Reflections of My Travel » 2005 Hawaii

Day 21 – Friday

arcanai — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 05:59:24 +0000

Three weeks, ten flights, and four islands later… I don’t really even know whether to count today as Friday. It doesn’t seem like Thursday ever really ended since we’ve pretty much been up since 0600 Thursday morning (Hawaiian time, of course). It was a long flight but much less exciting than the flight out. I suppose since I did sleep for about two hours after the movie on the first leg, that must have been when it became Friday. We arrived at the ATL airport right around 14:30 and then waited at the baggage claim for an hour and a half while they tried to find all of the luggage from Hawaii. Don’t ask me how that gets lost when we never changed planes but the people who just joined the flight in San Fran got their luggage just fine. We took the MARTA back to our car and then stopped to get some necessities on the way home. It was close to 20:00 when we finally made it to our house. LONG DAY. As for the trip, I think I can speak for both of us when I say it was a great time. We enjoyed everything we did, especially the snorkeling. All of the islands were beautiful and fairly unique. It was a wonderful trip. Even having to work wasn’t so bad since it allowed us to stay longer and see more. I do not think it is a place that I would want to stay much longer than we did. We are used to driving and seeing and I felt a little confined on islands that could be driven in their entirety in a day. We never really got bored but I could see it happening if we had stayed longer. I still stick by Alaska as my favorite place so far. Amusingly enough, the two biggest reasons I loved Alaska were the two most noticable things Hawaii lacked: vastness and wildlife. Most importantly though, we have now been to ALL FIFTY STATES!!!

Day 20 – Thursday

arcanai — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 06:59:39 +0000

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This morning we scrambled around to get packed so that we could check out of the hotel on time. We then made our way to Diamond Head, mistakenly thinking that it was something to see. By the time we had driven up into it and got to the parking booth, we had determined that it was nothing more than a big parking lot in the middle of the crater and just not worthwhile so we asked to turn around and they allowed us to do so. We then headed to Pearl Island where we spent the majority of the day touring the solemn area. When we got out to the Arizona, it felt a lot like our visit to Dachau. It was very sobering to be able to see the rusted hulk of the ship below us and know that there were so many men entombed there. I just wanted to cry thinking of them. And seeing the oil still bubbling up, big black bubbles continually coming up and spreading into colorful slicks at the surface. It was like the ship struggling to tell its mournful story. I had worn the lei that Randal won last night at the luau and i tossed it into the water with a prayer. After we saw all that we wanted to see at Pearl Harbor, we drove north again and stopped at the Audobon park for a few minutes and then drove back south. Since our flight leaves at 23:20 tonight, there was a lot of time to kill. We stopped at a movie theater and watched Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit. I greatly appreciate Wallace and Gromit – best claymation around. It also showed with the Madagascar Penguins Christmas Caper before it, which was quite a cute little short. Randal couldn’t stop laughing over it. After the movie, we found a WalMart and did our souvenir shopping for family. Having no where else to go and nothing else to do, we went to the airport and are waiting for our flight which leaves in another hour and a half.

Day 19 – Wednesday

arcanai — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 06:59:56 +0000

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This afternoon, we pretty much lounged until it was time to go down to catch the bus for Germaine’s Luau. I was a little afraid because all of the reviews that I had found for it online were either love or hate with no middle ground. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening. The bus ride was mildly entertaining, nothing special but nothing boring or upsetting either. The location was right on the beach (though they kept you roped off from the water; understandable for liability purposes with the bar being right there on the beach). It was a pretty night with Mars shining very brightly over the palm trees and water. We picked a table right up front, sitting on the ground. We then walked around a bit and then made our way to the pit to see the pork raised from the ground. I would say that this was the only real disappointment of the evening. I was expecting to see them unearth and unwrap a great big pig with an apple in its mouth. Instead, they brought up a huge pile of pulled pork with a bleached pig skull sitting atop the pile. It was a bit of a letdown. We then made our way back to the table and took our seats on the sandy bamboo mats while the stage show commenced. I enjoyed the costumes and the dances and the music, although it was clearly more of a “production” than the one we watched on Waikiki last night which seemed more genuine. They had three men get up on stage for a hula contest. I was very proud that my hubby was one of the men selected. He got all decked out in a grass skirt and coconuts and hula’d his heart out. And I’ll have you know that my very sexy and talented husband kicked those other two men’s butts! He won first place! I was so proud. He received a t-shirt, a poster, and an orchid lei which he presented to me with a little honihoni (kisses) when he got off stage. It is a beautiful lei, such a shame that it can’t be taken home. I think I’ll try to take one of the orchids off and press it into a book to smuggle back with me. Soon after his triumph, our section got called up to the buffet. I was amused at all of the cats skulking around the pig pit as we walked by. The meats were very good. They had the Kaluah Pig and some sort of beef as well. Both quite yummy. I did try the poi – you have to try the poi – and immediately removed it from my plate. Sometimes it’s just amazing how culturally different taste is. To them, poi is a staple; to everyone we spoke with who tried it – ick. But then, they also eat more Spam per capita than the rest of the states. All in all, I enjoyed the Luau. It’s something you have to do. When we got back on the bus, Randal was a celebrity. I’m so proud of my terrifically talented and brave husband!

Day 18 – Tuesday

arcanai — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 06:59:12 +0000

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Today was more or less a rest day. After work we napped a bit and then we walked around town and went down to Waikiki Beach for a bit. I managed to find two inches of beach where I could lay my towel down and lay in the sun for a few minutes. I hoped to try to get a little color on the front of me to even out with the lots of color on the back of me. I didn’t succeed very much. And I’ve still got the wonderful farmer’s tan sleeves from our rafting trip over Memorial Day weekend. I’ve determined I’m going to have those sleeves forever. Randal played in the waves a bit with his boogie board and gave his board to some kid when he was done. He layed with me for a few minutes but he’s not very good at being still for long so we soon got up and started walking around again. We got great seats for the little beach-front hula show. It was a terrific show. I think they did a great job and greatly appreciated that they do these free shows every night. It’s a wonderful thing for tourists to do. As we were leaving the beach, we managed to run into a very large Quizno’s cup who was kindly handing out coupons for free sandwhiches so that answered the “what’s for dinner” question. Gotta love it when that happens.

Day 17 – Monday

arcanai — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 06:59:04 +0000

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This morning we got to sleep in until 0300 since time changed back home but not here. It was nice to be able to get that extra hour of sleep but having to work until 1200 cut into my after-work, pre-play nap time. After working, we got our stuff together and headed for Hanauma Bay to snorkel. I was a little bit worried that it was going to be a disappointing tourist trap after paying and having to wait to watch a safety video before being allowed down to the bay. I was pleased to be wrong. The bay was beautiful. The snorkeling was terrific. It was a little shallow over the coral in places but still manageable and since it was so shallow, fish viewing was excellent. The waves were pretty mild. The only problem was that there was no sun out (a little rainy) so after about an hour and a half we had to get out and try to warm up a little because I had lost all feeling in my right thumb and pinky and left thumb. It was very painful and then there was just no feeling at all. Scary. When we got out, I was told my lips were quite blue. We got out and walked around (in the cold wind with no sun) for a half hour or so until I was able to get the feeling back. We then went in for another hour and a half or so (yes, the problem did repeat). When we got out again, they were closing the bay and calling for everyone to make their way out. On the way out, we finally saw some mongoose that were not trying to run and hide. We stopped to grab something to eat and thawed out while watching trick-or-treaters make their way around the shopping center.

Day 16 – Sunday

arcanai — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 06:59:21 +0000

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Another bright and early flight morning. This was our fourth flight to Oahu and we’re finally sticking around to see some of the island. Once we got our car, we headed straight up to the North Shore. It was very pretty and the waves were large at some of the beaches. We stopped for a while at Turtle Bay and watched the surfers there. We continued around the coast, stopping occasionally to watch the water and finally made our way down to Waikiki to check into our hotel. After troubleshooting some problems encountered while testing our internet connection, we walked down to Waikiki Beach. Let me begin by saying that I don’t really enjoy cities. At least not big cities with nothing but one-way streets and traffic and huge buildings. That’s all waikiki is. In no way is it Hawaii. I feel sorry for all the people who come to Hawaii and all they see is Waikiki. It’s basically a scaled-down Atlanta with a beach. And the beach itself is not a great one. It was small beach with huge crowds. Finding room to put a towel down would be a chore. I’m not saying that it’s not worth staying, but I certainly would not recommend centering a vacation around it. There are much prettier towns and much prettier beaches to visit on the four islands we’ve seen. Alright, enough preaching for now. Anyhow, we walked down to the beach and walked around a bit. We caught a little bit of a hula demonstration kind of show which was neat. Then we walked down to where they were having Sunset on the Beach. This is where they set up a huge movie screen right on the beach and play a movie on weekends. There were food booths and all that jazz too. We found a table at the pier and sat and watched about half of Ghostbusters before deciding that it was past our bedtime. Work comes early. Not as early as the last two weeks, but still early.

Day 15 – Saturday

arcanai — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 06:59:33 +0000

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THAT STUPID ROOSTER!!! (just for you, cousin). It was a less-than-restful night. The roosters around here were apparently never fully informed about their job description. They seem to be unaware that their job begins just before daylight and ends just after daylight. They crow all day and all night. And about an hour or so before daylight, one of them was kind enough to make his way over to the car, sit right next to the tire, and crow his flippin’head off. Ah, such fond memories. After getting up, we stopped by the KFC to take some pictures of the chickens walking around the KFC (freshest food on the island!). We then made our way to Poipu beach, which we had heard was the best snorkeling on Kauai. We got in the water and snorkeled around for maybe an hour before we agreed that it just was not good snorkeling. There were way too many waves and much too strong a current for it to be enjoyable. It was a continuous struggle just to keep from getting washed up on the corral that watching of fishes just wasn’t an option, let alone photographing them with which Randal grew very frustrated. When we got out of the water, we sat on the beach with the chickens watching surfers and drying out. Then we headed down the beach to the next bay over where there were lots of boogie boarders. Randal wanted to try the sport so he got out there and let the waves rough him up a bit. I think he about decided that he should start out on some smaller waves but it looked like he was having fun anyhow. He lost one of his fins but, luckily enough, the waves were so strong and constant that they would let it get sucked out and it kept beating at the shore until Randal was finally able to grab it. From there, we drove to our hotel and checked in before driving up the north coast for a while. We stopped at Opaekaa Falls along the way and then our GPS told us the way to another waterfall just slightly outside of Lihue. Wailua Falls was incredible. We got there just before dusk so we were very lucky to see it. The pics came out pretty decent but still just do not do it justice. When we got back to the hotel and got everything in the room to be organized and packed, we headed down to the jacuzzi for a little relaxation. We had a great time talking with the other people in there, especially another young couple from Holland. We enjoyed talking about our trip there and they talked about their trips here (the guy had already been to 42 states) and it was just really fun to compare cultural differences as seen from the travelers’ eye. We just got back to the room and Randal has us just about packed up. Time to catch a few hours of sleep.

Day 14 – Friday

arcanai — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 06:59:47 +0000

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We got up bright and early this morning to get to the airport for our flight to Kauai. When we got there and got our van, we immediately started driving up to Waimea Canyon. They call this the Grand Canyon of the Pacific and we were really excited about seeing it. It was every bit as pretty as they say. It was so green and the rocks were so red. Beautiful. And we saw more wildlife than we’ve seen on all the islands combine. By wildlife, I mean wild chickens. They were all over the place up there on top of the canyon! We drove along the canyon, pulling out at picturesque stops, and turned around once we had hit and walked around the Napali Coast a bit. I think I expected this Island to be fairly primitive since they say it is the least developed and visited of the islands. I was surprised to see that it seemed to have more and nicer towns and neighborhoods all around the coast than the other islands we’ve been to. For the most part, what little development there was on Maui was rundown and shackish. We had planned on hiking around in the canyon some but we were both a little zapped for energy so after spending the whole morning and part of the afternoon driving around and appreciating it, we went back down to the coast. We stopped at Spouting Horn Beach and watched a very nice blowhole for quite some time. It was really one of the better ones I’ve seen. or heard for that matter. And yes, there were chickens all over the beach. It makes sense, we had already been informed at the first of our trip that Kauai was the only island that the mongoose had not been introduced to so the bird population was much healthier there. I guess I just hadn’t expected the bird population to be so largely comprised of cluckers/crowers. They were everywhere and we had to watch for them when driving so as to not hit one crossing the street (why? to get to the beach, of course!). As evening approached we went back to town to get some dinner and to find a place to camp. We stopped at WalMart and there were chickens all over the parking lot. As Randal accidentally dropped some peanuts that had fallen down into one of our bags, they came flocking from all over. It was a little scary. We have found our camping spot and we are getting ready to watch another movie on our very nifty vehicle DVD player before we go to sleep.

Day 13 – Thursday

arcanai — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 06:59:10 +0000

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Today we confirmed that there’s really not much to see on the Big Island other than the live volcano and the trails in the park around it. We drove the north loop back around to Kona and then drove almost all the way back to Hilo on the Saddle Road, between the volcanos. We went up as far as the visitor’s center, where the pavement ends, on Mauna Kea but it was so cloudy it was not worth trying to get our minivan up the steep-grade, gravel road to the summit since they said there was next to no visibility up there either. We drove back down to Kona and decided to try something new to make our camping more interesting. Turns out our minivan had a DVD player so we ran into WalMart and bought a DVD. We need one of those in our XTerra. It was very neat to lay there watching a movie. And it was great surround sound, the whole van shook with bass when anything big happened. Made for a much more entertaining evening of camping (which usually consists of going straight to sleep).

Day 12 – Wednesday

arcanai — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 06:59:20 +0000

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Today was mostly a rest day. Since we are apparently on this side of the island during monsoon season and it’s just been endless rain, and we stayed up until after 2100 last night trying to get pics together, it was a good day for being lazy and napping after work. Later in the afternoon, after the sun decided to come out for a few minutes, we went to a couple of local beaches to walk around a bit (waves are just too choppy to snorkel on this side right now) and then grabbed some dinner and came back. Time for bed.