Last Days, February 19-20

On Tuesday, we slept in. I was awake at pre-dawn, however. When I looked outside I noticed the orange full moon setting on the water. I snapped some crummy pictures not worth posting and tried to get back to sleep. In part, I was trying to condition myself for re-entry to Ames.
We read, re-packed everything, and hung out most of the morning. After our final check out at the hotel we ventured up to Pearl Harbor and decided to take a tour of the Battleship Missouri. During the tour a woman behind me said, "Wow, look at those GUNS!" Of course I knew she was amazed at my manly physique...I wish.
We came back to Waikiki to have a nice last meal at Duke's. Traffic was CRAZY on the way there. It took us about an hour to travel the 10 miles from Pearl Harbor to mid-Waikiki. Once we found Duke's we started cruising off the main drag to find a parking spot for our Hyundai. I spotted one on my left and started a U-turn to get into it. At the same time I noticed a car backing up on another street about a block away who had just spotted the same parking spot. I jostled myself into the space as best I could to get out of the way of the car whose spot I had "stolen". As the "losing car" passed us, the passenger said loudly, "UNBELIEVABLE!" He didn't challenge us; after all, I saw the spot before they did and got there before they did, so I didn't feel too bad. I was thankful that we had lived in Chicago for 10 years. Chicago robbed me of my conscience when it comes to parking spots. It also reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George and another guy claimed the same parking stall. I watch too much Seinfeld.
We finally made it to the restaurant after walking through the crowds on the main drag. It was like a warm Saturday afternoon on Michigan Avenue in Chicago...unbelievably touristy and busy (yuck). We put our names in at Dukes and waited out on the beach watching a catamaran dock itself on the sandy beach to unload its tourists. We were worried that the little kids in the water would get run over. But it made it into shore just fine.
We were finally seated...but once we were inside at Duke's we had great service. I had the fish catch of the day and Sue had shrimp linguine. They had a great salad bar with those purple sweet rolls (Sue thinks they have taro in them??). After the main course we were tempted to go with the Hula pie for a 3rd time on the trip, but we shared a LUSCIOUS slice of Double Chocolate Fudge Cake.
We shopped for some last minute items at a ubiquitous ABC Store on the way back to the car (there are up to 2 or 3 ABC's on every block!!). On the way to the airport we stopped for gas and changed into our long jeans. My jeans were tight...BUMMER. We pulled out our coats for the trip home...UGH! A guy snapped our picture in front of Gate 11 at the Honolulu airport. Yes, those are our sad faces (see pic).
Wow, re-entry is kinda tough. I know I shouldn't complain, but living a life of no responsibility can be addictive.
I wrote some thoughts about our vacation on my blog here.
I'm trying to think of how I'll explain my tan when I get home.

On Oahu; February 17-18

Sunday, February 17:
We met the Dolphin Excursion rubber zodiac boat at 8am (see pic). About 20 of us boarded for a whale watch and a swim with the dolphins. Well, we got close to a pod of dolphins frolicking in the ocean. The captain was a little worried that we were in water too deep (safety issues with BIG fish) but he dropped us off the side of the pontoons anyway into the water to swim with them. No such luck. The water was super clear but by the time we got in the water the dolphins were already gone. We climbed the ladders back into the boat. By this time we heard some people yacking from seasickness (chips ahoy!). Glad we took our Dramamine!
So, we took off for a nice reef to the north and dropped in there to snorkel. The reef was pretty deep so we didn't really get too many close looks at fish, but it was fun flopping around in the ocean. We can only handle about 45 minutes in the water before it gets kinda chilly. The boat gathered us back up for a ride back to the harbor. But the captain got word from another boat of a whale spotting. We booked it south again with our double Yamaha 250cc engines. Because you can't approach, harass, impede, corral endangered species we had to pull up about 200 yards away from the whales. But we did get to see them blow and swim. There was a mom, dad and baby whale.
By the time we docked the boat, this one passenger looked AWFUL! He was so sick...I felt so bad for him. Been there, done that. Sorry to dwell on the sick guy but, really, the boat excursion was less than eventful. Advice: do whale watches in Maui...many more whales there.
Anyway, we checked out of the Ihilani resort's luxury (see pic) and headed for Diamond Head.
What can we say about Diamond Head? It's cool that we were in the crater of a volcano. The hike to the top was sweaty. We liked the cool breeze at the top and the view over Honolulu and the surrounding waterfront up and down the east coast was really pretty. I don't know, we so enjoyed the natural beauty of Kauai and now, all of a sudden, we're packed into Honolulu with one million people; traffic, noise, crowds of Japanese and Australian and mainland tourists. We're still trying to adjust.
After Diamond Head we took a short drive to Manoa Falls. We both waded in the pool but Sue went under the falls! (see video here).
We went to the hotel, grabbed a much needed shower and walked 2 blocks to Teddy's Bigger Burger. We had the 5 ounce Bigger Burger and fries. It hit the spot like a decorative lampshade (note the new class of bad metaphors: the abbreviated metaphor).
Monday, February 18:
We knew we needed to arrive early to get one of the few parking spots at Hanauma Bay. I'm so glad Hanauma Bay was our last snorkeling venture (see pic). We saved the best for last. The waters are calm and a bit warmer. The reef and beach are huge. The fish swarmed around us, sometimes within an arm's length. We even saw an eel squirm back into a little cave. Sue got spooked when she played 'chicken' with a big fish that was chased by another fish right toward our faces. We most enjoyed the cornet fish (both gray and orange ones), and the huge parrot fish. A huge swarm of convict tangs ATTACKED a head of coral. They were all over it so I scuba dove down about 10 feet to watch them up close. We laid out on the grass. Not a cloud in the sky. We were really reluctant to leave but we had to mark just one more thing off of our 'must-do' list.
We drove farther up the east coast and, even though the scenery improved with fewer houses, we were in a line of cars traveling on the two-lane road (yuk). We made it to the coast by the Mokulua Islands and found a kayak outfitter van near the beach. We bartered for a one-hour rental, hopped in the blue kayak and paddled off. After 100 yards on the river we had to portage over a sandbar to get to the ocean. No big deal. We paddled in rhythm out to Flat Island. If we had more time we could have made it to the Mokulua Islands. It was kind of a bummer we didn't make it but we were close. Once the sun went down over the mountains we packed up and headed up Highway 61 (Pali Highway). The mountains and coastline were awesome. We stopped briefly at the summit where, in the 19th century, the Hawaiian king's warriors forced 400 of the ruling Maui soldiers off the 2,000 foot cliffs. Holy drops, Batman!
We made it back to our hotel with the master-navigator showing me where to go. We grabbed a great BBQ salad from Wolfgang Puck's Express. Our FREE macadamia nut brittle ice cream was like soft ice cream, but it tasted soooo good. I'm so glad I'm a Marriott Platinum member! We also got a FREE upgrade to an ocean-view room.
Only 24 hours left in paradise. It's 76 here; minus 25 wind chill in Ames. How do you suggest we make the adjustment???

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, February 14-16, Oahu

It's been difficult finding the time to update our blog. We've been so busy rotating from front to back sunbathing, napping by the pool, and reading that we just haven't been able to fit in an update. Words like slug, beach-bum, worthless, and lazy good-for-nothings are the best descriptions of us these days.

On Thursday morning we drug ourselves out of bed and listened to another timeshare presentation at 8:30. This time we took the 15,000 Marriott points (at least a one-night stay somewhere in the future...yeehaw!). After the presentation we walked down to the harbor and marveled at the money sitting there in the boats and yachts. On our way back to the motel we saw a Monk Seal beached in one of the lagoons. The surf was rough and he just hung out sleeping on the beach most of the day. The environmental dudes came and put cones around him so he wouldn't be disturbed. (see pic)

The rest of the day we lounged on the beach! It was Valentine's day but we were so laid back that by the time we thought about going out to dinner every place was booked. We "celebrated" by hitting Pizza Hut, but Brent outdid himself and let us get the buffet. We came back and crashed...sunbathing is exhausting!

Friday was almost a ditto of the day before. Sunbathing, napping, reading, putting on sunscreen. Brent got pretty fried on his back. Life is so hard. We caught a hula show (see pic) at the poolside until sundown and then headed out to eat supper. We had dinner at L&L's Drive-In. Local Hawaiian fare with kahlua pork, rice, and mac salad. I've had enough of eating local...two many carbs for me, but Brent really likes the pork.

Today, Saturday, we felt guilty for beaching ourselves the past two days so we used the fitness center and worked off at least 100 calories! Since Brent is a platinum rewards member I took advantage of the complimentary relaxation lounge visit in the spa. Twice I sat for a very long time in the eucalyptus steam room and came out a wet noodle. What a spoiled brat I am! Brent read by the pool and then I came and joined him for the rest of the afternoon. We rotated and napped until we needed to get ready for our dinner reservation at Roy's restaurant. It was great food and we sat right beside the 18th hole at the golf course watching people struggling to make double bogies. The highlight of the dinner was the chocolate/fudge souffle with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. Yum! Then we walked back and walked on the beach and sat in the hammock listening to the ocean and watching the palm trees sway. It was exhausting!

Wednesday, February 13; Ihilani Resort, Oahu

We took a smooth morning flight to Honolulu from Kauai. After retrieving our turquoise compact Hyundai from Advantage we decided to hoof it up the coast to the J.R. Marriott Ihilani Resort. We had to wait to get checked into our room so we watched the huge 3 ft. wide eel in the private tropical lagoon, which was pretty incredible. After the room, and the view from the room, took our breath away we made it down to the pool and faux beach to read and splash in the hot tub (J.R. built his own 4 lagoons, complete with huge gold sand beaches). We signed up for yet another Marriott presentation to get the moolah; that's for tomorrow morning. We also decided to sign up for a discounted zodiac (rubber boat) whale/dolphin excursion for Sunday morning. We'll see how that goes!
Sue took a hot bath while I went up the highway to Safeway...of course I got lost trying to get out of this 'exclusive' gated area. I got garlic shrimp (for Sue) and garlic chicken (for me) at CocoMoco's (or something like that). Anyway, it was typical Hawaiian with side scoops of rice with mac salad (macaroni salad) and a slivers of cabbage.
We're just chilling tonight after a couple of calls from home.
Aloha!

Tuesday, February 12th; Last Day on Kauai

I sneaked out this morning while Sue was still asleep and drove a short way to a nearby coffeehouse (the Roll Nazi's competitor). The NICE lady at this place sold me 2 decafs and a cinnamon roll. Sue was awake by the time I returned and, yes, I shared the roll with her (I should have bought two, but they were pricey). We emailed and read. I had a great quiet time and did a short study on the 'ocean' in the Bible. Great stuff...you can read about it here.
Before lunch we headed to Hanalei Beach where we overheard a local rave about Pat's Taqueria. I had fantastic pork taco and Sue had a carne ansada taco. You can see her in the picture enjoying the hot guy...I mean the hot taco...I mean the food. The tacos were good but very small and we were still hungry.
We walked the pier and watched the surfers. The learners were near the beach. The experts were riding the big waves nearly a half mile out. Like the taco lady said, "It's big out there" (meaning, the waves are big). People just drive onto the beach and park at Hanalei. Kauai has grown on us. It's not overrun with resorts and development. The roads are crummy and narrow. Some of it is upscale and snappy but most of it is country and rural Oklahoma-ish. We're out in the sticks on the N. Shore. But the raw beauty is impressive.
We headed into Hanalei town a few blocks away. Most of the businesses are shacks and it's just a podunk town. One of the "shacks" is proudly run as a Bubba's Burgers outlet. The overworked staff of three sold us a Super Bubba Burger that we split, and an order of "Frings" (half fries and half onion rings). Sue ate the rings and I had the fries.
We set out for Kapa'a to return our wet suits at the dive shop. But on the way we stopped for a Pineapple Frosty at another shack by the highway, Banana Joe's. It was just okay.
We stopped at the Kilauea Lighthouse to enjoy the view from the point. Sue spotted a huge seal lying on the beach. It got drenched with a wave and decided to wrestle and bump its way through the reef and waves back to the sea. There is a bird sanctuary there with Frigatebirds, Red-footed Boobies, and Albatrosses. Some had 7 ft. wing spans! We could see for miles up and down the coast and back into the mountain range.
The Lighthouse park closed at 4pm so we continued down the coast to the Coconut Marketplace. The traffic was backed up so we thought we'd kill time at the shopping center. We bought some stuff as gifts and I finally got some flip flops. My old ones REEKED and we had to throw them away.
Next we moved on to Opaeka Falls. and enjoyed the view.
We're back at the Sundeck to do some final laundry, email, read, study up on Oahu, hang out and pack for our trip to Oahu in the morning. The flight leaves at 10:30am and I hope the traffic isn't bad earlier in the morning. It has been very congested the last two times we traveled from Kapa'a to Lihue.
As Sue said today, Kauai has grown on us. Like a piece of carpet covering the whole wide world (only my family appreciates bad metaphors).

Monday, February 11th at Ke'e Beach, Kauai

We had a late start today but we didn't have to drive very far to get to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach. That's where the trail head begins for a pretty tough 2 mile hike on the Kelalau Trail to Hanakapaia Beach. It took us about an hour and a half each way. It was a very rough trail (see video)on the famous Na Pali coast; mud, rocks, steep inclines and declines. But we made it! The beach itself was beautiful with the waves crashing in on the cliffs (see video). Very spectacular!
We ate supper and rested on Ke'e Beach. Then we walked south around the point to see the sunset. We sat alone on the boulders in a cove there and the waves were slamming into the face of the cliffs. Some of our pics at sunset look like we superimposed them onto a Hawaii postcard (see pic above). Really, we didn't!
Sue pretended she was on the Titanic (pic).
We were amazed at the power of the waves and the power of God. When waves rebounded from the cliffs they hit the incoming waves and it looked like they were dancing for joy before the Lord. At sunset I was reminded of a quote by Dean Johnson, "If there is no God, who do you thank for the sunset?"
Poetically deep thought: The volcanoes took away some of the ocean and the ocean is fighting to take it back. (isn't that really deep? gives you a chill, huh?)

Review...our first day in Kauai; Thursday, February 7-8

Okay, I left out a day or two in our travels; last Thursday and Friday.
Thursday, February 7th: We grabbed two quick flights to get to Kauai. Then we hoofed it over to Waimea Canyon. After the winding drive to the top we set out on foot for a 1 1/2 hour hike to the waterfalls. It was a beautiful hike; although a bit freaky. Once we arrived we were under-impressed by the smaller (20 ft.?) waterfall at the end of the left path. So we took the right path and sat at the foot of another small waterfall and peered over the edge into the pool of the larger waterfall (100 ft.?). We found out later that we were at the top of an 800 ft., two-tiered waterfall! ho chi min!!! On the way out we saw a grandma trying to hike in with flip-flops...good luck, grams. The drive out via Waimea Canyon Road was just as spectacular as the rest of the views.
We were hungry, again, and walked in to Brennecke's Beach Broiler with no reservation and they led us to a beach front table to watch the sunset in Poipu. We hadn't heard from Ray, the vacation rental owner, so we didn't have directions to our place on the N. Shore. Our calls didn't reach him so we emailed him. fortunately he was online so he emailed us right back and then phoned us from another line. Connected...Schwing!
We stopped by WallyWorld to get some lunch items and arrived safe and sound at our jungle lair. We parked under the complex (every place is on stilts here) that just got flooded from the river the weekend before. The river is only about 30 ft. from our window and is gurgling as I write this. We lugged our stuff up two flights of stairs under construction. We are definitely in the middle of the jungle!
Friday, February 8: We were pretty tired so we decided to cruise to Hanalei and we grabbed a coffee and emailed. The nasty lady at the coffee shop accused me of touching her cinnamon rolls (all I did was move the pan so I could see the price; you know me, I can't resist cinnamon rolls!). HEALTH CODE VIOLATION! I apologized, figuring that kindness might help a California-esque 60's-wanna-be. By the way, the people here (west coast "imports"; not the native Hawaiians) are generally nasty. We left the coffee shop, before we got booted out for some other infraction. She earned the title of "Roll Nazi".
We needed wet suits so we drove along the coastline to Kapa'a to the dive shop. Now, this owner (another "import") was a really nice guy. He was retired from corporate America and owns a diving company. We hung out on the beach, called home, watched the surfers, and ate at Mermaids at Kapa'a. I had a salmon spinach wrap and Sue had a chicken wrap. We couldn't eat all of it. We drove up to Hanalei and bought some coffee at the organic food store (Sherri would be proud!). We re-traced our path back through multiple one-lane bridges to our digs in the jungle by the river. Sue did a good job of keeping me awake.

A Review of our Hawaii Vacation Till Now; February 5-6, 2008

Tuesday, February 5th: Sorry if this blog sounds like we only ate our way through Hawaii...but here's a culinary highlight; Mama's Fish House in Paia. After watching the morning surfers at Hookapi beach we got our beach-side window seat at Mama's. We had tomato bisque, Polynesian beef in a papaya shell (see pic), chilled cucumber mint soup, mahi mahi stuffed with crab and lobster, banana macademia nut cobbler, and chocolate mousse pie on an Oreo caramel crust. Back at the hotel we hit the hot tub and wandered (sneaked) over to the Grand Wailea Resort (unbelievable extravagance/decadence) for a late night stroll.
Wednesday, February 6th: We snorkeled Makena Landing again. Gorgeous fish and more turtles. In the afternoon we hung out at the pool and hot tub. We grabbed some more food at Da Kitchen and chased it down with macadamia nut ice cream.

A Review of our Hawaii Vacation Till Now; February 3-4, 2008

Sunday, February 3rd: We snorkeled at Ulua beach near the Marriott. Then we came back to watch the Super Bowl...yeah Giants! After the game we drove into Kihei to eat at Da Kitchen. We walked back through Kihei park and listened to a makeshift percussion band with djembes. Then we checked out the Shops at Wailea and talked to the guy at the Dive Shop.
Monday, February 4th: We snorkeled the Kihei boat ramp and Makena Landing (see pic above). Great Turtle spot! In the afternoon we drove to Haleakali Crater (see pic above), watched the sunset and hit Casanova's Italian Restaurant in Wakao for a pepperoni and mushroom pizza and an awesome salad. So Goood!

A Review of our Hawaii Vacation Till Now; February 1-2, 2008

I finally got enough time to create this blog for our travels in the past couple of days. I don't know how to post-date entries so I'll just bunch up a bunch of stuff in one post (bad form, I know). Here are a bunch of adventures from our first week in Hawaii.
Thursday, January 31: Big travel day to Maui. Loved our digs at the Waimea Marriott (see pic above).
Friday, February 1: Headed up to Lahaina. Enjoyed pork quesadillas at Pacific'O restaurant overlooking the ocean. We walked the town and snapped some awesome pictures of the huge banyan tree and of other ships in the harbor (see pic at the heading of this blog). The Augustines recommended the pork fajitas and Hula pie at Kimo's. So we watched whales while we ate this huge slice of macademia nut ice cream on an Oreo crust topped with hot fudge, macadamia nuts, and whipped cream. HEAVEN!!! This alone was worth the trip!
Saturday, February 2: I met the Scuba Shack dive boat at Kihei boat ramp. I got a bit nervous when they said that we would be diving the back face of Molokini Crater. Fortunately, the seas were too rough for that dive. Instead, we dropped in on the leeward side inside the crater at 60 ft. depth and worked our way around the W. point to the back side. We saw green eels, a leaf scorpion, and we listened to the whales calling. We went over to Red Hill for our second dive and saw a Milletseed Butterfly fish, Moorish Idols, and a Psychedelic fish.
After my dive we rushed to Ka'anapali for a Marriott timeshare presentation. We pocketed the $100 gift certificate. Then we went for an easy, winding drive on Kahekilli highway around the N. side of Maui. We saw the surfers at Honokohau Bay.
Around the east side we snapped some pictures of an old church sandwiched in the gorgeous seaside valley town (see pic above) of Kahakuloa where we stopped for a loaf of banana bread.
We made it back to civilization at Kahului where we ate fast food at the mall and watched 27 Dresses. One full day!

Zip Line Video

I figured out how to upload a really bad video of our zip line adventure here.

Sunday in Kauai; February 10, 2008

We made the hour drive to Ohana Christian Fellowship. It's a Free Chuch that meets at the Kapa'a Middle School. Pastor Matt Victor planted the church about 9 years ago. The worship included a ukulele and one song with hula dancers! Whoa! But no bellies were showing. We stayed for the meal they laid out for everyone. Great home-cooked Hawaiian food...yummm.
After lunch we drove back up to West Anini Beach. We didn't get a chance to snorkel there the other day. The current was really strong and it took a lot of work to get around but we did see some fish including a spotted puffer, but not nearly as many as at Poipu beach. After hanging out with a mother green turtle and her baby we booked it back to shore. The waves crash on the reef at W. Anini about 200 yards from shore. The beach itself is about a quarter mile long.
Sue has wanted to boogie board since we've been here so we took off for East Anini Beach. A bunch of surfers were at the west end of the beach but there were at least 4 foot waves where we were at. A huge cruise ship was slowly steaming by.
Get this, while I was floating around I saw a girl paddle by on a surfboard with platinum blond hair. Then I noticed that it was Bethany Hamilton! I said, "Are you Bethany?" She said, "Yes." I said, "Our youth group saw your video and it was an inspiration to them." She said, "Thanks." I said, "I know you're busy, so I'll let you go." She said, "Oh, that's alright." And I paddled off so I wouldn't get smacked by a surfboard or be accused of being a Christian paparazzi.
From there we tried to make it to the lighthouse but the road was already closed.
We decided to have a picnic supper at Hanalei Beach...kinda chilly since the sun was already setting. I called Jeff and he said it is -9 degrees in Ames (-30 wind chill). Considering wind chill, I figure that we're enjoying temperature that is 100 degrees warmer than Ames!

Saturday, February 9; Zip Line Through the Kauai Forests

We slept in today and grabbed some breakfast and devotions in our Tree Top Studio at Aloha Honeymoon Getaway, (note to newlyweds...don't stay here unless camping out is your idea of a great honeymoon). Ray, the property owner, graciously let us borrow some body surf boards and off we went. Traffic was crazy-buzy and it took us about 2 hours to arrive at the Zip Line place. Of course, e just HAD to stop for a world-famous Banana Joe's Smoothie. It was really good, but I want to try their Pineapple Frosty sometime.
Sue lined up a Zip Line adventure through Just Live. I decided that we should experience this together for future laughs. I thought we were going to zip across 2,000 ft. ravines (that was the other zip line company, thank the LORD!). Instead we ended up doing a type of ropes course only 60 feet above the ground, which simply means that you have less time to think about dying on the way down. We went on this adventure with two 6o year old couples. One gal was totally freaked out and kept talking about dying. Very soothing.
We traversed two ropes bridges and did about 8 zips in all.
Sue was the pro on this one by performing various aerial feats like, "look mom, no hands!" and, "hey look, I'm running in mid air!" and, "gee, if I lean back really far then all of my body is suspended over the abyss!"
So, after the activity at the devil's playground, we hoofed it over to Poipu Beach. We snorkeled and grabbed some sun. Gorgeous, multi-colored fish drifting all around us. An incredible worship experience!
On the way back "home" we hit a cheap but reliable meal at Mickey D's. Then we snuck up to catch the 7pm showing of Fools Gold. Typical chick flick, but a fun story.

Feb. 1, 2008, Lahaina, HI

We arrived in Maui late Thursday, Feb. 1st. On Friday we drove up the coast to Lahaina. We were on a hunt for Kimo's restaurant and their highly recommended pork fajita's and Hula pie for dessert (macademia nut ice cream on an Oreo crust covered with oozing chocolate, nuts, and topped with whipped cream). Ymmm!
After that indulgence we walked Lahaina town down to the town square and the main dock. Sue took some pics of the Ginormous banyan tree. We enjoyed the ambiance of the town with its art stores and shops. We even met some artists! There was some kind of Navy cruiser anchored off the coast between us and Lanai. We headed back to our hotel in Wailea (the Marriott).