Waikiki > Maui

Spent the morning relaxing by the pool. Rather cloudy, but still nice out.

Checked out of the hotel and took my work suitcase over to my friend Ed’s hotel. He is staying at the Sheraton – where I will be checking in on Monday.

Tonight, I am meeting my parents at the airport and we are flying to Maui for the weekend. So I didn’t want to lug a suitcase will all my work clothes in it.

This way, I only had to take a bag for the weekend with my essentials.

In the late afternoon, I took a cab to the airport.

I waited for my parents and then we walked to the Hawaiian Airlines terminal to check in.

We tried to switch to an earlier flight, but there were not any seats. So we walked, what seemed like 10 miles to the SkyClub.

Got settled in with some snacks and drinks and then I said it was time to go.
Hustled to the gate and no one was there. Huh?

That’s when dad informed me that he and mom had no idea why we had left the SkyClub because our flight wasn’t for another 1.5 hours.

Damn it!

See, I don’t even change my watch when traveling. I keep it on Eastern time. Which at times (like now), tends to cause problems due to my math deficiency.

Since the SkyClub was so far away, we decided to just stay put.

The flight to Maui was only like 25 minutes. Landed, got our stuff and then I headed to National on the bus to pick up the rental car. Went back and picked up the parents.

Headed to the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort. It was night time, so it was hard to the view of the beach – but the resort itself was beautiful!

Got settled into our room and ordered a pizza. Ate and went to bed. Mom and dad had been up for 22 hours.

Oahu

Today I took a bus tour of almost the entire island. We didn’t go on the west coast of the island, however, I had already seen part of it earlier in the week when I stayed in Ko Alina.

One of the first stops was Hanauma Bay. It is a state park and nature preserve.

We did not go down to the beach, however, the view from up top was beautiful.

I definitely want to come back here to snorkel.






Our next stop was Halona Blow Hole.

The blowhole is a natural occurrence formed by molten lava tubes from volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. The lava tubes run to the ocean and, when the surf is right, the blowhole shoots water up to 30 feet in the air. The larger the waves, the larger the spray.












Situated to the right of the Halona Blowhole is the Halona Beach Cove, also known at the “Peering Place.” This small sandy beach at the cove is great for swimming when the surf is calm. The site is known for the famous love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the movie, From Here to Eternity

As we started our journey up the windward side of the island, we stopped at Pali Lookout. The lookout overlooks the 985-foot cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range. It is extremely windy. The trade winds blow through the valley between the high mountains on either side, forming a strong wind tunnel of sorts. On extra windy days, you can even lean into the wind and let the gusts hold you up.

The Byodo-In Temple was our next stop. It is located at the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains in Valley of the Temples Memorial Park. It was established on June 7, 1968, to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii. The temple is built entirely without nails. It is a scale replica of a temple in Uji, Japan, that was constructed over 950 years ago.

The Byodo-In Temple is a non-denominational Buddhist temple which welcomes people of all faiths to worship, meditate or simply appreciate its beauty.

The TV series Hawaii Five-O and Magnum, P.I. featured several episodes where the temple is incorporated into the plot. The temple and its gardens also appeared in an episode of the ABC series Lost, "House of the Rising Sun" in season one as the home of Sun's father.

Next we stopped at the Kualoa Ranch. Established in 1850, Kualoa is a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch, spread from the steep mountain cliffs to the sparkling sea. Located on the northeastern side of Oahu in the Hawaiian countryside. The ranch terrain varies from dense rainforest to broad open valleys and from beautiful white sand beaches to verdant cliff faces.

We went on a tram tour around part of the complex. You could spend days here. Lots of activities to enjoy.

Kualoa has been the site of many television shows and Hollywood films such as Jurassic Park, Windtalkers, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Tears of the Sun and 50 First Dates. TV shows including the old and new Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I. and LOST.

There was a great view of “The Chinaman’s Hat”.

Mokolii, also known among locals as Chinaman’s Hat because of its shape. Mokolii means “little lizard” in Hawaiian. It’s also called Chinaman’s Hat because of its cone shape, which resembles the peasant’s hat worn in rural China. Besides a few lonely palm trees and two small beaches, there isn’t anything else here.

Other views from Kualo….

Sunset Beach – the North Shore was our next stop.

As we continued our drive, you would see people diving off the tops of lava formations.
Eeek!

We headed to our final stop. The Dole Plantation. As we got closer, you started to see pineapples for acres and acres.

The Dole Plantation is your typical tourist stop.

Lots of crap to buy. I guess there is an actual tour you can go on – but that was not part of our tour.

I enjoyed walking around the garden.

There was this super cool tree…

I wish I could remember the name of it. It looks fake.

The pineapple ice cream is pretty good!

The drive back to Waikiki took quite a while because the traffic was rough.
I napped a little.

In the evening, I met up with my friend Ed and others from the office and tried to eat at Chuck’s Cellar – Ed’s favorite place. But the wait was too long. He eats there daily for the 2 weeks he is here every year so he knows the staff. They got us a table across the street at Chuck’s Steakhouse which is upstairs from Duke’s. The food was good and there was a nice view.

Whew! I am exhausted! Time for bed!!

Ko Olina > Waikiki, HI

Got up and enjoyed the view from my balcony.

Went for a nice walk around the cove. Had breakfast at one of the other hotels.

Sat in the sun for while.

Then walked around the parts of the resort I had not seen yet.

Am changing hotels today. Headed to the Embassy Suites Waikiki.

In retrospect, I should of gotten a car for this vacation portion of the trip. Even though I would have had to pay a ton in parking charges, it would have been cheaper than the cab ride from the airport to Ko Olina and the ride from Ko Olina to Waikiki! Oh well, live & learn.

My first impression of Waikiki is it reminds me of Vegas. Well – the fancy shops and tons of people part of it at least.

After arriving at my new hotel, I spent some time lounging at the pool. Had a mai tai (am taste testing them where ever I go!) and yet another grilled chicky with avocado sandwich. I just get over how awesome the avocado is here!

After some time in the sun, went for a walk to see what was around.

Watched the sun set and then decided to have dinner at Duke’s.

I went and visited my friend Ed, who is here working on the Sheraton Hula Bowl.  I met him when he worked on remote many years ago - but now he works in the programming department.  He plays a pretty major role in putting on the Hula Bowl - it was actually quite interesting to sit in the suites watching all the volunteers work on the gift packages for the players, coaches, etc.  Listening to the conversations of all the last minute issues....

Headed back to the hotel. I still needed to unpack and get organized. I also scheduled a tour for tomorrow. So I need to get to bed at a decent hour. I think I am almost used to the time zone difference.

Ko Olina, HI

I of course, woke up crazy early – 7a ET. I did ok making myself go back to sleep for a few more hours.

Went for a long walk around the 3 lagoons – beautiful morning!

I spent the day lounging by the pool.

I was going to go snorkel in the lagoon, however, I discovered that I remembered to get my mask from my parents house, but not my snorkel. Oh well. There likely isn’t much to see anyway since the lagoon is man made.

Mid day I decided to get a mai tai

Mmmm…









Had another grilled chicky sand with avocado for lunch.

I took an afternoon nap and then got ready for the Luau at Paradise Cove. It was a short walk from the hotel.

Upon arrival, there was a lot of confusion because I was alone. Apparently that is very rare. Everyone kept asking where my companion was. I had to keep explaining that I was traveling alone for work; hence me being alone.

I got the top of the line package for the full Luau experience!

I sat with various locals and watched them make gifts for me.

My lei and bracelet lei

Then they made a headpiece for me.

Since I didn’t have anyone to take a photo of me, I went into the bathroom. If I was not the CLASSIC tourist, I don’t know what is!

Next I had some tribal thing painted on my ankle

All I could think about was if the dude had on any underwear or not?






There were all sorts of demonstrations going on. I just kind of walked around and found a spot to take in the beauty.

The sun set soon after.

A guy ran up the tree for a coconut

Then there was this fish catching ceremony.

We then made our way over to the Imu. That’s where they cook the pig in the ground.

Numerous native traditions followed.

Most of my photos and video didn’t turn out very well because the area was not very well lit.

We went to the dining area and sat in our assigned seats. I was sitting across from a dreadful person. Her husband was in the Navy and overseas for the holidays. Her mother-in-law and brother-in-law were in town visiting. I feel so sorry for them. This woman did nothing but complain how horrible her life was without her husband. I wanted to scream – “He was in the Navy when you married him, what did you expect?!”

It’s just like the husbands and wives of fellow freelancers who one day flip out because their spouce is always gone. Really? He/She was a freelancer when you got married… did you really think they would be home more once you got married?

For the most part, I ignored everyone at the table. I had several mai tais in me and if I spoke, it probably wouldn’t of been nice.

I was only a few feet from the stage, so had a great view.

Dinner was served…

Ya… not eating ANY of that!

Endless entertainment.. almost too much.

Here are some of the highlights.

I somehow stumbled back to the hotel and made it safely to my room. Promptly ordered room service.

Sat on my balcony, ate, drank and thought about the last 24 hours… what a wonderful experience this has been so far!