Nafplio, Greece
Flying from Chicago into Athens via Paris was a breeze. We were refreshed enough to make the 2 hour drive to the seaside town of Nafplio. We even arrived at the Victoria Hotel while it was still light out. The hotel staff recommended a great seaside restaurant where we got TONS of food and great service. The greek salad is the equivalent of 4 American side salads. We didn't know what to get but we ordered some deep fried side item with cheese and tomato and nuts inside. Our main courses were awesome...way too much food, but delicious and we got out of there for under $40 for both meals.
Day one in Greece, Sunday, we hiked up to Palamidi fortress via 1,000 steps (a calf-burner!) and drove out to the best preserved Greek Theater at Epinavros. It was a beautiful drive over smaller, windy roads for just 30 minutes to get there. Road signs were plentiful with every turn clearly marked in Greek and English.
Parking was easy at the site. The acoustics in the theatre were awesome; standing center stage my claps echoed like an odd raquetball shot. It started to pour rain, and then hail once we got into the small museum nearby.

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?)