Archive for March, 2008

Burlington Vermont – Hitting The Road

Leaving home is like a dream. There has been months of preparation and anticipation for the vacation and when the morning finally comes and it’s time to leave we’re literally vibrating with excitement. We kept wondering if we had forgotten anything…but as long as we have our passports and credit cards we should be fine!!

The Holiday Inn in Burlington Vermont was our first hotel as we travelled from Quebec to the Hawaiian Islands. We chose the Holiday Inn because they had a Park and Fly…there might be a Comfort Inn Park and Fly as well but we liked the location of the Holiday Inn right off the highway. It was an easy drive from Knowlton.

Day one of the holiday started after not enough sleep visiting with long lost half brother and family for the last two nights in a beery almost heady smokey-gray fog of anticipation of Hawaii and disillusion in the winter and time, the thief of moments… and as I stepped into the front yard with the Salsa Vibe packed and ready for our holiday to Hawaii and ready to take this moment and run into the distance where snow piled in white nylon drifts against the fence.

It was sad to leave our black cat Pauline this morning and we both woke up slightly under the fighting fog of a warm rainy grey morning and little Pauline, if a 16 year old cat can be considered little, was meow meowing all morning not making the state of my membrane any better.

We left around 10 in the morning after a sweet Continental Breakfast or as close as to it that we could muster with the bare fridge and slim toastries available for our morning crunch. As we drove south to Burlington the fog was rolling over the green hills as the snow has melted away in warm weather which had been above 10 degrees Celsius for the last few days.

Finally…even though it’s January…we get some warm winds like a Chinook over the Rockies as we prepared for our holiday on the Hawaiian Islands. We drove into the sunshines of beautiful Vermont and had to stop for Tums for the Tummy because DD had stomach acid from the freshly squeezed OJ we drank at home…we had a bag of fresh oranges in the fridge and before we left we squeezed em’ all!

Got to the Hotel in Burlington and checked into room 220…now normally checking in to room 220 wouldn’t mean much but that hotel room had the same number as our street address in Knowlton, Quebec, Canada so we took that as a sign that this was meant to be…it was like The Secret…it was all happening for a reason!

Hmmm..after 5 minutes being in the room we realized that maybe there was no sign…no meaning…except that we were in a dump of a hotel! The noise and the smell created a cocktail of nausea as we rode the elevator up to the 2nd floor…if there had been more than five floors I swear I would have thrown myself out to the street below!

The room, the infamous room 220, is right beside the ice machine and it was just vibrating from that old Detroit Diesel freon contraption and the room is loud but now not so bad as right now DD and I are watching the weather channel and getting ready for a 7:30 supper which is destined to be some microwave tv dinners or something similar to a Hungry Man Meal but since we’ve been working out at the Gym it will likely be a low carb Panini!!

We went to the mall, whatever that mall in Burlington is called, and shopped for our suitcases. We had no suitcases and looked around in Granby and Montreal and online a bit but decided it would be easier to buy all our suitcases right in Burlington before we took the flight to Newark.

DD got some undies and I got some sneakers on special for only $11! I love doing this cross border shopping! We had a lovely romantic pre-holiday picnic and we had both had a Subway snack in the mall and you notice a lot of soldiers and military folks here…well not a lot…but more than back home in Knowlton.

After we spent more than an hour at JC Penny going through their luggage and opening and closing so many pieces and brans as if we had a Russian Doll complex we finally chose a Cobalt blue large suitcae for me and a smaller set for DD! As we went to pay there was a wonderful Indian teller at the JC Penny checkout who got us to sign up for a card to save 10% and then we went to the store for some microwave popcorn and those famous boil in the box dinners and now, as I sit on the bed at the Park n’ Fry Holiday Inn waiting for the snacks to finish cooking and thingking about Johnny mentioning the Popcorn lungd, DD is having a shower and we’ll likely eat the boxed Space Food and then just take it easy and likely go to bed early.

I’d like to go down to the pool and take some test underwater shots with the camera but may not but maybe tomorrow. I bought a high end underwater lens for my Canon G7 to take underwater photos in Hawaii and was thinking of jumping into the pool to test it…but whew…we are so tired!

Anyway, I checked my emails on the new laptop as we drifted off into a carbohydrate-high due to our microwave din-dins and we’ll likely watch another episode of Hawaii 5-0, since before we left Canada we bought and watch a lot of, the full DVD series of Hawaii Five-O! Tonight, in the stinky noisy Holiday Inn, as we eat our frozen microwaveable dinners and then finish off with some peach pie! Now as we sit on the bed of the Holiday Inn in Burlington with the thick crepe draperies closed and billowing slightly over the grinding and noisy air-conditioner… it’s nine o clock and after watching the Hawaiian Plague visit McGarrett I may need to have at least a small piece of that Peach Pie!

We have to wake up early to catch the plane at 10 am to Newark and then on to Honolulu! There is nothing better than the first day of a holiday…the excitement is incredible!

DAMI

Newark New Jersey – The Stepping Stone

Just settling down at the Newark airport looking through sunny tall windows out at the blue and golden globe tail fin of a Continental jet and the Empire State Building beyond the trains in the blue grey sky distant and a red white and blue flag tussling in the brisk wind. The flight was rough due to the high winds so no in flight coffee service as the poor stewardess in her plump black sweetness wouldn’t have been able to make it down the aisles as we were jumping up and down on the flight. We flew from Burlington Vermont as we could catch a non-stop flight to Hawaii instead of stopping in Chicago or LA.

It was an early morning leaving the hotel in Burlington with the alarm sounding at 5:50 AM and then the wake up call recording and I was az bit sleepy after the melatonin and the large supper we ate. Still the room was noisy and too hot even with DD trying to turn down the thermostat it never really got cool enough so both of us tossed and turned a lot and the ice machine grinding and so when we went downstairs in the stinking elevator we called this place the Park & Fry because of the heat…oh well…there was no continental breakfast included which sucked so instead of staying there we took the shuttle to the Airport with the Sheriff and had a breakfast at the One Flight Up I had sunny siders with English muffs and DD had some poached eggs as we watched the radar dish rotating in the distance.

There wasn’t much passenger traffic at the Vermont airport, which is what we wanted, but some guy with a beard who looked somewhat like, pardon any inference of political incorrectness, a cross between a Hippie and a strict Muslim, who first sat down with his older Hippie chick but suddenly didn’t want a table near anyone else so they moved to the “closed” dining room and a minute later the waitress kindly asked them to sit where everyone else was sitting.

He got all upset…huffing and grumpin’ on about the “Population Density” being too high in the restaurant. “Population Density”?….ummm…ok dude this is Burlington, Vermont at 8 am so just chill out and maybe grab a coffee and don’t freak out at the airport!

We finished breakfast and made our way through security to the boarding area. Of course Mr. Population Density has to be on our flight! D’oh!

The flight was rough but at least now it’s sunny and DD had her head on my lap the whole 60 minute flight because of her tummy was not appreciating the bumps. The turbulence was aweful and being in the small Continental charter was like some sort of carnival ride! DD was turning paler as we bumped and swayed over the snowy New Jersey landscape below us but she’s having a ginger ale now and feeling slowly better. You Can Do It!

DAMI

Waikiki – A Day on Oahu

The birds gathered in the incredible canopy trees below our 8th storey Lanai are chirping and singing for us! A nice change from the symphony of garbage trucks taking out the trash but I guess it is what to expect with the hotels plunked down here between the trees with only a slight view of the hills and maybe if I strain my eyeballs with a telescope between the hotel towers blocking Waikiki Beach I can maybe see the sea. When they say “Partial Ocean View” in the hotel description they really leave a lot of wiggle room on their definition of “View”.

No matter! We are finally on the Hawaiian Islands! After leaving Quebec and driving to Vermont and then flying to New Jersey for a non-stop flight to Honolulu we are bushed, bagged, bent and baked…but the warm humid air perfumed with flowers and sweet ocean surf is intoxicating!!

The flight yesterday was quite a ride that really pressed our asses into pancakes. The flight was an hour and a half late so we were even later in the air but I set my watch immediately to Hawaii time and we settled in….I thought we had booked seats on the window side but we were in the very back row beside a lovely lady from the Philippines who was going to stay in Honolulu for only two days.

The flight was pretty uneventful with no obnoxious people and I played a bit of peekaboo with the little cutie-patootie ahead of me and all the kids on the flight we’re well behaved. There was video games in the seats and we watched some Hawaii Five-O (The episode was “Six Kilos” featuring “Big Chicken” where Steve is undercover…just like us!) And we had some food and basically got stiff legs and finally arrived at around 10 pm at the airport and it was awesome…so many people and we’re walking on this concourse and there are palm trees and the what I thought was the original Honolulu sign I had seen on the original Hawaii Five-O series!

As we walked like kids in a candy store through the open concourse at the Honolulu Airport we were in a sweet cloud that smelled of leis around the necks and happy people coming to the islands! Welcome to Fantasy Island it seemed to say to us with the humidity and the flowers or what we could see of them as it was dark. I had romantically thought that a young Hawaiian girl would bound up to me in the airport and place a Lei around my neck and kiss me on both cheeks and say Aloha but I guess that is only happening in the movies! Isn’t this a movie? It sure feels like it!

DD and I boarded the airport shuttle with a large group and we had to stop at 15 hotels…luckily our Aloha Surf & Spa Hotel wasn’t the last but the driver was fun and we had a nice tour of the Waikiki area…so many people strolling and shopping and even though it was late it was full of activity~!

It was about 11 by the time we got to the hotel Aqua Aloha with the open lobby of lush blue tiles and comfortable furniture and we’re greeted by Angie. She is a big Hawaiian lady with a big smile just as you’d expect…we went up to the room and DD sniffed the pillows to ensure the room was clean, if it fails the sniff test then we have to find another hotel, and we fired up the Air Conditioner and went out to buy some snack s as we were very hungry!

We grabbed some sushi and chips and some Wasabi Macadamia nuts and came back to the room…had a bite and watched some Polynesian Foot Volley Ball game (it looked like a faster and more competitive version of Hake Sack that is played at the Tam Tam Jam in Parc Mt. Royal in Montreal on Sundays) on TV and then drifted off to sleep….we thought we’d sleep past the continental breakfast but the sounds woke us up and so it is now 7 am and DD has had her shower and applied her self-tanning lotion and I’m going to have a shower after my coffee on the lanai and we’ll go and explore the greens bursting into daylight!

Whew it is 7:30 and we’re back at the Aloha Surf and Spa after a gruelling day in Waikiki. We started by heading out into the sunlight after a few sticky buns for our continental…the lobby was full and we had to sit there because all the seats at the breakfast, if you can call it that, we’re taken…we then walked out to the main streets hat were already bustling with people getting an early start to the day.

DD mentioned about having a map so we decided to step into the ABC Store and asked for a map of Waikiki and paid 6.49 plus tax and then half a block later saw a tourist information kiosk where the maps we’re free…D’OH! Anyway we walked along the beach past the Waikiki Zoo and through a small garden area and to some cactus plantation and then up towards the Diamond Head crater park where we wanted to hike up to the top.

A rundown old limo with a scruffy skinny looking biker type asked something likely wanted to get us to take his cab we said no no no and just kept walking then some overly steroid- pumped Gorilla in a 4 x 4 SUV taxi is yelling out the window “Hey you going to Diamond Head?” and I’m like “Yes That’s nice…yeah…we’re going there”… because I didn’t hear exactly the question and anyway prefer not to be asked for a ride from some Taxi driver…back home we like to ask for a ride not to have some “Dude” ask if we want a lift….sheesh I’ll ask you if I want a ride little taxi boy!

Anyway so he drives by hollering that “it was a yes or no questions and I would have given you a free ride to the park!” and so yeah whatever you say freak! It was a lovely day and walking to Diamond Head isn’t a big long walk and we wanted to see everything! I just couldn’t believe this guy…like harassing tourists on Hawaii can’t be a good business practice.

We walk to the park and through this massive tunnel that goes through the rim of the volcano and then we’re literally walking on the volcano floor and to the park where a lot of tourists are preparing to make the trip up the hill to the top the trail was built in 1908. It was about an hour return trip and we were like ants going on trails the view was cool looking up from below. So many people with no water bottles or heaving or walking in bad shoes…the tunnels and stairs we’re quite tough actually and I’m glad I had been to the gym as my legs enabled me to want to take two steps at a time. One woman was stopped at the edge of the spiral staircase and she was suffering from claustrophobia and asked if it got better…it likely was not the best place for a claustrophobic but anyway at the top after we crawled out the gun turret sights from 1908 we made it to the top and the view was nice but there were too many little bugs the size of “No see-ums” but not biting but just covering us so we stayed about 5 minutes before we came back down.

We had some Wasabi Macadamia nuts and the chips and a Pepsi we had left-over from last night at the hotel…sitting under the bus shelter on the floor of the Volcano. We walked through the tunnel and took the city bus (as if we’d take a taxi now) from the park entrance and came back home..we ate the left over sushi that was in the hotel mini-fridge and laid down for a nap…nothing like a nap after such a long flight and so much walking in the sun!

We slept like baby turtles for an hour at least deep in a rock solid sleep and then woke up a bit dizzy from the long walk we’d taken so we had a coffee and went to buy postcards and do some shopping…so many shops and people trying to sell you stuff…not their fault…they just have to make a living but sometimes the whole downtown Waikiki scene was a little too aggressive for my sensibilities. We bought our postcards and found the post office and visited some clothing stores and a Ukelele store and then went for supper at the Waikiki Cheeseburger place called “Cheeseburger in Paradise” and we had a window seat and spread out the 25 postcards and ordered a burger with Maui pineapple and a guacamole burgers and there were birds at our feet right in the restaurant and then as we sat writing our postcards home we watched a beautiful sunset and we took pictures and then walked over to the hula show and live music and singing at the Waikiki beach.

I got sprayed by a big wave and then we strolled back to buy a dessert piece at the food mart and now we’re finishing the postcards and just relaxing ready for desert and an early night because we have to catch the shuttle to the airport at 9:45.

Pictures of Kauai
Kauai, The Napali Coast, Waimea Canyon, Kapa’a. All our favorite hikes and sights on Hawai’is oldest island.

Pictures of Oahu and Waikiki
Honolulu, Waikiki & the sights we saw on our short trip to Oahu.

Pictures of Hawai’i The Big Island
Volcano, Mauna Kea, Waimea, Kona, Hilo & the incredible Big Island of Hawai’i.

Unusual, odd and strange pictures from Hawaii
Strange and unusual pictures that need a special category. Fun stuff and the beauty of Hawai’i that is hard to define. The artsy side of our trip to Hawai’i!