Friday, August 15, 2008

Hot Lava

The plan called for a foos caravan to the volcaones national park. We hit the rental car shuttle early. We got our van and came back to pick up the others. Grumbo was our fearless leader, so we only got off track once.

We hit the visitors center and the steam vents before haeading to Jagger museum and the big show. From there the plan was to head down to the lava tube. Our car headed out first and somehow we lost the group. Jenn Jamie and were with us and we hiked a trail for some more views before meeting the rest of the group coming out of the lava tube. The plan was made to leave the park and head to a black sand beach. We hiked the tube (sort of a cave without rock formations) and headed to the beach. The drive to the beach was pretty. Sings warning of fault line, cracks in the road and tsaumi evacuation areas let us know we were not on the mainland.

We made it to the beach, didn't see our foolish freinds so decided to explore on our own. Note to others. . . don't take off your shoes and slocks to walk on a black sand beach at noon. That stuff is HOT!!!!
(running out of minutes so I will finish this saga later)

Aug 11 Molokine and 13 fools in an elevator

We have made a habit of having breakfast outside at the aloha grill. I like that they have an omlette station outside and you can't beat the view. Today's event was a snorkel at Molokini with Val, Joe Rachel and Leah. Since the was an NCLA excursion, the busses were ready and waiting. The ride to molokine was uneventfull. The snorkeling was amazing. There were anglefish the size of dinner places. There were also five boats just as crowded as ours. some folks had never been in the water and some really didn't want to be. Sort of like snorkeling in a parking lot.

The wind started coming up at the next stop "turtle town". For the first time in my life I was seasick. It was safer off the boat and in the water. I was rewarded by seeing a couple of turutles. BTW giner is a great seasickness cure, works almost immediately.

After the requist visit to the gift shoup we got back just in time for hula lessons. Val and I danced with Joe and Andy watched (sorry gang no U-tube for this one) forme there it was Kokio nut lei making class. I like free (or a ship that charges $12 for a martini). The hawaiian ambassdors are far and away the best part of the shipboard experience.

It was dress up or not night. We opted to dress and the two families had dinner together. Again OK service less than OK food.

After dinner Andy and I went to show. Six people singing Andrew Lloyd Weber songs with various degress of success. From there it was the not so newlywed game. Steve volunteered all his married friends. Jamie and Jenn were selected from the fools group. We now know alot more about them. So does the whole ship as the program was reboardcast all the next day on ship TV. We all piled into an elevator and headed to the coffe bar for more chat before calling it a night.

50 in the 50th

The plan for Maui caled for some time at the beach, som shopping at our favorite jewelery store and then up to Haleakela (10000 feeet) before returning the rental car. We rented from Alamo (never again) got the convertible and plugged in the GPS. We found Wailea and big beach without much problem (thanks Maui revealed) The beach was lovely and relatively empty with nice warm water. Form there we headed back toward Wailea and found the black sand less than 1/2 mile away from the first beach. There was a totaly different vibe here. On the road down to the beach hope said it reminded her of a disney ride and when would the dinosaurs start to pop out? The pbeach and it's patrons looked like a throwback to the late 60's, complete with van and tie dye. We didn't stay long.

We did stop @ the shops @ Vailea and I did find new peice of black coral to add to the collection. They celebrated by birthday with champange (or tried to get my drunk to buy more, I'll assume the former thanks). By now it was after lunch time and Hope needed to be fed. A cheesburger place whose name escaped me filled the bill.

It was now time to drive up the moutain. The Maui reavealed directions were dead on and we managed the switchbacks and enjoyued the views. The mist arrived shortly after with did. It was cool to see the clouds racing up over the maoutain. Very cool and very wet. We didi get some pictures of the sliversword plant and the native nene birds before heading back down.

There was some unpleasantness with getting back to the ship, but it was all sorted out. When we returned we found Jenn and Jamies and asked them to join us for dinner. The service was better than I anticipated, but the food and the cleanliness of the water galsses left soemthing to be desired. No worries about gaining weight on this cruise. The portions are tiney. Again antoher long day and we were off to bed directly after dinner.

Wild Side and Ship

Today was another early morning as we needed to be on the west side for our Dolphin excursion with Wild side tours. We opted for a small group (5 total) tour. Tori, oup captain asked what we wanted to see. Dolphins and turtles were high on the list.

Tori took us out and found a pod of spotted dophine. She told us we were going to play with them. She reved the engines and the dolphine has a great time playing in the boat's wake. We had a better time watching. She then took us closer to shore to see the spinner dolphins. We were told the rules of swimming with dolphin. Don't touch, splash or scream. Try to swim parallel. All of this is designed not to stress the animals. Once we spotted the pod, so did a bozo in a jet ski who dropped 3-4 people into the middle of the pod and another fully loaded tour boat. We decided this was more than enough for the poor creatures to deal with as there were several babies in the group. We opted not to add to the mix and headed up the beach to snorkel.

The snorkeling was very nice (and spoiled us for the rest of the week) We saw lots of fish, a large ray and a small turtle. After about 20 min. Tori called and told us to swim to the front of the baot. I guess the pod had had inough of the large crowd and were swimmin our way. All of a sudden, there were dlophine wverywhere, on either side and below us. Mom's and babies just slowly (for them) swimming along passing us like we were slow cars on a highway. You could hear them calling to each other. I did manage two pictures wheile kicking like mad to keep up. It was a magical unforgetable couple of minutes. Wild side fed us a great lunch and then it was on to a turtle cleaning station. This is where turtles come to be clean by small fish. Several kids that had come out on a kayak were trying to touch the turtle (not allowed by law) the turtle was acting stressed so we didn't stay long. Once we were docked we found a small bay with four turtles just hanging out so we got to see lots of interaction.

Returning the car to thrifty was quick and painless. The shuttle driver to the port, Michelle was a riot. I don't think I could be that upbeat 7 hours into my shift even with a bottle of Prozac.

We got to the port and here the comparions will begin for my foolish friends. First off, no porters. Haul your own bags to the inspection station. (hey saved the tip money) The check in line looked long, but moved quickly. You enter the ship throug deck 6. They hand you a glass of OJ or mimosa or champagne (nice touch) and then you notice the place is packed with people. Lines for dinner ressies, lines at guest service, lines at shore excursions. It felt cramped.

Since we already had lunch we hung out until our floor was called as bieng ready. When we got to the room we were surprised to see Hope's bed already pulled out. This did not leave much room for mivng around. Our luggage arrived in short order. I like the shelves int eh closet and the fact there are more outlets than I'm used to. I didn't like the bathroom, the shower is TINY, or the fact we found an unused 3cc syringe. This made be really think about those brown spots on the bathroom sink. Out came the disinfecting wipes and everything got wiped down. Once everything had a place it was time to greet friends and explore the ship. Denise made dinner ressies for all 31 of us at Lazy J steakhouse.

While the converstions was excellent, the meal uas less so. Missing appetizers, underdone potatoes and sides severed "family style" gave the impression they didn't want to be bothered with individual orders. It was also uncomfortable that it too 20-30 minutes to serve each course. Do you eat when the food is hot or wait till everyone is served and it's cold?

We went to bed almost directly after dinner. It had been a long day of wonderful experience and long overdue reunions.

Chief Stephan and Polyneisan Cultural Center (PCC)

After meet

Friday, August 8, 2008

8/7/08 A day of firsts

We took real advantage of still being on east coast time by getting up really early (5:00) so we could be at Diamondhead for the 6:00 opening time. Turns out most of the really early birds to hike Diamondhead are Japanese, three tour buses full. So up the volcano we hike with team Japan. They kept a good pace and we made it to the top just slightly out of breath. The view is amazing and the breeze refreshing. The downward trip was amazingly uncrowded. W finished up with Have Ice from the lunch cart in the parking lot. Yummy!!! We were all feeling better for having exercised so we decided to head to Hanamanu Bay for some snorkeling.

We were told the parking lot usually was filled and closed by 9AM. We were there a little after 8am. The spot is beautiful and impressive from the overlook where you pay and watch the environmental video. Unfortunately, I didn't precheck the equipment. My snorkel was malfunctioning badly. We did manage to see some fish before the snorkel quit completely. Since this part of the adventure didn't take as long as planned, we decided to hike to the waterfall @ManoaTrail.

This is a rainforest hike 2 miles round trip and was billed as an easy grade. The grade may be easy but the rainforest was. . .well a rainforest. Huge, green impressive vegation, also wet slick and muddy with mosquito's. We were prepped for the bugs so no problems there. The hike was not so bad on the was up. The falls, all 160 feet of it was very impressive and so worth the trip. The trip down however was a different story. We were covered in mudby the end. Hope slipped several times and was "Done with this". By now it was 1pm and hunger warred with the desire to get clean.

Clean won out and we headed back to the hotel for showers before getting lunch at the beach. Hope headed back to the room while Andy and I headed to the beach for seaglass collecting and the last new experience of the day, outrigger canoe riding.

If hiking taxed the lower body, rowing worked the upper. It was a real thrill to catch the wave and ride it in to shore. We got to do this twice. At $10 it was a great experience. I was very happy to be in the back. Just like banana boating, the people in front get SOAKED!

Soon it was time for dinner. I think we set the bar high last night. While we had a prime table at Duke's and one of my favorite German Rieslings, the atmosphere was loud and the service OK.

Random thoughts. One the mainland everything is in English/Spanish here it's English/Japanese.

It is very easy to ask people if the want you to take their picture together using sign language.

People here are really friendly even going so far as to give you printed directions to your next destination (the lunch wagon @ Diamondhead) or having you follow them to get you back on track when you get lost in Monoa


Tomorrow Meeting some Foolish friends for the Polynesian Culture Center

8/6/08 The longest day

We were up at5:30 to get to the aprot by 7:30 for the 8:30 flight to Dallas. On travel days I enjoy being so close to the airport.

The flight to Dallas was great, lots of leg room. We got to Dallas Early arriving on gate away from our departure gate. This gave up pleanty of time barbacue and sweet tea. The flight to Hawaii was cramped. Andy chnges seats so a family could sit together. This acto of kindness was returned quickly as the mom manged to reset Hope's nonfunctioning IPOD. As for American airline, no nickel and diming for soda or pillow and blankets. Thank goodness for small favors.

I am now a fan of the thrifty blue chip card. The rental bus was crowded and we moved right to the head of the line because of the sweet little card. A real blessing when all we wanted was to get to the hotel. Getting the GPS up and running was more challening than expected but we did eventually make in to the Hyatt Wakaki. I guess it was the priceline bid that got us a handicapped room with only a shower and no bath tub. I was more nervous when the clerk took my credit card and disappeared for a couple of minutes. Guess I'm still leery after having the number recently stolen. No big deal about the room we were too tired to care. A quick change of clothers then out to walk to dinner. We decided to see how the other half lives and chose House Without a Key at the Halekalane. Good food, Great service and wonderful location. They even recreated a Konk Coooler for Andy using his directions. We shopped aour way back to the hotel. I found a print at Wyland Gallery that will need to be seriously thought about. It's now 8pm here 2am back home. I am beat. We can hear the Hawaiian singer outside our room. Tororrow the exploration begins.

Random thoughts.

The airport here smells wonderful. It must be all the flowers from the lie the greeters are holding.

If you want to KNOW you are in hawaii, have dinner at House Without a Key. So relaxing with so much customer service. The setting, outside with a killer view of Diamondhead, the Hawaiian music trio and the hula dancer all let you know that you have arrived.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

We're on vacation

Work is done!!!!  My surgery center had a great cake and some flowers for me to celebrate my birthday early.  The travel channel was doing shows on hawaii this afternoon.  I can't wait to see all this natural beauty for myself.

At home, the washer decided to behave long enough to get all the clothes clean.  The part has been ordered and should arrive sometime while we are gone.  So all the packing is done and the cases weighed (I refuse to pay extra for an overweight bag).  We have lots of snack packed as the connection time may not allow time to get anything to eat between flights and I'm not paying $7.00 for some dried out airline sandwhich.

Andy, wonderful man that he is spent the day cleaning and running errands.  He also downloaded a new movie to my IPOD just in case they stop showing (or start charging) for inflight movies.  (start to notice a pattern here?)

The boarding passes are printed out, all the confirmations filed in the order they will be used.  The weather has been checked and a small umbrella added to suitcase.  So now all that remains is to try to get a good nights sleep before a long day of adventure

I will update when I find an internet cafe or once we are aboard the ship.

Monday, August 4, 2008

This should not be this hard

Ok, how many cruises have we been on?  Enough that packing should be a piece of cake.  Even with the new rules, it is just 10 days no big deal.  So why are the cases all open in the spare room with very few of Hope's clothes packed?  Could it be that the washing machine is only working when the spirit moves it or that with all the hours that she has been putting in there has been little time for anything else.  No matter, it either get packed by tomorrow night or she will be wearing lots of dirty clothes.

Now today I finally start paying attention to the weather and notice a tropical storm is heading to Texas.  Guess it's time to start paying attention to the geography of Texas and the storm track of Edurdo as we are flying through Dallas.

Do I sound like I need a vacation?