Mele Kalikimaka!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Sure would love to be back in Hawaii, but at least the weather here in Detroit is ok.

All things must eventually end

I'm several days late with my final wrapup of my trip, but it's taken a bit to get readjusted back to my normal schedule.

So, anyways, Tuesday, we checked out of the hotel, returned the rental car and flew to Oahu, where my Uncle Ken picked us up and took us to my Uncle Kiyo's place. We hung around there for bit, and then we went to dinner at Gyotaku, a Japanese restaurant that was really good. After dinner we stopped at a few stores, and my uncle sent me home with a few things for my parents. We got back to the airport, checked in, and went to have a drink in the airport bar. I was wearing my SubyDude t-shirt, and one of the bar patrons who had been talking to Jenn noticed my shirt, and then we started talking about Subarus. We then made our way to our plane.

I was crammed in the middle seat, so Jenn could have the window for one last look at Hawaii. I could not sleep very well for most of that flight as I was feeling very claustrophobic.

We got to our layover destination (Phoenix) at about 7:45 in the morning. I had to get a seat assignment for the flight back to Detroit. We waited for Pizza Hut to open so we could get some food for the next flight. At least on that flight I had an exit row seat, so it had a bit more room. The inflight movie was The Breakup, which was alright.

Because we flew America West, we arrived in the junky old Smith terminal at DTW. We got our bags, and Jenn discovered she'd had a minor shampoo/conditioner explosion in her bag. My mom arrived and we drove to Jenn's dropped her off, and I finally was home after that. Skippy was very happy to see me. I was just happy to be home.

Thus ends my trip to Hawaii.

I think that as I get to it, I'll post additional annotated pictures, and maybe a few more stories.

No Celebrity Endorsement Implied

While in Hawaii, Jenn and I have had a couple of minor celebrity encounters. The first was in the Honolulu airport when Jenn saw Dog the Bounty Hunters son or cousin or something, but apparently he's on the TV show.

The second was at the Tradewinds here in Kauai, where we were at the bar with Jean-Claude Van Damme's nephew. The guy really looked quite a bit like Jean-Claude. Kind of funny.

The third was arguably the most famous, at least here in the islands. We went to dinner at this Japanese restaurant and seated at the table next to us was Laird Hamilton, famous surfer. He even has an American Express commercial. And I didn't realize it at the time, but his wife with him at the restaurant is Gabrielle Reese, which makes sense as I noticed she was rather tall.

Much better than any of the minor celebrity sightings I've had in Detroit. I'm looking at you, Dave Coulier.

Airplanes and automobiles and earthquakes

Friday was another travel day. We went snorkeling on the beach across from our condo, although Jenn got tossed around a bit by the surf and didn’t swim out to where the coral reef was. That was too bad, because I saw another sea turtle and a bunch of fish, even though the visibility was not the best..

After snorkeling we went out to see about shipping Jenn’s orchids. I also returned my snorkel gear. We stopped by a shipping store, but they were pretty clueless about what needed to be done for shipping the orchids. We also stopped by the post office where we found a phone number for the USDA and Jenn found out that she could have the plants inspected at the airport for shipment back to the mainland.

I guess let me explain a bit, Hawaii is quarantined for most plant life, meaning you can’t bring in fresh fruits or vegetables, and any plants or fruit and vegetables leaving Hawaii have to be inspected and certified for export.

We get back to the condo , finish packing, and Jenn gets her orchids ready to ship. We headed to the airport, at which point I realize we are running a bit late. I had to stop to fill up the tank and drop off the rental car. By the time I got back from the rental car return, it was already too late to make our flight, but the lady at the airline waived the fee to move us to the next later flight.

When we got to Kauai, we tried to find the post office, but got a bit lost, and eventually found a UPS store, where Jenn was able to find a box for the orchids and we went back to the airport where the USDA inspection station was, and Jenn was able to get her orchids certified for export.

Saturday was arguably the worst weather we’ve had on this trip. It rained all day. We did go shopping though, and hit the Kauai fair. I got a few presents for people. We also shopped a bit in the Coconut Marketplace, which is adjacent to our hotel.

We have gone out the previous two nights to Tradewinds, which is a bar in the Coconut Marketplace, within easy walking distance. We’ve met some interesting people there. And Some of them, courtesy of Jenn, have bought our drinks. Keoki, who we met Friday, chatted up Jenn, my “cousin”, and payed off Jenn’s tab, which included my drinks. Jenn also met Jeremy, who seems like a nice guy.

I've got a few words to say about our rental car here on Kauai. It kind of sucks. It's a Chevy HHR, and between that and a Cobalt, I guess it's the better choice. Not much better, but the one we have is kind of beat on already. When I did the walkaround to document the damage, there were a lot of dings and scratches. Plus it has kind of a funky scent inside. It's been a bit better since we were driving around today with the windows down. On the plus side, it was a AUX jack for my iPod and a sunroof. Still doens't handle like my Suby though.

Anyways, on to today's events... we drove up to Waimea Canyon. On the way there we stopped at Wailua Falls, which were really flowing because of all the rain we had yesterday. Very cool, and apparently these are the falls from the title sequence of Fantasy Island. After the falls, we drove to Waimea, stopping to take pictures of a Chinese temple and also stoping for lunch at Barefoot Burger.

Following lunch, we drove up the canyon to several lookouts. It was still rather misty so the pictures I took weren't that great, and can't really convey how majestic and "grand" the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" is. It's beautiful. On our way back down we started to get a bit better weather and were treated to a nice view of Niihau, an island populated almost entirely by native Hawaiians, and where they make shell leis that are classified as gems.

We also stopped at the Kauai Coffee Company plantation. We bought some coffee and walked around a bit. Jenn had to lend me some money, as I am running short on cash.

This brings me to the earthquake situation.

1. The earthquake hit off the coast of Hawaii, the big island.
2. Oahu and consequently Honolulu, home of most Hawaiian banking, is without power.
3. Power should be back at least partially to Oahu, allowing full service of the airport.
4. Because most banks around here are based in Oahu, as are many of the credit card services, even though we have power here, I can't go to the ATM or charge things at many stores.
5. Luckily the earthquake was not volcano originated nor was it strong enough to cause a Tsunami.

So, we are safe, have power and should be able to fly home reasonably on time. Damn. About the flying home. Not the safe part.

We also went to Po'Ipu Beach and swam for a bit, and caught a nice sunset.

Tomorrow, Jenn's going scuba diving. She has to be at the place at like 6:30, so, she's already in bed. I on the hand, decided to stay up a little longer to work on this update.

BTW, a thorough photo tour will be posted when I get home, because it's too hard to try to get everything all organized and labeled on this computer.

Really, I think Jenn and I will have a lot of stories to tell when we get home. It's been really awesome so far, and I'm not looking forward to going back to work and the cold weather.

Maui Wow-wee!

Trying to remember what we've been up to. Ok, I think I got it.

Tuesday, we went to the 'Iao Valley and saw the 'Iao Needle.

Then we drove into Lahaina (which is an old whaling town and port) and walked around. Lahaina was were my family stayed when we came to Hawaii the last time.

Mostly there is a lot of shopping there. I bought a new ring, which is "Hawaii Heirloom Style", whatever that means. I just think it looks nice. Jenn bought some stuff too.

Wednesday (Jenn's birthday) I rented snorkel gear and we went down to Makena and snorkled there. It was really nice, we saw tons of fish and to our surprise, a sea turtle. In fact Jenn and I both nearly ran into it trying to manuever around so she could get a picture. The ocean started getting a bit rough so we decided to head in.

We stopped for ice cream in Wailea, and I sent annoying text messages to Beckie about how the the weather was perfect because it had sprinkled for 2 minutes.

For dinner, we met up with Great-Uncle Tom and Great-Uncle Harry at this Japanese restaurant, Toyko Tei, which apparently owned by relatives, though I'm not sure how closely related. The food was very good.

After dinner we went back to Uncle Tom's house and we talked and he showed us his orchid farm/patch. Jenn was quite impressed by the number and size of the orchid plants. Uncle Tom let her have four plants, which she's trying to figure out how to ship back to the Mainland. Uncle Tom also told us a bunch of stories about my great-grandfather and old Hawaiians and island legends. It was very interesting.

Yesterday (Thursday), we undertook the Road to Hana. It was quite an adventure. The scenery is beautiful, and we stopped to take dozens of photos of just about every waterfall we came to. One of the waterfalls we had to climb over a bunch of rocks and up a slippery rock wall and it was kind of dangerous, but well worth it for the pictures. We also took a swim in Ching's Pond, walked on a black sand beach, walked in a lava tube, and I dipped my feet in the famous Seven Sacred Pools. After the Seven Sacred Pools we continued on around the backside of Maui, the part where rental cars are not supposed to go (shh!) and really it wasn't that bad. Still very beautiful, but in a different way.

Now when we got back, I had a bit of scare. When I plugged in my camera to offload my pictures, they were gone! Ahh! Thankfully I was able to download a program that was able to recover them. I still need to go back through and figure out what's there and then upload them to Flickr. But they are all there. Whew.

Today we're going to Kauai. Got to pack everything up and check out in a bit. Later.

On top of the world

Jenn and I on top of the volcano
Originally uploaded by M Kawamoto.

Yay! I got a cord to connect my camera to the computer, so I was finally able to upload photos.

This picture is of Jenn and I when we got to the summit of Haleakala. lt was a bit chilly up there. So, check out the rest of the photos.

More adventures with Uncle Ken and on to Maui

Sorry, I've been a little behind here, still haven't found a cord to import the pictures into my computer.

So, anyways, after I posted last time, I put away the computer and continued drinking in the hotel bar. I don't think I mentioned that I had been drinking while blogging, but I had, and Jenn and I just continued drinking.

I had a drink called a "Poi Pounder" which is really just guava juice and rum, but it's tasty.

I was also drinking Tanqueray and tonics (the bar didn't have Sapphire) and by the last drink I was pretty drunk. I told jenn I couldn't taste the gin. She took a sip and said it was like a forest of pine trees in her mouth.

At this point the bartender, Wade, asked if there was something wrong with the drink. I assured him that the problem lay solely with me.

Jenn also had a variety of tropical drinks, which she says she doesn't normally drink, that's why I had to take a picture of said drinks.

This is the "Lava Flow"

This is Jenn with a "Banana Cream" which is an alchoholic smoothie.

This is Wade, our excellent bartender.

The next day (Saturday) my Uncle Ken again toured us about the island. We went around Diamond Head and continued along the coast to Hanauma Bay where we took many photos.

We stopped at the Halona Blowhole and while the blowhole was not as spectacular as supposedly it could be, I still got a few good shots.

Uncle Ken wanted to stop for a swim, so he did a bit of body surfing while Jenn and I stuck our feet in the water.

After that we continued around to the windward coast and stopped for plate lunch at Keneke's in Waimanalo. Then we took Interstate H3 back to the Honolulu side and went to see if Great Uncle Kazu was home.

He wasn't, so we head up to A'iea Heights to see if Great Uncle Kiyo was home. He wasn't either so we headed up to Kea'iwa Heiau State Rec Area where we went for a hike on the trail there. We didn't know exactly how long the trail was, but we headed out, Jenn and I not very well prepared to hike, as I was wearing my Crocs, and Jenn, her leather sandals. The hike did afford us some awesome views, and picture opportunities, and even some birdwatching.

We got to about the halfway point, ran across a couple hiking the opposite direction on the loop, who asked us how far it was. We said about 2 mile, they said it was roughly the same from where they had started. I had an ominous feeling when I realized how much of the second half of the hike was downhill. I knew we'd have to go back uphill to regain some of the altitude we'd lost. We did eventually end up at the bottom of the valley and had to climb back up to the trailhead. We were very sore after that.

Coming back down the mountain, we stopped for a drink. Jenn got an Arizona Iced Tea Green Energy Drink which she made me take a picture of as it's unusual.


We then stopped back by Great Uncle Kazu's house. He was home along with Cousin Glenn. We talked and they fed us. I had to give Uncle Kazu my dad's email. Uncle Ken dropped us off back at the hotel after that.

We stopped for a drink at the hotel bar and then went to the Sheraton Moana Surfrider to the Beach Bar for a drink as that's where John and Jason from the other night work. We got drinks underneath the banyan tree and eventually moved to the bar where John gave us another drink on the house which makes up for the fact that the 3 previous drinks cost $25. Well, our previous drinks were pretty strong, but the last one from John was really strong. It was GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN! and tonic. Like four molecules of tonic. It was a very drunken walk back to the hotel.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my birthday. It was also one our interisland travel days. Uncle Ken picked us up from the hotel after we checked out, and we stopped by this store, Don Quijote, which is full of everything from food to electronics and clothing and anything else. It's the sort of store Dad loves, but Mom hates.

Then we walked through the Ala Moana Center which is a cool open air mall that has fish ponds down the middle. Then we headed out to a swap meet at Aloha Stadium. There were many deals to be had. I bought some car decals, another Aloha shirt, some board shorts, a beach towel and also car seat covers for the Saturn.

We got dropped off at the airport, had some lunch, and flew here to Maui. We got shuttled to the rental car place, and waited for a while for our car. We were supposed to have a Tore-ass, but the one they were going to give us was all dented up. Instead we got a Grand Prix. It's a better choice.

We drove down here to our condo, got to the office just in time to check in and then went for a swim in the ocean at the beach across the street from the condo complex. It was excellent. Then we went for dinner at Sansei, which is a very nice Fusion Cuisine restaurant. I had a grilled ahi, which was really good.

Today, we drove up Haleakala. It was really spectacular at the top. On the way up we stopped for lunch at the Kula Market, and while eating there was a lady giving a job interview, and she was like, really, like, new-agey. It was kind of funny. Anyways, we made it to the summit, and took lots of pictures, which eventually people will see.

It's hard to describe what it's like at the top of Haleakala, but it's almost like a different world. It's surprisingly cold, but it's 10,000 feet up, so that's part of it. There's just so little vegetation or any other life, other than the tourists. Very starkly beautiful though.

We came back down the mountain, had some dinner at Maui Tacos, shopped a bit, and went swimming in the pool, and now I'm just finishing up this post on an unguarded wi-fi router. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll figure out something.

Aloha.

King "Qwong" and Uncle Ken

Firstly, sorry I don't have any pictures to show yet, but I forgot the cord for my camera. It's one of those laws of travel, that you'll forget something that's useful and causes enough trouble that you end up buying one on the trip.

Anyways, it's now late Friday, (~10pm local time), just got back from a very cool day. But first I should recap Thursday.

After Jenn woke up and we got rolling, we went and had lunch at Da Big Kahuna and I had Da Big Kahuna Burger, which was much like the Big Kahuna Burger from Pulp Fiction. Very tasty.

Then Jenn and I wandered up and down Waikiki beach, which took us from Diamond Head all the way to the marina. I ended up with blisters on my feet. We then went swimming in the pool at the hotel and headed to dinner after that.

We went to dinner at this place that server Okonomiyaki which is sort of a thick pancake with scallions and assorted meats in the middle covered in a special sauce. I somehow managed to spill my entire glass of scalding hot tea into my stomach and thighs. Not cool. I think I nearly had 2nd degree burns. The food was good though, which made up for the "tea incident" as it shall henceforth be named.

After dinner and returning to the hotel to change into dry clothes, we went down to the hotel bar for drinks on which to ponder our next move.

Our next move turned out to be staying in the hotel bar. Jenn had made friends with the bartender the previous night, and with my feet, I was not in a very mobile mood, so we drank. We made friends with Qwong, or Kong, it's somewhat unclear what the spelling and pronunciation of his name is. Anyways, Qwong is a older Chinese man, who's on vacation here, and is apparently rich, as he bought both Jenn and I and many other patron of the bar many rounds of drinks. We also met some locals, who come to this hotel's bar because it is open until 4am, and so they come here after getting out of their jobs. We got very drunk, at least I did, and at one point Qwong offered $300 for Jenn to one of the locals. Jason (the local) got upset by that, and of course Jenn wasn't about to do that, but it was all very amusing.

Eventually, we had to go find late night snacks and found a 7-11 where I purchased a Gatorade and a sewing kit. Jenn got a steam-bun and dim sum food. I had one more drink when we got back and then went to our room and passed out.

I was awoken this morning by the shoe repair place letting me know that my Birks we done, for as much good as they do me when they are repaired in Michigan.

A couple hours later, my Uncle Ken called, offering to tour us about the island. We took him up on his offer. He took us to a bunch of places and as befits my Japanese heritage, took a lot of pictures. Let me see if I can remember all the places we went.

We went to Ala Moana beach park and cruised through, and then went to Panic Point, after which he had to stop by the post office which is next to the cool statue of King Kamehameha. Then we drove past the Aloha Tower, and headed up to Punchbowl, the military graveyard where my Grandfather will hopefully be tranfered to someday. Then we drove up Tantulus Rd, which goes up the side of the mountain, very twistily and narrowly. We stopped for photos at the Manoa Lookout and drove back down to get some lunch at Sam's Delicatessen, which is a Korean restaurant. The food was awesome.

After lunch we drove across the Pali Gap and stopped for pictures at what is a spectacular vantage point. Then we drove down to Kailua, went to the beach, went to another part of the beach, drove up through Kane'ohe, and stopped at other beaches, all the way up the windward coast to the North Shore. We saw sea turtles on another beach, and stopped for pictures in front of the Hale'iwa sign. We wound our was back down to my Uncle Ken's house, where we saw his garden and home renovations. We went to dinner after that at Denny's (which was good, as everything is here) and then he drove us back to the hotel, where I'm dutifully documenting all this.

I may eventually revisit this day with an additional post that includes pictures and better descriptions. Whew.

Beaches. Sons of beaches. And Bingo was his name-o.

Well, I'm finally here. It only took 19 hours. Jenn and I got a 6 AM cab ride to the airport from her place, and the flight from Detroit to Phoenix was fine. It's once we left Phoenix that things started getting hinky.

Firstly, before we got on the plane from Phoenix to Honolulu, they announced that they were close to the weight limit, so they needed some passengars to give up their seats. Bad omen number 1.

We did end up leaving AZ on time, but about 2 hours into the flight the captain announces that we're diverting to San Francisco. On the way towards San Fran, we have to burn off excess fuel and during these manuevers they cancel the beverage cart before it gets to Jenn or I. They were going to refuel and

In San Fran, they decided to let people off the plane. Some didn't get back on. Jenn and I decided not to get off. We would later come to regret that decision. It's nothing bad, but we could have gotten food in the terminal especially as they had said they were only going to let people off for 15 minutes, which turned into almost an hour. So we had to suffer the rest of the flight without food. That made us very hungry by the time we landed in Honolulu at 1AM Detroit time.

Off the plane we waited for what seemed like forever at the baggage claim. I think it might have been at least half an hour. After getting our baggage we took a cab to the hotel and checked in, changed into more tropical weight clothes and went out in search of dinner. We ended up going to this Korean BBQ Japanese Style (their title). It was very good. Of course anything would be good after the amount of time we had been without food. The menu there was kind of funny, so I took a picture.

The last menu item there is what made me laugh.

After dinner we walked to the beach, and then walked the main drag in Waikiki. Jenn got a purse and a smoothie in the International Marketplace. We also stopped at one of the dozens of ABC Stores for snacks, where we discovered that Jenn has her own line of bottled beverages.

We eventually decided to have drink in the hotel bar. After one beer, I was bushed (as it was midnight or 6am Detroit time) and went upstairs to sleep. Jenn stayed up as she had slept a fair amount on the plane. She's sleeping now, so, I should eventually go get her, and hopefully nudge her towards a normalish sleep schedule.

Other random things.

When we landed in Phoenix, Air Force One was on the tarmac there, as apparently Bush was in AZ for something.

The plane we were in is close to the limit of it's range flying from Phoenix to Honolulu. That combined with only being able to take on the minimum amount of fuel to make the flight without going over the weight limit, and strong headwinds and taking the longer northern route to avoid stronger winds on the more direct route all combined to cause us to divert to San Francisco. Being at the point of no return on fuel is commonly referred to as being at "Bingo fuel".

Islands in the sun

All mine and Jenn's lodgings are finally booked. On Maui we're staying in a condo in south Kihei, right across from the beach.

It's the Kihei Kai Nani. Should be nice. It's also very reasonably priced for Hawaii.

As for Kauai, I booked a room at the Islander on the Beach. I reserved an oceanfront room, which from the overhead picture looks like it's an awesome view.

I really have to give a recommendation for the guidebook that Matt (Julie's brother-in-law) suggested to me. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook:Kauai Revealed, it's proven very useful, and it had reviews of all the hotels/condos that I was considering. I also got the Maui Revealed Guidebook.

Depending on the availability of internet access, I should be updating here with pictures and stories while I'm on the islands, so it'll be like you're right there with us. Except you won't be. Ha.

At least I know where I'm sleeping for a couple nights

I have finally booked a hotel for Honolulu. After much looking, comparing, and fretting I decided on the Waikiki Sand Villa hotel. It's fairly inexpensive, and pretty highly rated. Plus, in my mind at least, the hotel doesn't have to be spectacular when you're in Hawaii. It's a couple block walk to Waikiki beach, and a couple blocks from the International Marketplace and really everything in Waikiki is pretty close and not to bad to walk. Even if something is farther away, TheBus goes everywhere for $2. Now to figure out where we're staying on Maui and Kauai. Good thing I bought those books.

His Girl Friday

Well, as of last night, I have a new traveling companion. Jenn booked her flight, so we're going to Hawaii together. Now we just have to figure out where we're staying and how we're going to get around both on and between the islands. Should be fun though.

Jenn Quote: "People ask me 'What are you going to see?', I'm only thinking 'What am I going to eat?'"

Email from Dad

Mike,

I found some info on Kauai and attaching a pdf file. The saimin shop that we talked is Hamura's. If you like ice cream, go and find a Lapperts. The little town of Koloa near Poipu beach is nice for luch. There is the famous ocean blowhole near also. Just explore the beaches, valleys and canyons. They also have coffee plantations be Ele Ele and maybe a sugar mill has a museum open. Spend at least 3 days there and you can go from one pretty side til the road end on the north then til it end on the south.

Dad

Link

Book 'em Danno

Well, the first, basically the most important part of my trip planning has been completed. I booked my flight. I'm flying to Honolulu on October 4 and flying back on the 17th, which means I get home on the 18th, because of the whole time difference and flight time. Now I just have to figure out where I'm staying and what I'm going to see. I kind of want to go to Kaua'i and Maui. If the volcanoes are doing anything, I might have to go to the Big Island and check that out. I know it's fairly inexpensive to fly between the islands, so I have some more research to do before I go.

This is only a test

Well, since I've decided I'm going to Hawaii later this year, I thought I'd reserve some space for a trip diary of sorts. I'll probably also put up links for things I don't want to forget and also just keep track of what I have planned.