After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

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For those of us who did not take off the holiday, if you did, I hope that you were able to ease back into it on Tuesday following the Memorial Day weekend. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence and this is the time of the year for tennis on clay. The French Open with a lot of headlines already, even in its earliest days. For instance, we've got a big second round matchup between Naomi Osaka and world number one, Iga Swiatek on the women's side. On the men's side, Rafael Nadal, maybe his French Open swan song, a place where he's won 14 times. Greatest clay court tennis player we've ever seen and Novak Djokovic in action winning his first round match in straight sets and yet still trying to find a familiar rhythm in this 2024 season.

He was asked whether or not he's having fun on the tennis court right now. Honestly, here much more than basically any other tournament this year that I've played except Australia. Even Australia was kind of a bit of an uphill battle in terms of how I was feeling on the court. But again, this is only one match here, so we have to see how I progress in the tournament, how the feeling evolves.

But it was good. I was fist pumping, I was focused, I was there, I was present. So I'm pleased with the way at least I behaved or had a mindset on the court. That was something that I was looking for and where are you going to feel that way if not in Grand Slams.

Novak Djokovic admitting that he's not felt himself, not felt the way that he's used to to this point in the season. And on that note, we welcome longtime tennis insider and author Christopher Clary who's joining us from Paris. Chris, it's always good to have you on the show. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes.

Amy, good to hear your voice. I am wondering about Novak and as you watch, how would you describe the place where he is in his own game right now? Well, it was a night match last night in Paris' first match this year, and I just sensed he was sort of struggling to find the right combination. He was looking at his box a lot, trying to find some support, but also not loving his ability to produce whenever he needed it, which he's been used to honestly in the majors for a decade now.

Most of the time. He's been through a patch kind of like this once before 2017, but that was linked to an elbow injury and some off court stuff that was never quite clear. It looks to me like this could just be motivational or something else happening off the court. And he alluded to that earlier this week talking about he didn't want to open up the Pandora's box, he said, of all the things that have been going on. So there's probably more to the story. And also, you know, he's 37 years old now.

That's part of the story, too. Obviously has a chance to become the only tennis player ever to win 25 singles titles at the Grand Slams. And as you mentioned now, with a lot going on around him, it has changed. He could even lose his world number one ranking if he doesn't get to the final, which he hasn't done in a tournament this year.

How much, if anything, does this have to do with what happened at the Italian Open? Do you think that's still casting a shadow? I don't, only in the sense that he was already having these kind of struggles.

He was having a tough season by his standards already at that point. And I think things were already kind of going the wrong direction. But that was certainly crazy that he's sitting there in the tunnel on the way out of the tournament site off the main court.

And a guy leans over with his backpack to autograph something and a water bottle, a heavy water bottle falls out of the backpack. There was no malicious intent. And it hits him right on top of the head. So that certainly leaves you with some headache the next day and he was tested and everything else and said he was fine. But yeah, for sure.

That wasn't the kind of thing you want to have happen, as freaky as it was. Is he still the player to beat in the men's draw? You know, it would be hard to say that based on his results. He hasn't been to a final this year in any event. He's only played, I think this is his fifth or sixth tournament now. But the men's situation with the doll losing early and not being the player that he was on clay, obviously, it's just so wide open really in a lot of ways.

So I wouldn't call him the favorite, but he's certainly among the favorites. And I watched him last night and I thought he played a Pierre Hubert who's a French wildcard ranked in the hundreds. Not a great player in terms of ranking, but the level was high and looked pretty tight and pretty solid. He went on straight sets and was drop shotting well and played well.

So I think based on results, if Yannick Sinner is healthy, I think his hips are okay. You have to give him the edge over Novak at this point. But Djokovic, he's been to this rodeo so many times and come out just fine.

So if he gets to the second week and he finds his rhythm and his confidence, I wouldn't rule him out. Longtime tennis insider Christopher Clary is with us from Paris and Novak had time to go and watch Rafael Nadal as did Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz was there. It was definitely a who's who because of the potential implications. What was it like to be there for that Nadal match? It was a strange thing in a way because obviously one of the first round matches that probably got the most hype and justifiably so in the history of Grand Slam tennis and Rafael Nadal won the French Open at ridiculous 14th.

I had to say, I made it just boggle the mind still how they watched them all. He's playing Alexander Zverev who's never won a major, but he's number four in the world. Just won the Italian Open and he's a guy who's a very dangerous player. They played a couple years earlier in the French Open semi-finals and were playing an amazing match. Just a grueling baseline duel with Zverev. I blew out his ankle at the end of the second set and had to retire so there was unfinished business.

But this is the bad news. Over the years the Parisians have really connected with Rafael Nadal. It wasn't always a given, but I think in the last few years they've really come to respect all that he's given to their tournaments, his own attitude, his philosophy of playing the sport. And it was just a very big celebration of him.

However, the thing is we don't know if it was the last time and that's kind of what the weird part about it was. You could tell he was very close to announcing he was going to retire this year and now he's sort of pulled back from that because it's been a difficult year for him. Hasn't been able to get the kind of rhythm or matches that he wanted to get to sort of say goodbye to the sport. So I think he's really hesitating now and I think everybody was a little bit on the back foot about, you know, do we want to make this into a huge deal because we could tell Rafa's not really ready for it to be a huge deal.

So that was sort of the ambivalent part of it. But it was an incredibly loud ovation under the retractable roof when he came in and he was supported all the way through in a way I've rarely seen in any tennis match. How much do you think the Olympics matter to him?

I think a great deal. Rafa's given a lot to the Olympics over the years. You know, tennis is a strange thing because of the fact that you have four basically huge moments each year with the majors kind of like golf.

And so the Olympics is an add-on. It has a lot of history. And the Parisians love their tennis. So it's going to be a big connection moment for the sport. I think Rafa has deep connections to it. He won the gold medal in Beijing in singles and then won the doubles gold medal with his friend, Mark Lopez, who's now one of his coaches when they were in Rio. And he's given a lot to it. He's carried the flag and he's a real unifying person in Spain.

So it means a lot to him and I think he's going to be focusing almost exclusively on that now for the next couple of months. I got to tell you, I feel a little bit like diehard Tiger Woods fans when they talk about how much they miss him on the tour with nostalgia. I really do miss Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

I have missed them so much. Yeah, I mean it's a thing that's, in a way, Djokovic against Nadal has been a longer rivalry, in some ways better, but just the way that Federer and Nadal connected over the years in those great Wimbledon finals and their own personal relationship and the way it moved along and the way tennis fans kind of chose one camp or the other but then kind of came together through them. You're right, it's the Federer aspect. He's a classy guy and he's pretty visible. He's out there, you know, singing in concerts with people in cameos and interviews right and left. He's still getting his frequent flyer miles in, but the sport for sure misses him. I actually think I just saw, not I think, I just saw them in a commercial for Louis Vuitton too, the two of them together.

Yeah, but the Sherpas up in the mountains of Switzerland, right, doing their thing and he's like, I'm freezing and Roger's not because he's Swiss. Christopher Clary is with us from Paris. I know you're working on a new book, or is it out, the book on Rafael Nadal? No, it's not out. We decided to wait because, you know, Rob is in a situation, not being clear what he was going to do.

That's called The Warrior. I read a book called The Master on Federer that came out. I enjoyed talking with you about that and The Warrior will be out next year and we'll see if, you know, this is indeed Nadal's last year or if he continues on until 2025. So what was the process like writing another book after the success of The Master, but now taking on a completely different subject?

Well, I got to tell you, and I feel better talking about it if they were done. Basically, I mean, I've been a daily journalist, as you know, for over 30 years. I was with The New York Times for over 30 years. I got to tell you, writing a book for me was the hardest thing I ever did.

So it's just a whole different way of thinking about something and structuring something. But the book about Nadal is great for me because my wife's French spent a lot of my time over in France over the years. The French Open is the tournament that I know the best of all the different things I've covered in sports over the years. So bringing together the French Open with Nadal and what he achieved, I think is going to be a fun combination. We have a second round women's match that is going to get a lot of attention between Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek.

Right now, Iga, the best player in the world. How much do you think Naomi can challenge her? If they were playing on a hard court, given how well Naomi's been playing and her comeback from maternity, she seems really, really motivated and excited to play good tennis. If they were playing on a hard court, I would say it's going to be potentially a great match.

I'm not ruling that out. It's hard to see considering how great Swiatek is on play. She's won the French Open four times and she's somebody who's just got a fantastic fit with the surface, kind of like her idol. And Naomi's always, I think she's kind of been the Maria Sharapova early years approach, like a cap on ice, what Brady used to call herself when she was on the red clay. I think Naomi would have agreed with that early on, but she's really been very intentional and been very upbeat and positive about playing clay court tennis. She hasn't gone deep in a tournament yet this year and I don't think she's going to beat Iga today, but I think she's on the right track and I think her peak is coming again. I think she could be a real threat at the U.S. Open, for example, later in the year, but we'll see. You never know. Naomi comes out with her huge serve, has a great day serving. Conditions are a little quicker than they've been the last few days.

It's not a possibility, but it's a long shot, I think. Christopher Clary is with us from Paris covering the French Open. And I want to ask you about something that we talked about last year and probably even the year before, too, where there were a couple of high-profile tennis players who took time away for mental health. And now we've had a golfer who's retiring in Lexi Thompson and is pointing in large part to some of the struggles mentally that she has had on the tour and just the effect it's had on her.

An NFL quarterback took all of last season off and is pointing to just the mental health umbrella, though we don't know the specifics. How often are you hearing that with athletes these days, now in 2024, where it's become more of a common conversation? Well, I think, you know, culturally, all over the world, I spend a lot of time in Europe and Australia. I just think it's a very difficult time for young people in general, all over the world, for a lot of different reasons. And I think that reflects itself as well in the sports world, in that same age group. And I think also, let's face it, too, in a good way, that there's a lot more openness about discussing those sorts of things than there used to be.

So I think we're hearing more about it. Athletes are more comfortable discussing it. And if you're asking them why they're stopping a sport, maybe I didn't listen to Lexi's situation, but maybe she's more open than athletes in the past might have been about that. But for sure, I think society in general and sports leagues, with all the means at their disposal, they need to do as much as they can to support people. And you've seen some efforts in tennis. I mean, the situation with Osaka definitely opened some eyes about supporting people and giving them that opportunity to really take some time away from the spotlight if they needed it and be more embraced than castigated about that.

And I think that's very positive. But let's face it, I mean, tennis is an extremely difficult sport psychologically. In singles, you're out there on your own, you get a little bit of coaching now, but you're still very exposed. A lot of these athletes, especially on the women's side, come along at age 15, 16, and they're traveling internationally at very young ages and not very isolated at times.

Huge pressure. And the social media lens only, I think, magnifies that. So people think, oh, well, it's athletes and they're making loads of money and they're the fortunate ones. In some ways, yes. In other ways, it's a tough world. It always was. But I think even more so now in some ways. So it's good to see these leagues and these federations deploying resources to help people out that way as much as they can.

Agreed. In addition to Naomi, who are Americans to watch at the French Open, Christopher? Well, Naomi's a mix, right? She represents Japan. She grew up in the U.S., obviously, but she's Japanese in terms of the Olympics and the international stuff. So American players, I mean, Coco Buff has always loved playing on clay. You know, she's not had a great, great season after winning the U.S. Open last year. You thought she might just sprout wings and flick over the sport.

That hasn't happened, man. She hasn't played her best, best tennis yet, but she's always a threat on the clay. And I think a couple of young players coming up as well with Emma Navarro, former NCAA champ from Virginia who's been playing really, really well. Madison Key's been playing well.

But the one really to watch is Danielle Collins, who has announced this is her last season at age 30. And she's been on a tear. She won the Miami Open and she won in Charleston on clay after that and has gone deep in clay court events. So I think she, you know, at kind of a later stage of her career, she's playing great ball. And I think she's got a shot to go very deep here at the French Open. On the men's side, anyone?

Well, the men's side, yeah, it's exciting in some ways. I mean, obviously with this wide open men's situation, which we haven't had for 20 years at the French Open, with the Rafa Nadal years, it's been hard to, you know, get a lot of oxygen. But there are a couple of guys playing really well. Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul in particular have played well on clay this year. And they're both, you know, in their mid-20s. Neither one of them has won a major or gotten to a final, but they both have played some of the best minutes of their lives and have put in the hard yards on the clay.

And so they're both worth watching. And then there's young Ben Shelton as well, who's a huge serving lefty, who's had a real breakthrough couple of seasons on the men's tour. But these guys, they're not in the top five or six yet. They're more in the 10 to 20 range.

So they need to step it up. But all three of those guys, and then Sebastian Korda, who's the brother of the Korda sisters from golf, is also a really talented guy. And he's got a chance to do well on the clay as well, I think. Right, Nellie. Actually, we just heard from her earlier, one of the biggest stars on the LPGA Tour. So every time we think about tennis, we think of you, Christopher.

So it's always good to be able to connect with you. He's been covering Grand Slam tennis for 30-plus years and Olympics. Are you going to be at the Olympics in Paris? Amy, I am. Yeah, I can't miss this one, you know, Paris and all that and the connections.

And it's the same clay I'm used to watching. So I'll be there for that. Awesome. You can find him on Twitter at KristofClarey, C-L-A-R-E-Y, working on that new book about Rafa, though it's on hold.

But definitely get the master because that was brilliant. It's always good to talk to you, Christopher. Thank you so much. Hey, Amy, thanks for that. I also started a sub-stack called Tennis and Beyond, if anybody's interested.

So I've been enjoying doing that too. Awesome. Thanks, Christopher.

Have fun. Okay, Amy. Sub-stack, yes. I forgot about that. He's a guy who kind of branched out on his own when the New York Times Sports Department got wiped out. You may remember that. I don't remember. It was last year, the year before.

I think it was last year. But he's so good and he's so widely respected and now has added author to his resume. But he's been covering Olympics and Grand Slams and a lot of international events. He's even covered golf in the past.

And so really need to be able to connect with him. He's like an encyclopedia of tennis. And it is not all that different from what the golf world is going through right now. It's really the case. And it's on both the men's and the women's side.

Now, the women's may be a little bit ahead of what the men are going through right now, but it being wide open. Think about it. Since Tiger Woods and probably Phil Mickelson, too. Both of them cast such a major shadow on golf and not in a bad way. It's just that we got so accustomed to seeing those two and they brought such incredible interest to the game of golf. And it was always a storyline week after week.

Remember, people used to ask, are you taking Tiger or are you taking the field? And then you had in the women's side of tennis, Serena Williams walk away. But even before she retired, she was gone for a while to have her daughter.

And so that kind of opened things up. Once the Williams sisters were gone and Serena wasn't as dominant anymore. We've seen just this revolving door until Iga. We've seen a revolving door of women, many of them Eastern European, who have taken over as the world number one until Iga.

Now, she's she's pretty firmly entrenched right now. But now it's happening on the men's side where Roger Federer has retired. Rafael Nadal is, if not retired, very limited.

And we may not see him for too much longer. Novak Djokovic is 37. And so you've got this kind of wide open who will be the next star in golf.

And I maintain for media purposes and for fan purposes. This is one of the reasons why the WNBA is so popular right now, because you've got one major star that everybody wants to see. Well, in the case of both men's and women's tennis and golf, too, while Tiger was out there, one star that would bring everybody to the table. You didn't have to be a diehard fan to watch Roger and Rafa. You didn't have to be a diehard fan to see even Novak Djokovic now as he's chasing that 25th Grand Slam.

Serena Williams, she transcended her sport. So these sports in golf and tennis are both kind of going through this transition where, yeah, it's wide open. It's good for the game, but it's not necessarily good for fan support. Or, as we're finding out in golf for sure, it's not good when it comes to TV ratings and fan interest.

Those have plummeted. It's partly because of the void left by Tiger, but it's also because of the whole live mess, too. It's just such an interesting time for both of those sports. And having covered them both for 20 plus years, I find it fascinating. Because many of us, for years, all we knew was Tiger in golf. Tiger was the reason I ever started watching golf. Serena and Venus in tennis, in women's tennis, and Roger and Rafa, and then Novak in men's tennis.

So it's changed so much now. Get healthy for the game of tennis and the game of golf internally. Because you'll theoretically have better competition, but not as good for fan interest. Because those were the stars that drew even casual fans. And I remember being at U.S. Opens and hearing the crowds for Roger, for Rafa, going to tournaments and following these crazy galleries with Tiger Woods. There is nothing like it.

That's what people were drawn to was the star power. On Twitter, at Amy After Hours. Love, love, love for you to send your last minute questions for Ask Amy Anything. Same thing with our Facebook page. Many of you were also mixing in your compliments from my mom based on my blog post, so I appreciate that. I write a lot about me. This blog post is far more significant because it was about one of the most important people in my life. So thank you for checking that out. 855-212-4227.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Doors take us to summers away or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential.

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Shopify.com slash Odyssey podcast. Want to teach your kids financial literacy but not sure where to start? Greenlight can help. With Greenlight parents can keep an eye on kids spending and saving. While kids and teens use a card of their own to build money confidence. As a parent you can send instant money transfers, set up chores, automate allowance and more.

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Well thank you. I go back to the days of the 70s and I became Stabler's number one fan for the Hall of Fame. And unfortunately they're not going to put me in because they said that they weren't taking fans. And I'm really upset because Kenny would want me in there. So you think you should be in the Hall of Fame as a fan?

That's right. But why though? What is your contribution to the game that you believe should get you into the Hall of Fame? I've been with everything with the NFL. I just like a player. I'm no different.

That's just the way it is. Well I appreciate you telling us your story. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Going up the rails on a crazy train. Funny part is, after that exchange with the woman who wanted to be in the Hall of Fame as a fan, the Pro Football Hall of Fame started inducting fans. Remember the Uber fan? They do it every year now. They pick a few fans who are nominated by their respective teams and they actually do induct fans, super fans, into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I mean heck, if the media can get in and fans can get in, you know there's still hope for all of us. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

It is the hump show, middle show of the work week. And after starting the hour with a conversation from Paddy, those are my favorites, we've had, Jay help me out here, just in the last couple years, we've had multiple interviews from the British Isles, so British Open multiple times. We've had Australia, right?

Yep, absolutely. For Christopher actually at the Australian Open. We certainly had Wimbledon. We certainly had the French Open. But the Olympics though, we had, when they were in, was it Tokyo? When we had Jessica, huh, talking about, shoot I have to go back and look about the softball. But I know that we had, we've had... We had Italy, with our skiing friend. Oh yes, right.

That was true. A member of the U.S. skiing team. So those Olympics. But, see those summer Olympics with the softball, who were...

Remember we had, actually we had softball and baseball, if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure that they were in Japan. I feel like that was the case, that they were in Japan. Well they definitely weren't in China. Or were they in China? Wait, where were the ones that were in 2020 that got postponed? Remember the summer Olympics that got pushed? Yeah, they were Tokyo. It was Tokyo. It got pushed to 21, remember? Yeah.

I'm thinking of one. We had the World Cup in Qatar, whenever that's still said, not sure. Right, yes, that. Yeah, so we've had people covering soccer all over the world, including the World Cup. We definitely had Tokyo. Let's see. Jessica was live from Tokyo.

Are you actually looking at it on your phone? That's sweet. Yeah, so Jessica, who's one of the best softball players in U.S. history. She joined us from there as an analyst for the U.S. softball team that was playing. Yeah, we had some pretty incredible... July 2021. Wow.

Wow. Seriously, it seems like it was yesterday. Jessica Mendoza, by the way, I didn't mention her last name.

I know many of you know who I'm talking about. She now works in baseball broadcasting. But it seems like yesterday that we were coming out of the pandemic. Sports were restarting.

A lot of events were pushed to 21. And now here it is. It's mid-2024. It's been more than four years since that happened. And I don't know, do you think it feels like it was yesterday? Or the time went really fast? Or it feels like a distant memory? I think it feels sort of like a distant memory. But I think its effects are still felt every day, if that makes sense. I feel like we try to forget about it and don't want to really bring back on it. But it will never go away. In what ways?

In what ways does it still cast the shadow? I think just in terms of people talking to one another almost in a way. Where people are kind of like afraid to... Really? There was a time there where... Don't be afraid, Jay. No, I just mean in terms of going out and now people are looking at each other. It's like, oh, where's that person been? Where's that person been? And I feel like that wasn't a thought before where now it's kind of...

I don't know. You don't think it's back to normal? I think it's more back to normal. But I think this is about as normal as it'll ever be again.

If it's this normal before, if you feel it. I think this is the new normal. I'm wondering, the last time that you even heard the word COVID, I feel like I... Yankees recently. Why?

They had put someone on the COVID IL. Stop it. I forgot who. Yeah.

Wait, is this when I was in Hawaii? Because I do not remember that headline. Yeah. Huh. I didn't even know that was a thing. How can that still be a thing?

This was... Oh, he got reinstated yesterday on Tuesday. Hamilton, he's a believer. Okay. That's why. I didn't realize that.

Me and Hamilton. The last time that I thought about it or spoke about it was when my niece got it in, shoot, February maybe. She ended up with COVID.

Of 2024? Yeah. Just this past February. And even though the policies are so different than what they were, she worked from home for a week and she was kind of going stir crazy like, and had to come up with a negative test. I wouldn't even know where to get a test now.

Honestly, I may be the only person on the planet who can say this, but I never had a COVID test. Not even one time. Lucky. I did. Yeah. I heard they were awful and I decided that's not for me.

They're horrible. I had to get one when I went to travel. When I was traveling during it to Mexico, they made you do it in order to get out of the country.

You had to have a clean test from a certified person, so a couple of times I had to. I've not been out of the country since pre-COVID. So in the spring of 2020, I was supposed to go back to Cuba for my fifth consecutive year, but the trip obviously got canceled and as much as I've wanted to go back, just haven't had the opportunity. Now my husband and I are considering going to Cuba next year again because he's got connections there from his going back to speaking at youth conventions himself, different part of Cuba.

We've also got potential opportunities to go to, I think it's Czechoslovakia, some Eastern European places. But it depends, you know, just which ones work out as he's taking over his dad's ministry and his dad's 501c3. But also he needs to get his passport.

He doesn't have a passport and I'm going through a name change, so I have to get new documentation anyway. All right. On that note, there you need to ask me, Ask Amy Anything is coming up next.

So send your last minute questions to our show, Twitter at Amy after hours or look around. You can find cars like these on auto trader, new cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay no flying cars, but as soon as they get invented, they'll be on auto trader.

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This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Time to ask Amy anything, sort of. Hit me with your best shot, fire away.

Fire away baby, let's go. I know we did this last week as kind of getting back into the routine, back into the swing post honeymoon and just in general trying to find my footing again, but I feel much more prepared, ready, mentally, emotionally for this edition of Ask Amy Anything. Here on After Hours with Amy Lawrence, thank you as always for your questions to both our show Twitter and our Facebook page.

I often go back, in fact every week I go back and answer as many as I can if they require only a quick reply. I'm not writing you a novel. That's for another day. We're ready here? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to go back to the honeymoon in Hawaii here for a little start.

Okay. So Mike wants to know, do you understand now why folks claim they can't live in Hawaii because they would go stir crazy? No, I wasn't there long enough. We got to see pretty much everything we wanted to see on the big island. Maybe would have liked to explore via kayak or gone horseback riding, but for the most part we did everything we wanted to do other than eat a loco moco. And we were there for nine days and easily would have been happy to spend a couple more there. We didn't get to the other islands. We flew over them.

That was pretty much it. So I do feel like there's a lot more to see. However it is not easy to get there and maybe that's what he's talking about. It's a long flight. It's funny too because we sat next to a native Hawaiian on our short flight from Oahu to the big island when we got done in Waikiki. And we asked him where do Hawaiians go for vacation? You know what he said, Vegas. That's where many Hawaiians go to, or L.A., but a lot of them go to Vegas.

They like to gamble. It's a quick flight and the hotels offer all these deals. So we actually said among Hawaiians that's the most popular vacation destination. But no, I didn't feel stir crazy.

The reason we had to come home is because A, we ran out of money and B, we were going to get fat if we kept eating like that. Are there casinos in Hawaii? Did you see any? I did not see any casinos in Hawaii.

Interesting. Do you hike in Hawaii? Oh yeah, we did a ton of hiking. And Mike wants to know, when you go hiking, do you use a walking staff or walking sticks?

It depends upon the mountain. I did not take my, I wouldn't call them sticks, I would call them poles, hiking poles. The hiking poles that producer Jay gave me for my birthday in 2022, right, so they're orange, they're amazing. I did not take them all the way to Hawaii, but we did take our hiking boots. We did have backpacks for when we went on hikes.

For instance, the Captain Cook hike, which we started 1,400 feet above this bay. And we hiked down, it was hot, it was dusty, there were goats, there were wild boar. I mean it was exposed in the sun on the side of the mountain for a good portion of the hike. So walking back up, as you can imagine, we needed water, I mean it was a lot. But we were also carrying, we had water shoes and stuff just because we went into the water and went swimming. So we did take hiking equipment with us, but we did not take poles. I just didn't figure, we weren't gonna hike the two tallest peaks, which are 13,000 plus.

We drove Mauna Kea, so yeah, we didn't really need them for serious crazy hikes. You mentioned Captain Cook, so let's go to some food. Jenny says... Captain Cook to food, I don't get it.

Captain Cook as in, oh, aha, a little slow on the uptake game. So Jenny says, it's that time of year for barbecues and cookouts, is there a go-to recipe or food that you or Bob like to cook slash grill? Well Bob's the griller in the family and he is so good at it, he has a pellet grill, which I gotta say, as much as I love charcoal, pellet grill is delicious. And we just did burgers for Memorial Day, sadly it was raining in thunderstorms all afternoon so we couldn't do them on the grill, so we did them in the broiler. But I would say probably, if not steak, Bob has expensive taste, if not steak, which we do on anniversaries, oh and coming up, we're not that far away from our six month anniversary, believe it or not, plus Bob's birthday is next week. Anyway, if not steak, burgers are tremendous and he actually, he's a hunter and he's got some leftover venison, now most of it's gone. The first time he made venison burgers for me, I swooned.

I mean, after that, there was no doubt that I was going to marry him. The venison burgers are my favorite, but we did make regular ol' burger burgers, on Monday we had melted cheese, tomato, onion, and some bread and butter pickles on them, and ketchup. It was so good, so good. Next one's similar but a little different, Bob wants to know. Wait, Bob wants to know.

Different Bob. He says with summer approaching, what's a must have you must have at a cookout? Well I'm a big fan of burgers, as I mentioned, but I'm also a huge fan of chips. So if there could be some chips there, Jay and I are constantly eating chips, we love the saltiness, so I would say for sure, any kind of a tortilla chip, a hint of lime is my favorite, but also how about corn on the cob? It's almost grilling season for corn on the cob.

I actually did mention that to Bob, potentially for Memorial Day because we couldn't grill out, we didn't do it. But yeah, love, love, love to have corn on the cob, or also another one of my favorites that I take to parties in the summer, I have a brilliant recipe for a pasta salad. It's so good.

So yeah. Pasta salads are always a hit. Yes, and this one's special, it's a special pasta salad, it's delicious.

I've never not wooed people with my pasta salad. Todd wants to know, do you do milk then cereal or cereal then milk? I do cereal then milk. You got to put as much cereal as possible in the bowl and then put the milk in and just be careful that it doesn't overflow.

The problem is you put the milk in first and the cereal doesn't sink as quickly and then you have less room for cereal. It's very strategic. It's scientific. It's science, yeah.

Yeah, it is science for sure. Jim wants to know, do you like French toast? I love French toast. I love it, but I cannot tell you the last time I ate it. Yeah, it's not obviously super healthy. The bread just doused and soaked in egg and then it's so good, especially when you, yes, always when you have the pure maple syrup. But also sometimes you need the powdered sugar, you need the butter on top.

Yeah, right. So I haven't, it's a guilty pleasure. I could imagine getting it at a diner maybe after I run my next half marathon, but I haven't had French toast in years. Last one on food here, Brian wants to know who's your favorite TV chef to watch?

Well, that's a good question. I'm not big into watching TV chefs, but once we interviewed our friend Bobby Flay in Vegas, that was along with the Thunderbirds, probably my best and favorite interview. Now I've managed to catch a little Bobby Flay on, usually it's on playback or, you know, on YouTube or something, but he's, he's so great. He always wins. He always wins. I mean, he should always win.

If he doesn't win, there'd be a problem. Sorry, I was going to say it's after hours with Amy Lawrence, ask Amy anything, go! Daniel wants to know, have you ever played pickleball? I've not. I think it's a cheap knockoff of tennis, but at the same time, I do get why it's popular because you don't have to be a great athlete to play it. And I do applaud those people who play it. It can be a good exercise.

Any type of exercise you do is better than no exercise. So good for you. But yeah, I just, I don't know. It kind of feels like a weird combo of table tennis and actual tennis. I think it is. Yeah.

I think we'd be a good team. You think so? I really do. Okay.

I've never played it. Can we hit the ball directly at people? Absolutely.

I think that's the point. Smash it. Right.

Kind of like they do in table tennis. All right. I'm in then. There's something about a kitchen though, and you can't go in there.

That's all I know. A kitchen? Yeah. It's like, I don't know. Is there food in the kitchen?

If we're playing, there will be. That's true. Well then I guess count me in. Another Jim wants to know, have you ever been to Madame Tussaud's wax museum? Madame Tussaud's?

I have not. Is that it? Yeah. Madame Tussaud's.

I have heard it's great. It's just not really my kind of art. Yeah. Nah. That's not my thing. Kevin wants to know, how many MLB stadiums have you been to? Oh gosh. That's a good question.

Not enough. Let's see. Wrigley Field. Fenway Park. Both Yankee Stadiums. Both Met Stadiums. Most current one being Citi Field, but I went to Shea Stadium before Citi Field. My favorite park in the major is PNC.

Where else have I been? I've been to Cleveland. I've been to Minute Maid Park in Houston. Oh, I went to the old ballpark at Arlington in, well it's Arlington, but the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I've been to Camden Yards. I've been to different spring training stadiums. Those count.

Yeah, those count too. Oh, and I've been to, where do the Arizona Diamondbacks play? Chase Field? Chase Field? Yeah, I've been to Chase Field as well. I'm trying to think if I've been to any others.

Oh, I actually went to the south side of Chicago as well. U.S. Cellular? They change that every year. Yeah, it's not U.S. Cellular anymore.

Guaranteed rate it might be now. Okay, I'll remember if I've been to any others, but those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Yeah.

Thank you. Gary wants to know, what gas station do you normally go to? The cheapest.

That's a good answer. Valero though. There's a Valero slash Speedway near me. So yeah, it's probably the one I get to the most. And Matt wants to know, did you pass your driver's license exam on the first try?

Of course, of course. I actually ended up overturning. So like over, you know, you go past the turn and then you kind of turn back.

So yeah, I overturned on my driving test, but I did pass on the first try. David wants to know, have you ever attended any of your high school reunions? No. You know, every now and then I'll get Facebook messages from people that I graduated with. It's just not, it's not something I'm interested in. I have zero desire to go back and I don't know, reminisce about the good old days.

I just, it's not what I want to do. Half those people, it's funny, I see their names on social and I don't even remember them. That's right. You got to go say hi to them and remember them again. Okay. Mine got canceled.

So I went to my 10 year college reunion. That was plenty. I was good. That's good. Okay.

I'm going to fire here. Playlists or podcasts? Playlist right now.

Right now. Okay. Boiled eggs or fried eggs? Any kind of eggs, except for poached. I don't like poached, but I'll take any other kind of egg. Soft tacos or hard tacos? Soft. Movie date. Although recently Bob and I found jalapeno hard taco shells. They were so good. Keep an eye out for those.

Yeah. Movie date or dinner date? Dinner date. Handwritten or typed? Handwritten, cards. Art project or science project?

Science project. I was a nerd. Pigs or goats? Piggies.

I love piggies. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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