Last Full Day in Hawaii

I spent the first couple of hours yesterday morning packing to leave today... When Anna came back from her class we headed out on the road! We headed to the Outlets stores. I wanted to get a new Coach purse and I really wanted a Michael Kors watch. I've been eyeing this watch in Ottawa but the $375 price tag was hard to over come. At the Michael Kors store I found an great brown metal watch but it had a circle of brown rhinestones. I liked it but could I really wear and get away with brown rhinestones?! I wasn't sure so I put it on hold.

We then stopped at a shoe store (nothing good... I can't believe I haven't found a single pair.) Anna and I then split up... she went to the Samsonite store and I headed to Saks to look for shoes but I had to pass a bunch of watches. Then I saw it in the case... a large face silver and pink gold awesome Michael Kors watch. Anna came to look and agreed it's awesome! I'm wearing it now even though it's easily three sizes too big!

From there we headed to the Kailua beach. To get there we needed to drive H3... the most beautiful highway ever. The photos really did not turn out well but the beautiful green mountains and the individual trees are amazing. I even spotted a small waterfall in the mountains.

The beach was beautiful and deserted! I swear there were only 10 people on the beach... the waves were amazing. It was great swimming.

From there we headed home and stopped at the Nu'uanu Pali lookout. We then snapped a few pics and jumped back in the car.

We then headed to dinner at a new restaurant - Park. It turns out that it's just around the corner from the place that Anna was originally going to stay at. We ordered a bunch of small plates. We had roasted beet salad and a watermelon salad; the watermelon salad was better. We then had pan fried octopus with potato coins, mac and cheese, brussels sprouts, and a super yummy kale flat bread. A great last dinner in Hawaii.

 

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Walking in the RAIN!

It was a real low key day for me on Tuesday. After the amazing dinner at Town I decided to check out Town for breakfast. They have moved from counter service to seated breakfast so I sat at the bar. I had a great egg and prosciutto sandwich with a small bowl of fruit.

I then decided to walk home along Waikiki Beach, it's about a four mile walk and I took my time stopping at shops along the way. I really took my time just enjoying the walk... until it started to pour rain! I ducked into Yogurtland and got a small cup of tart yogurt with some peanut butter cups. Super tasty... and I tried to wait out the rain. I continued for a long time... so much so I decided to make a run for it to the restaurant across the way. It had nothing but cheeseburgers! After my last cheeseburger experience I wasn't going to go for it! Instead I stopped at Wolfgang Express for a sandwich... mmeph, mmeph, nothing special.

By the time my lunch was done it was done raining and I continued my walk back to Anna's place. I came across some beautiful flowers. They have been missing from posts lately!

Shortly after I got home Anna got home and we headed out for Wahoo's dinner. I love the fish burritos from Wahoo's. They put this awesome spicy cilantro sauce that I would drink if I could!

 

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Super Yummy Foodie Tour!

Sunday night I decided to book a tour for Monday that my tour guide in Kona recommended. So I booked the Hole in the Wall Food tour which is a food tour of some of the best eats in Honolulu. The tour was pretty awesome, offering up over 15 yummy eats on Honolulu. It all started with a Hawaiian sweet bread wrapped around different meats and veggies. It was kinda like a pork bun it was hawaiian sweet bread instead of steamed white bread. It was so good I only remembered to take a photo when it was almost too late!

We then drove to Chinatown and walked through the market. We then visited a noodle factory. After finding a shady spot, the guide proceeded to bring us all sorts of neat foods. Noodles two ways, asian fruit, yummy buns, coconut tarts, pork two different ways, spam musubi, and a super sweet drink made of lychee, pineapple, and li hing mui. I loved all of it except the drink... it was so painfully sweet! Here are a few pics of the tasty treats.

We then headed to Bubbies for ice cream coated in mochi and the tour ended with a Malasada. It was interesting and tasted different than the masasada I had on the Big Island. I think I like the Oahu ones best.

We then headed back to Anna's apartment and hung out... I've been addicted to the Netflix series Orange is the New Black so I watched a couple of episodes and started packing... I still can't believe I'm heading back already!

When Anna got back we decided to go to Town but we can't get a reservation. So we decided to walk to a restaurant just past Town. As we past Town, we decided to go in and see if we could eat at the bar. As luck would have it, we could! I had this great summer squash salad and spaghetti and this amazing ragu.

 

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Hau'oli La Hanau to Me

It was such an amazing birthday day!! When I imagined spending my birthday on vacation for ten years this birthday is exactly what I imagined.

It all started with a bit of a sleep in and then we headed to have Dim Sum just down the road at Happy Days. We had some fabulous Dim Sum! Steamed shrimp dumplings, shrimp noodles, and taro flake dumplings.

We then headed back to Anna's place and seeing as it was such a great day we went for a swim in the pool. I think because it was such a nice day and it was a Sunday but the pool was packed with kids. It was such a great swim but we didn't stay long because it was so busy.

From there we just hung out and I worked in catching up on my blog posts. Anna had planned a surprise that starts at 3pm. She kept it a secret up until we started driving into the rich neighbourhood and she told me we are going for afternoon tea at the Kahala Resort. I really wanted to go for tea when I was here in Honolulu and Anna made reservations at a really nice resort.

The Afternoon Tea was amazing! It came with two scones (chocolate chip and cranberry) with clotted cream and pineapple jam, four sandwiches, and four desserts. You get to pick the sandwiches and Anna and I both picked a rare roast beef salad on a little toasts, smoked salmon on rye toasts, egg salad with greens, and for the fourth Anna got the ham and I got the mushroom turnover. I loved the sandwiches! The desserts where great too but there were so many! It was their 50th anniversary so the desserts were set, there was a blue hawaii macaroon, coconut cake, chocolate shortbread, and pineapple tart. The best was last a lilikoi mousse cake with candles! So delicious!

We stopped to drop off the leftover cakes at Anna's place and then we headed to the Halekulani hotels and the House without a Key restaurant for drinks and to watch the sun set. Seeing as I had tea at dim sum, tea at afternoon tea, I figured I should go for the trifecta and got a tea cocktail. It was a great place, a three piece band playing Hawaiian music, a hula dancer, and a beautiful sunset.

It was an amazing birthday! To at least 35 more years!

 

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Amazing Snorkeling Day!!

We awoke to a drizzly day where pretty much everything was wet. I went to bed wearing every piece of warm clothes I brought with me! Cold and rainy in Hawaii... who would have thought!

We had breakfast under a open air building which I'm pretty sure was built for mornings like those! We then packed up all the camping supplies, piled into the van and headed to the beach.

Katie was not about promising anything on the tour and she was always really honest about what we would see. So before we left she said it was very likely we will see turtles. I didn't want to hope too much. Kind of like when you go whale watching you see them in the distance but you don't actually see them close.

I was wrong! After getting all out snorkel gear out we headed to a black sand beach. Walking to the snorkel area we saw some turtles a little way out but as we got closer to beach access there were many turtles coming up to the beach to sun. In one area there were four giant turtles just hanging out.

We then headed into the water to go snorkeling. It was AMAZING! The water was brackish so it was really cold and really warm. Along the bottom of the ocean was schools of yellow and black fish. There was not a lot of coral but there was a lot of fish! And then the turtles arrived. I followed this giant turtle out into the ocean. I didn't touch them because it's illegal but I was close enough to touch them. We saw a few more turtles and followed them around. At that point I was swimming back to the group (I wasn't that far out) but then Katie pointed to my left and I turned to look and there was a giant turtle swimming right next to me. So close it scared the crap out of me!

We then headed to a coffee and macadamia nut farm. I bought a few bags of coffee and a smokey sweet bag of mac nuts. I also bought three lilikois for a dollar. I ate two and gave one to the Swiss couple. It's so good! I've realized I love passion fruit!!!

We then headed to the last beach for a little more snorkeling. This beach had way more coral and fewer schools of fish but there were a few interesting fish like long skinny ones and purple and yellow cleaner fish.

By this time it's 4pm and most of us have not had a shower in three days (I managed to wash my hair at one of the showers near the beach that allow soap.) Most people were ready to call it a day where I don't need to be at the airport until 7pm. So Katie took me to the Kona Brewing Company for dinner. The Lilikoi beer was so amazing!

Stay turn for my epic birthday day post next!

 

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Volcano Day!!!

The next morning was a bit of a tough morning but I toughed it out. We tore down camp and drove to the next campsite in Volcano National Park. We arrived early so we got the pick of campsites and we managed one with a great trail behind. I put my tent up and made sure the fly was on right, and was all zipped up tight. When I got back from the day while it had rained a lot, my tent was dry inside!

After a quick stopped at 7-11 for coffee and we were off to see some volcanos. First up was a short hike though a lava tube. It was really neat to see and even cooler to walk though. We then went on a 4 mile hike around a quiet volcano. We could see that active volcano steam in the distance.

It was all going well until the walk through the open hard lava part... then we saw it up ahead a heavy sheet of rain coming down and towards us! I had enough time to pull out Anna's rain jacket before we where hit! I was a very long, cold, and wet walk but it was interesting that every so often you would walk by a steam vent that was blowing warm air to warm you up. It was a wet but very neat experience. Of course once we were back under the shelter of the trees it stopped raining! We then walked up the last little bit to the top of the trail but it was all fun straight up switch backs!

From there we made a series of small stops, one at ocean edge to see the ocean made arches, the steam vents, petroglyphs, and lava spilling on the road.

We then had a BBQ Chicken dinner and banana and chocolate for dinner. Around 8:30 we headed out to see the red glow of the volcano.

We then all just hung out and talked before I retired to my dry bed to sleep!

 

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Let the Adventure Begin!

Katie our fabulous tour guide picked me and two others up at my hotel at 10am and we picked up two more and we were off! There was a total of nine people on the tour. A couple who just got married from Switzerland, A couple who were engaged although they secretly just got married for tax purposes and none of their family knows, a long dating long distance couple where one lives in New Zealand and the other lives in Southern US, two mates from Australia, and me. It really was a great and interesting group.

First stop was a beach just north of Kona. The view was amazing, the water was warm, and it was seriously a slice of paradise. It was so breathtakingly beautiful! We stayed about two hours and had lunch on the beach. It was then back in the van for the trip along the north of the island and over to Hilo. We did stop along that way to try the Big Island Malasadas. Apparently every island has "the" place to have Malasadas. On Oahu it's just down from Anna's house. I'm looking forward to trying it before I head home. They are also Portuguese so hopefully I can try them in Portugal too.

We arrived in Hilo and it was around 5pm. Before we head to the campsite we stop to see Rainbow Falls to take pictures. From there we had dinner of tortilla soup and olive oil bread. We were then off to the campsite and we set up our tents and I didn't realize quite how rainy Hilo was so I left the flap open to air out the tent and I accidentally put the fly on backwards. We then headed out to a warm sea water pool. It was warm like bath water and had crashing waves on the other side of the wall to keep the water from being stagnant. It was a relaxing end of the day.

Sadly, I came back to a wet tent as it had rained on the way back. It was still early, even thought it was dark and with a damp tent I wasn't in a hurry to head to bead. So I hung out with the Aussie mates by the ocean just chatting. The waves crashing the cliffs just meters away from our campsite. Between the company, the amazing view, and the stars it was really fun time.

Eventually a headed to bed and in the middle of the night we got a huge down pour which is when I realized I has the fly on backwards because it caused a stream of water to come sailing into the tent. Wait... I forgot to mention I'm in a one person tent that I can barely sit up in, so at this point it dawns on me that I'm way too old for this! Little too late but I ball up all my stuff sitting on the foam mat keeping me and my stuff from getting wet. Eventually it stops pouring and I lay out the foam mat and try to get back to sleep. Eventually I do which I was very thankful for.

This is a beautiful flower that was near the Rainbow Falls.

 

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Voyage to the Hawaii, the Big Island

So instead of one very long blog post covering four days I've decided to do four posts in one day.

Wednesday was a great day... I slept in and Anna and I went to Costco, the really nice one right by the ocean. We had Starbucks and I purchased a few mini bags of macadamia nuts for work people.

We then stopped at Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha. They have shave ice but instead of the overly sweet syrups that are normally put on the shave ice it's homemade syrups made from real fruit. Both Anna and I tried the pineapple and lilikoi. The lilikoi was amazing. We both want to come back to enjoy another shave ice with just lilikoi!

I was then off to the airport to catch my flight to Kona. I went with a very budget airline and seriously, even the security and waiting area was super budget! What was not budget was the cost of the sandwich! $12 dollars for a sandwich! Although it was pretty tasty!

We all boarded the plane and the last passenger who arrived at the last minute was flat-out drunk. It was open seating so I had taken the first seat. All I could think was this 30 minute flight was going to be a LONG flight. This was confirmed when he interrupted the safety briefing twice with stupid drunkin' comments.

By this time we are taxing to take off... sigh. Luckily we had a great flight attendant that returned the plane to the gate and had the guy taken off the plane. It made for a great flight to Kona and we were only a tad late.

I had made the assumption that there would be tons of shuttles but as it turns out I should have reserved one in advance. But luckily they were able to squeeze me in. So I arrived at my hotel which was far nicer than I imagined. I checked in and walked along the main road and took some great sunset pictures.

I had dinner at Island Hopper at the recommendation of my hotel and I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping for something a bit less touristy. I had a great night sleep and had my last shower for three days (although I didn't know it at the time.)

I had breakfast eggs at the hotels restaurant with a great view of the ocean, it was a fabulous morning!

 

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Relaxing to the Max

I have to admit I'm not doing a whole lot... Monday I work up a bit late and organized a few last minute things for my trip to Hawaii (the big island) and my trip to Portugal. Just after lunch I decided to head down to Ala Moana mall to buy a new hat and get a few souvenirs. I came back from the mall and took a swim in Anna's pool. We closed off the night with burgers from Honolulu Burger Company.

Sadly the burgers, while they tasted great, gave us both food poisoning. So yesterday, I spent a lot of time just relaxing and recovering. I went to the Kahala Mall to check out things (Kahala Mall has the Whole Foods.) From there I came home and Anna and I when to Ross Dress for Less and I got a tiny backpack for my trip. We the purchased the ingredient for white bean soup. I made the soup while Anna when to painting class. By the time she got home I had already passed out on the couch. Early night for me!

Today I'm leaving for my trip. I believe I will have wifi at my hotel tonight but after that, I'm thinking I will not have wifi while camping with the tour so expect a large blog post on Saturday!

I saw this beautiful flower at the Fosters Botanical Garden. I thought the red and yellow and the stems where really beautiful.

 

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Hot Child in the City

Man it was hot yesterday and I decided that I was going to spend the time walking around Honolulu! Certainly don't regret my adventure but let me tell you I'm going to be taking the bus everywhere today!

My morning started out by taking the bus to Bishops Museum... except the bus took a turn I wasn't expecting and while I should have been looking to get off at King and Bernice, I impulsively got off at King and Bertona. Sadly the streets are not in alphabetical order and the map I brought with me stopped after Bertona. With that, I decided to invest in the $8 data plan for the day and using Google maps found out I had a 20 minute walk to the Museum. Sigh.

While I wasn't going to take a hat, Anna came to the rescue by strongly recommending I take a hat anyways. About half way to the museum, I really needed the hat! Thanks Anna!!!

I then arrived at the museum. I couldn't help but think that Smith (and I'm sure Parker when he is a bit older) would love the museum. My favourite part was the Hawaiian History building. The building is beautiful, old warm brown wood, it really reminded me of a classic history museum.

The other two building were far more modern. The first had a dinosaur exhibit. They were interesting but a tad creepy as when they move they make this constant clickity-click noise and it was the last day so I think they may have started to take down some of the wall decorations.

The other building, the science building, was pretty neat! They talked about volcanos, tsunamis, and animals of Hawaii. It was really interactive, you can see the different impacts of landslides and underwater earthquakes on a real water by pressing buttons that made waves below the water or dropped a heavy triangle in the water. But the coolest demo was the lava demo. It came with a 30 minute lesson on volcanos in Hawaii and ended with the instructor pouring out lava. It was pretty freakin' awesome!

From there I decided to walk to the Fosters Botanical Garden. It was around noon and I figured I would grab some lunch on the way there. No such luck... not one restaurant the whole way! I did manage to pick up some water and a protein bar at the gas station... so not a picture worthy lunch!

The botanical gardens were pretty neat particularly if you like trees. There were all types, from Breadfruit tree to coffee bushes, from chewing gum trees to bizarre cannonball trees (where the flowers and cannon balls grow from the bark.) It was pretty awesome but I was bummed I didn't bring my book because it was so quite it would have been a nice place to just relax and read.

By this point, I was pretty hungry for lunch and my plan was to head down to Aloha Tower Marketplace. From the website it looked like a happening place with shopping and places to eat. Perfect! Ah, no... I knew approaching the tower that something was wrong... lots and lots of empty stores. The place was dead! Just a few tiny tourist t-shirts places and Hooters. Yeah, not going to eat at Hooters! So I pulled out the map and thought where is the closest place to eat something. On the map, I see a building complex labelled "Restaurant Row". Perfect! Ah, no... since the map's creation it seems that heath clinics and insurance companies have taken over. Everything was closed even the Pharmacy was closed! What next? Anna and I were going to meet near Ward avenue so I decided to walk there thinking I would come across a restaurant on the way. No such luck... nearly to the place where Anna takes hula classes it looked as thought my luck had run out... but out of nowhere (literally! The street is like an industrial warehouse district) was the Fresh Cafe! I had a great turkey sandwich with Jasmine iced tea. I was fantastic. From there I hit Ross Dress for less and got a great dress and also shopped Nordstrom Rack but didn't find anything.

I then meet Anna after her class and we headed to The Fat Greek for an amazing fish souvlaki. We were talking about potential trips to other islands. I told her about this amazing 3-day camping adventure that I wanted to do but they didn't have any tours scheduled in September. In visiting the website on my phone to show her the tour (whoo-hoo, data plan), since I last checked they had added a tour starting this Thursday and going until Saturday. So in a flurry of booking last night, I bought tickets to and from Hawaii (the big island) and one night hotel, and registered for the tour. I was on a roll so I also booked my two hotels in Lisbon!

I haven't decided what to do today... it looks like a great day. I might just hang out in the park, read my book, and then head down to Waikiki to get some postcards!

This is the flower of the post. There were some amazingly neat finds at the botanical gardens but this is a bush I saw at the Bishop's museum. It had so many blooms and it seemed to be classic Hawaii.

 

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Glorious Day of Street Food and Awesome

With all these early mornings (again up at 4:30 but managed to get a few extra hours in after) it just seem logical that continue I write my blog first thing in the morning. It gives me something to do while the rest of Hawaii is still sleeping!

Yesterday was an amazing day for street food! We started out at the KCC's Framers' Market around 9:30. This farmers market has obviously morphed from actual farmers selling what they have grown (there were a few) to a tourist stop. Besides the great number of tour buses, I would say about half were street eats and the rest were food based souvenirs like Hawaiian salt (I got some black salt) and honey.

Anna and I decided to buy brunch there, Anna had the a wood-fired pesto pizza and I had the best sandwich I had ever had. It was so good I forgot to take a picture! It was a super messy vietnamese chicken sandwich. It was so flavourful and fresh! It had a cabbage slaw and a basil mint pesto. It was really glorious!

On the way out we each got an Ono Pop (for those who don't know Ono means delicious!) From the intensely long list of options I was drawn to trying something new so after some discussion with the Ono Pop guy, I went for the Kula Strawberry Maui Goat Cheese. It was seriously good... the tart goat cheese with the sweet strawberry was so amazing! You can just taste the real flavours of the popsicles.

From there we headed up to the North Shore. We took the highway along the edge of the island up to Haleiwa. We did this in March but last time I was driving... this time Anna was driving. I think I spent the whole time either saying "wow, I didn't see this last time" or "wow, did you see this!?" It is seriously beautiful drive up to the North Shore. Every turns is a beautiful beach or mountain view.

We continued on to Shark Cove Beach or Pupukea Beach. I had expressed that when I was in Hawaii many years ago I was very disappointed in the snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. I saw like five fish when I went... so Anna said we had to check out this beach instead.

After setting out the dill pickle salsa we bought at the farmer's market; a bizarre but super tasty addition on salsa, and discussing at length what could be done to improve on the salsa, I set out to snorkel. The red flag was up warning of rip tides so I did not want to go too far out or for too long.

After a very unsuccessful attempt to get into the water... The waves kept just bringing me back to shore which I think explains why I had sand everywhere when I later changed into my clothes, I managed to get in deep enough to see the coral from another location. It was really great! There were many different types of fish, long skinny silver fish, round flat fish with black, white, and orange markings, a small groups or grey fish. I'm also convinced I saw a clown fish... it was orange and had white and black strips... they just didn't go all the way down like Nemo... so who knows maybe a different type of fish but he was certainly the most colourful one I saw! My photo of the area does no justice of the beautiful beach and water... but what it does include is evergreen trees they have in Hawaii which I thought was surprising.

Speaking of surprising things, I'm starting a new thing for each blog post in Hawaii... a flower of the post. I have been truly amazed at the flowers here... there are SO many different types and colours. And seeing as this vacation is all about relaxing, I thought I most definitely need to add stopping to appreciated the flower beauty around me! This was one of my more amazing flower moments. They are flowers in flowers... blew my mind...

Following snorkeling, I wanted to get some local shave ice. After trying a few flavours in the past that were painfully sweet, I opted to get the lilikoi (or passionfruit) Anna and I both agree it's the only flavour that is a tiny bit tart which balances out the painful sweetness.

On the way back home we stopped at the Eat the Street event. I had been looking for some more local things to do while I was here and this popped up. It's kinda like a community block party with a giant collection of food trucks and food stall vendors. The plan was to tour around all the vendors and then make our dinner choices. We didn't quite make it half way through when we saw Paul's Poppers. They are hand folder wontons with interesting fillings inside. We decided to give 'em a whirl! We tried three cheese jalapeño and three spinach artichoke. They were super delicious!

After completing the rounds we both decided to go back to the Food Truck who's claim to fame is producing Healthy Food! I got the Thai Beef Salad and Anna got the tofu curry. Both were good but we did not give raving food truck reviews. Sad that the healthy food truck that we hopped would have amazing flavour was just memph, memph. Other interesting things but neither of us had any interest in trying included hotdogs cooked in waffles, plate lunches, heavy soul food, and rib and pork BBQ.

From there we headed home and we were both exhausted... we both headed to bed early and I was out by 8:30.

 

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Easing into Vacation Mode

I've been resisting the urge to go around and see everything and anything because I'm just tired, I even skipped a blog post! Shocking I know! But really I need a couple of days to just get into vacation mode, to just lay like broccoli for a short period of of time. It not like I've done absolutely nothing... actually I've done a lot of walking!

Punctuated through the last two days has been me getting all the paperwork organized for my trip to Portugal. My tickets are purchased, I'm registered for the conference, my hotels reservation is submitted (but not confirmed yet), and I'm not just searching for a hotel to book for the last two days we are staying in the main part of town in Lisbon. Making progress! Luckily, being pretty jet lagged, I'm getting up at 4:30 - 5:00... you can get a lot of emailing done when the world is still dark and the sun is not calling.

Thursday morning I decided to start my trip like I ended my last trip to Hawaii with a walk to Waikiki Beach. This time I didn't go swimming (I didn't even bring my bathing suit), I just brought my Kindle and I bought a towel along the way. I found a grassy sunny spot with a great view of the ocean and settled into listening to the beach and reading my book. I was there for about 2 hours before a guy showed up with music which set the annoying mood for everyone in earshot. Good sign to start the 45 minute walk back to Anna's place.

By then Anna was just about back from work and we headed to the mall to pick up a few things for the Harry Potter party planned for Friday night. We got all the supplies to make wands, chocolate frogs, and decorate her place like the Gryffindor common room. We hit Walmart for the crafty items and candy. In the candy / chip aisle I found this. Now I'm quite sure what is worse... the fact that you can actually buy microwave pork rinds (and they don't need to be refidgerated!) or that there are sold out! All I can say is eep!

We then hit Whole Food! OMG, it was so so freaking great! It was about dinner time so it made for more dinner choices. In the end I think I bought three meals because they all looked so good. I got a mushroom barley soup, two great salads (a noodle one with peanut sauce and roasted veggie couscous one) and then what I ended up eating for dinner that night was a lemon aioli mahi-mahi with two sides, roasted asparagus with mushrooms and an amazing vietnamese kale salad... I don't know what it is about kale but when I eat it, I want to eat more! It was SO good!

Friday, I spend a lot of the morning figuring out how I was going to get the hotel reservation into the hotel. Thankfully Anna give me a hand by printing it and scanning it so I could return it to the hotel on Friday. Although given the time delay... she may not get it until Monday. Fingers crossed it all goes well! But that meant I got to go see Anna at work with her cool standing desk set up and beautiful view!

From there I picked up a few last minute items for the party, including some gummy frogs to dip in chocolate. While I was at the drug store scanning the candy for frogs I came across these - Canada Mints. Which upon closer inspection they appeared to be English Mints. Could it be a conspiracy rooted in the US civil war ousting all English products!? So bizarre! Moreover if you look closely there's an registered trademark symbol after Canada. Logically I'm hoping it's because Canada has a lock on our own name... but if not, whoa.

From there I settled in to watch the first couple of episodes of Breaking Bad. Then it was decorating time and Anna's friends and kids showed up. It was a great time! The kids got a great kick out of the decorations, wands, and letters from Hogwarts! We ordered from California Pizza Kitchen. It was pretty decent pizza.

Brand new day today! Big plans to see the Farmers Market and head up to the North Shore for some snorkeling and Thai food.

 

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How my Love of Math Paid Off!

So I went to bed Tuesday night thinking "arg! it's going to be a long day tomorrow!" With a 6am flight I was due to be at the airport for 4:30am! But the early rising was going to be worth it because I was going to get to Honolulu for 2:30pm.

While I seem to have some sort of sixth sense about flight delays, it was not working last night because, while in the past I woke up in the middle of the night thinking "my flight has been delayed", this time I slept right through to 3:30 am and in checking my email there was one from United saying they anticipate that the flight will be delayed but to come to the airport for your flight as regular.

Following a rather unhelpful phone call with United I hurried to get all my stuff in order and to the airport for 4:30am (thanks for the drive Dad!!!) Once there I joined the ridiculous line of people looking to be rescheduled. After advancing two people in 30 minutes I decided I would call United again and see if they could reschedule me... It seemed more likely I get an one agent to help me from a sea of call centre agents that in this line with one service agent!

Now as much as I have less than stellar things to say about United, I must admit they fly A LOT of places and they have A LOT of flights everyday. So when I called them, they had quite a few options. In the end, I had to give up my direct flight from Chicago to Honolulu for flights with an additional stopover in San Francisco. Not bad.

While I didn't have time to spare to make my connection through Chicago, I had some time in San Francisco. And while I love airports in general, the San Francisco airport is spectacular! So much so it has made me realize I need to come back to San Francisco again! I have to hand it to the airport authority there... they have done an excellent job "advertising" their city through their airport. Instead of mass purchased art or views of the city in their inter-terminal walkways they have some really amazing art pieces, they actually made me stop and just stand (on the moving conveyor belt) to see all the great pieces. From very large structures (seriously there was a life-size Humvee which appeared to be made of styrofoam!) to smaller photographs and paintings on the wall, it was truly amazing. The food choices available were even a cut above (and with cut above prices but still awesome.)

After my brief stop in San Francisco, I was off to Hawaii! This flight is how I would like to start all vacations, large plane, aisle seat with no one sitting next to me, and free in seat entertainment!

Apparently United also runs a contest called "Halfway to Hawaii" where people guess the exact time to the second (Hawaii time) that the plane is half way to Honolulu. They provide total miles to destination, take off time, air speed, and headwind. All I could think was "Oh no you didn't just challenge me to a math problem when I have nothing better to do than figure this out?!" Challenge accepted! They handed out the contest cards and after figuring things out (yes, I got out paper and a pen) I guessed 3:59:17. Guess who was off by 37 seconds! That's right, I took home the prize! Even though I think I'm way more excited about actually winning, than the prize, which is a 2013 copy of Lonely Planet Hawaii, all in all it was a pretty great flight.

Anna was there to pick me up at the airport (Whoo-hoo!) and we headed back to her place in her brand new car! We hung out and talked... I actually started to glimpse that I'm on vacation!

Here's to the the start of a great vaca!

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Last day in Paradise

An what an amazing day it was! We got up early because the water is bring shut off at 9am. We then went back to Town for breakfast. It was good but nearly as good as dinner last night.

We then headed to Anna's work and I was able to see her office and meet a few of the people she works with. It was fun to see her work place.

From there we headed to Sam's club to buy a table however after measuring the boxes we realized it would not fit in the car and they don't deliver unless it's a mattress or lawn furniture. Boo! However we made up for it by heading to one of the furniture stores and Anna bought a new coach! Whoo-hoo!!!

We headed back home for lunch... I'm so going to miss the pita from here when I'm gone! I then headed to the beach for one last swim and some time in the sun. It was so awesome and knowing that I'm going home and it's snowing there made it extra awesome!

I'm about to head to the airport and sigh another adventure journey home. Here's hoping I can make the 36 minute connection in LA and 75 minute connection in Newark!

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It's Paradise... it's downhill both ways!

The last full day and I can't help but be a bit sad... I do have almost a full today tomorrow to pack in more fun but it's sad to know I'm so close to leaving and returning to a life without these sunny days. Yes, I know it's going to snow 10-15 cm for my arrival. Hey... you never know... maybe I'll be stuck in LA... or better yet, Honolulu! Ah, dare to dream!

So Anna was off to work and I was on a mission to see the statue from the beginning of Hawaii 50... After having found it on the internet, into the car, and I was ready to breeze there... yeah... 45 minutes in traffic later, I arrived at my destination. On to try and find parking. First available parking lot I turned into only to learn that's $4 per 1/2 hour with no MAX! Luckily they had a 10 minute grace period if you decide not to park. Exit stage left and off to try an find another spot. I quickly learned why they were charging so much... most of the lots do not have public parking!

So next available lot, $11 per hour!!! Sigh. Third times a charm (and actually closer to where I wanted to be) 75 cents a 1/2 hour for the first 2 hours and $1.50 for each additional 1/2 hour. Now only to find a parking space! Following the vague parking directions I turned left (as it turns out not as immediate left as they would of liked) and found myself in the place where the Honda dealership (just below) stores all their brand new vehicles, double and triple parked... let me tell you, I think I'm a pretty good driver but backing out of there is something I'm good never reliving!!!

Finally found a parking spot and was so thankful get out of the car! There were a few moments where I thought... is this even worth it?! I then headed towards the Capital area of Honolulu where they state buildings are. I got a few neat pics including a nice one of the seal.

I then headed to 'Iolani Palace, the only Royal Palace to be on US soil. It was very nice and they have done a stellar job restoring it. A tad on the undewhelming side particularly with the long-winded audio guide but all in all pretty interesting.

Then off to find the statue from the TV show... and I found it. I took a few pics from the back because you never see pictures from the back of statues!

From there I headed to Chinatown in the hopes of finding some shrimps with the heads on so I can make Anna some Thai soup. I found Chinatown and I found the shrimps but I wasn't going to buy anything from the stores... icky!

 

I stopped on the way back from the store to try McDonald's take on a Haupia pie... which was basically their normal cherry or apple pie with coconut instead. A few bites and I was done. Interesting, but I couldn't eat the whole thing.

I then drove home stopping to pick up a few groceries. I then set to work to map our all the potential furniture for Anna's place with cardboard boxes so she could see what it would look like with furniture where the box shapes are. I did a few other things around the house including spray painting the spare bathroom's medicine cabinet that had got a bit (okay a bit more than a bit) rusty. Turned out great!

When Anna got home we headed to Discount Furniture Warehouse to check out any last minute options. Discounting all the items, Anna had pretty much decided what she wanted to go with... just on to buying it. Maybe tomorrow :)

We then drove and walked to this wicked awesome restaurant Town! So tasty... we spent a lot of the time talking about who Anna had to bring to the restaurant when they come and what they would like! We shared the plates and had this very interesting thing made from Poi and a great salad. We also shared the tuna and steak. Wicked good!! Special thanks and shout out to Ms. Neuheimer who help fund this awesome meal!

So why is it downhill both ways? In walking back from the restaurant we realized that we were walking downhill... bizarre because it felt downhill when we were walking there.... truly paradise when it feels like we are walking downhill both ways! That is until a gigantic cockroach walked by and freaked us both out!

 

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