is a little different.  Instead of going back in time and doing a separate post for each one, I thought I might do a quick post to show a snapshot across the years of our trips to Omaha and maybe answer the #1 question I get every time I tell people I'm doing this - why do you keep going to Nebraska???

hahaha it seems that I've used my arm to strategically block the year on the poster...

Every bit of Heinz ketchup is another penny in Berkshire's wallet.  Don't be shy, put it on your fries folks!

Enjoying the NetJets display jet at the annual meeting (and proudly rocking the 50th year shareholder pass)

The meeting:

• You can check the Berkshire Hathaway website for all the information you would want on the annual shareholders' meeting (and the next one)
• It always takes place on the first weekend of May each year.  There is a big shareholder shopping day on the Friday and some activities on the Sunday (including a 5K run, a shopping day, and dinner at a steakhouse), but we usually only manage to make it to the Saturday activities.
• I've attended this meeting three times now (2011, 2014, and 2015) and each year the theme is different, but the overall format on the Saturday (the focus of the weekend) remains the same:
1. We wake up and line up outside Centurylink Center to get in at an ungodly early hour, 
2. run (sorry, walk briskly!) in at 7 am when the doors open to a hockey/basketball arena to snag four seats with a great view of the stage at the front, 
3. watch the opening video at 8:30 (no clips that I can show since you're not allowed to record, but suffice to say it's awesome),
4. 6 hours of an 84 year old and a 91 year old answering questions on a wide variety of topics (anything you can think of) from an adoring audience,
5. about 30 minutes of formal business matters,
6. and shopping at various businesses owned by Berkshire throughout the day
• For this weekend, the hotels in Omaha are expensive and have minimum night restrictions, and the flights in and out of Omaha are expensive (and surprisingly time-consuming out of YVR), but I can't begrudge them any of that - if you're going to a weekend that's nicknamed the "Woodstock for Capitalists", you better be prepared to pay for the privilege.
• So after all of that, I suppose I still haven't answered the question of why I go through the trouble and expense of doing this year after year.  The reason is...  because those 6 hours of Q&A are too good to miss!  Look, I don't have to convince you.  40,000 people make this pilgrimage every year.  The people in line behind me flew in from Singapore just for this weekend!

Lining up at 6 in the morning for our shareholder credentials

Look at that lineup in front of us.  To clarify, the doors you enter through are not the ones you see in this shot, but are actually around the corner.  Wow...  maybe we'll need to get there at 5 am next year :(

Once we get inside, this is what the stadium looks like.  Pure pandemonium!

Packed.  The stated capacity of Centurylink Center in Omaha is around 17,500.  It's estimated that 40,000 people came to the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.  Just imagine this - some people flew out to Omaha just for this weekend and ended up having to sit in the overflow rooms at the hotel across the street (they didn't even get to see Warren and Charlie with their own eyes).

What we eat:

• So far, our favourite restaurant is the Grey Plume.  You can expect me to be back next year.
• Maybe I'm too used to Gotham's and Hy's, but the steakhouses I've been to in Omaha so far have been disappointing (I know, first world problems).  I guess I'll have to keep trying!

Fries (fried in duck fat) with a fried goose egg on top.  Delicious!

Classy charcuterie plate.  Whoa, are we turning into adults???

aww yiss, pork done three ways (plus the sausages too)

and chocolate for dessert.  any questions?

What there is to do:

• So...  we haven't done very well in this area.  Maybe it's due to our age (the under 30 set is well under-represented in Omaha on this weekend), but we've struggled to find other forms of entertainment outside of the shareholder meeting.  So far, I can recommend the movie theatre (it's cheaper to watch movies in Omaha than it is in Vancouver, and the theatres are less crowded) and the gun range (it's much cheaper than back home in Canada, and the approach of "here's your gun and a pile of bullets, enjoy learning how to operate your firearm" was fun for me, though I can appreciate how some others may not enjoy it quite as much).

pewpewpew!

wow...  if you were the hostage, you might beg us to let you take your chances with the kidnapper...

Random Thoughts:

• See you again in 2016!

Okanagan Trip 2013 - BC Day Long Weekend



Tony's "Not Impressed" look as he looks on while everybody else eats

Starting our day off with mimosas & brunch @ Old Vines Restaurant (Quail's Gate) - aww yissss

because how can you go wrong with a rib steak?  @ Vanilla Pod (Poplar Grove)

Well, one year later, and here we are again in the Okanagan.  Let's see how I did this time around!

Highlights:

• Wine - I have a better idea of what I'm looking for in a wine this year.  Or at least I thought I did...  I thought I didn't like Pinot Noirs, thought I didn't like white wines, thought I didn't like rose wines.  Guess I was wrong!  Well, good thing I still tried everything then!  :D
• Food - Yup, the food here's still good.  You know, I'm starting to think maybe I just have low standards when it comes to food...
• Driving - The drive up was pretty freaky - the Coquihalla highway gets pretty foggy at higher altitudes even in the summer, I can see why there's so many accidents in the winter when the roads are icy.  And when we were driving around the Okanagan, we nearly hit a deer too!
• Good times with good friends - It's a long drive and we spent the whole weekend up there together, so it's a good thing we all got along hahaha

Amazing views out in the Okanagan.  This was actually the first winery we hit - good start eh?

Well, you can read the sign - Wine Tasting up ahead!

Blasted Church plays their whole "church" theme pretty well.  Look them up online for the backstory!

Wineries:

• Day 1 - Bench Market (cafe in Penticton for lunch), Blasted Church, See Ya Later, Blue Mountain, Gehringer Bros. (Henry Liao, thanks for recommending this one!), Le Vieux Pin, Burrowing Owl (dinner)
• Day 2 - Quail's Gate (lunch), La Frenz, Kettle Valley, Red Rooster, Laughing Stock, Poplar Grove (dinner)

Don't you just want to steal some grapes off the vine and eat them right there???

hahaha most ghetto tasting room I've ever been to.  Gotta love that basketball hoop!

Awards:

• Best Value for money - Gehringer Bros. for sure.  I wasn't sure what to expect, given the prices, but I was blown away by the quality.  I think I've found my new brand for everyday wines!
• Most Unique Experience - It's gotta be Laughing Stock.  Not only is the theme of their bottles delightful (yeah, I said delightful...  WUT???), they served us our wine-tastings outside on their deck where we could enjoy the sights and sounds of the Okanagan.  You have to make appointments for tastings, but it was definitely worth the trouble!
• Best Surprise - The most surprising winery for me was Le Vieux Pin.  I'd never been there (actually never even heard of it before), but their Syrah Cuvee Violette blew me away, as did their AVA Viognier.  They definitely had the best service here, the guy serving you the tastings gave you a new wine glass for (almost) every wine you tasted and was great at sharing his knowledge (and appreciation) of wines with you.  Don't miss this place!
• Best Overall - hmm...  I gotta Poplar Grove on this one.  I love the Rose (new!), Pinot Gris, CSM (Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot blend), Merlot, Syrah, and the Legacy (my favourite wine) from Poplar Grove.  Just a small list, right?  hahaha

Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that this is Le Vieux Pin.  This place is CAN'T MISS!!!

Barrels under Burrowing Owl

The lodges at Burrowing Owl - must be awesome to stay here!

Random Thoughts:

• My car hit 100,000 km on this trip!  Amps, thanks for catching the shot of this in a moving car!

100,000!  Elle, we've been through a lot together over the years!

She's still good as new (even better, actually :P).  Oh yeah, and that's Le Vieux Pin in the background

Iris not terribly impressed with the boys (some things never change...  hahaha)

Take a closer look.  That should be 44 bottles I think?  14 for me, 20 for Amps & Iris, 5 for Tony, 3 we drank that night, and 2 for Manfred.  Impressed???

Count it - 14 bottles!  From left to right, Gehringer Bros, Poplar Grove, See Ya Later, Laughing Stock, Red Rooster, Le Vieux Pin, and Blasted Church.  Would have bought more but we ran out of room in the car (not entirely joking)

Hours and hours of Settlers...  And still friends!  Must be doing something right hahaha

Portugal 3 - Bullfighting & Faro

I should probably start off by stating that I'm neither a bloodthirsty neanderthal nor a tree-hugging vegan hippie.  I guess I'm somewhere in between (but likely closer to the neanderthal side I admit).  So I was a bit apprehensive when I was deciding on whether to buy tickets to the bullfight.  What swayed me was the fact that in Portugal, they don't actually kill the bull (in Spain, the matador plunges a spear into the heart of the bull and it dies in the arena in front of everybody).  As Barcelona recently banned bullfighting, and Mexico City is considering a ban, I figured it's only a matter of time before it's outlawed around the world and I decided to see it before I judged it.  I'll talk about it a bit more below, but I will say that I'm glad I went.

Hilariously cheerful art around Lisbon

This street art is more hilarious, but maybe less cheerful...

Marketing works - I was almost convinced to eat here because of this thing lol

A lot of pomp and pageantry before the bullfight.

In Portugal, the bullfight is conducted by a cavaleiros mounted on a specially trained horse.  It's really something incredible to watch the horse standing there as it's being charged by an angry bull, waiting for the rider to give the input to direct the horse.  I will say that it's very sad for the bull, because the cavaleiros sticks darts in the bull's back as it charges.  It obviously hurts the bull because you can see it bleeding.

However, they let the bull get his revenge!  I really enjoyed this part.  You get to see the courage from the forcados, who are 8 young men responsible for letting the bull charge them.  Why do they do this?  Well, all 8 guys push together to stop the bull.  Once the bull is stopped in it's tracks, they hold it for a few seconds to help the bull calm down.  Because of this, they are able to bring the bull out of the arena (because otherwise, what are you going to do with an enraged bull?)

And at the end, they bring out a bunch of female cows in heat to entice the bull to follow them out of the arena.  I'm not kidding, you can't make this shit up.  The bull's pretty tired at this point (from, you know, the bullfight) so I'm not sure what he's planning to do, but good for him in any case!

Portugal 2 - Belem

I will always remember Belem for the egg tarts!  Belem, or Santa Maria de Belem, as it's formally known, was the launching point for the Portuguese exploration ships during Portugal's age of glory (er...  not sure if "glory" is the right word, but they did colonize Brazil and a few other places, I suppose).  Belem is pretty small but it's covered with monuments and other historical buildings that I found fascinating.

Because in Portugal, egg tarts come in a fancy paper tube/box.

What's this?  Tea time?  How nice...  (hahaha I was playing mahjong on my phone while I was waiting for my food & tea to arrive because I'm THAT Asian)

The kitchen where they make those magical Portuguese tarts (Pasteis de Belem)

The Monument to the Discoveries, celebrating Portugal's seafaring history.

Ponte 25 de Abril, designed by the same architect who designed the Golden Gate Bridge (obviously he didn't stray too far from the original).  If you look at the big tower thing on the right side of the picture, that is the Cristo Rei, similar to the famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro.

A fine example of azulejo, or paintings on ceramic tiles, Portugal's contribution to the world of art

St Jerome and his lion companion.  Boy, you sure do see a lot of St Jerome around Europe...

hehehe, a history of the Christian faith in Portuguese (and with hilarious cartoon pictures)

What a great day for a walk in the park!

Apparently Lisbon is a city of tolerance!  I suppose they put up with Christiano Ronaldo's whining and diving, so they must be pretty tolerant hahaha