Aloha! Part II

I took the above shot in the Iao Valley Park. I'm not sure what kind of flower but it's beautiful, eh? We are in the middle of seven glorious days on Maui. So far we have been to the Haleakala Crater,




the Iao Valley.



the Sugar Cane Train in Lahaina (Lahaina, Kaanapali and Pacific Railroad),



The engineer that operated this steam locomotive was a twenty-something woman!

Aloha!

Posting from the Outrigger in Waikiki! It's a beautiful hotel with really great service and amenities.
Our trip was mostly uneventful. One situation in LAX was a little tense. My wife and sister-in-law went to find a place to smoke after our flight from San Jose to LAX. My wife had her boarding pass with her but not her ID. My sister-in-law had to beat feet from the security check point to the boarding area to get her ID. My wife got through and returned to the boarding area in time to have our boarding numbers called!

Five and a half hours of flight is a long time! It's been a while since I've done that. We had a van pick us up and do the sardine squeeze to the hotel. They checked us in quickly and we went up to our rooms. My parents had a fruit basket and bottle of champagne waiting for them. It was sent by her neice Melody and husband Curtis. It was a nice touch.

After getting relatively settled in our rooms, we went to scope out the dinner situation. Waikiki is a twenty-something haven. The place is teeming with amped up "beautiful people". Most of the hotel restaraunts were filled with loud and boisterous youngun's just learning how to hold their liquor. Makes me feel like an old codger! I just wanted a place to eat that I didn't have to wait an hour and a half to get into and sport my own ear plugs. We ended up ordering Roundtable Pizza in the room! It still took nearly an hour but we could at least talk without shouting.

My wife and Sister-in-law had gone downstairs to smoke *see footnote*. My brother and I were going to run across the street to the ABC store to get some water. I wanted cerveza for the pizza as well. We didn't see them in the "smoking area". I said I would bet they were in the ABC Store. Sure enough! As we entered there they were shopping away. Fortunately no purchases were made since the 6 pack of bottled water and Corona came to $15.25, ouch! Most things are ridiculously iced so I'm really not surprised. That reminds me, at the Burger King inside the LAX boarding terminal, they had some of their meal combos priced at over nine dollars. Captive audience, right?

Slept fairly well. I'm not used to a regular bed since I have slept on a waterbed for the last 18 or so years. This morning we have our welcome breakfast where they will give us some tour/sightseeing information. They expressly said at the airport when picking us up "no timeshare". Nice to know they aren't trying to sell us anything. Today we are probably going to do some Pearl Harbor touring. Being Labor Day we will probably stay away from the Arizona and the crowds.

*footnote* - Smokers are mercilessly persecuted at airports and in Hawaii. Smoking is treated as a disease that should be exorcised from the planet. You actually sign an acknowledgement at hotel registration that you will be fined $250 for smoking in the room. The security at Honolulu International treated the ladies nearly as well as terrorist suspects when they were smoking in the wrong place outside. Security actually made them put out their cigarettes to walk across the street and smoke. Zieg Hiel!!!

Vacation Anticipation

Three days on Oahu and seven on Maui. I'm getting a little light headed just thinking about it. I've been to Maui one other time in 2000. It was wonderful. There was a drought at the time so it only rained for a few minutes on one of the seven days that we were there.

Rather idyllic I must say. We did the road to Hana thing. Being dry it was probably not as impressive as when there were active waterfalls plunging through tropical foliage. Did the deep sea fishing trip. My mother-in-law caught a nine foot Marlin of about 250 pounds. It was interesting but I don't think I would do it again. The most memorable activity was the snorkling. Christmas morning the kids opened the few presents that we brought along with us and then we went to the 14 mile marker on the road to Ka'anapali. We must have been in the water for about four hours. It was just amazing. It was knee deep to chest deep at least one hundred yards from the beach. This meant you had to be careful not to brush up against the coral however. The aquatic life we saw was fabulous. Just like a National Geographic article. Fish with all the colors of the rainbow would swim up to you. I think that was because many people would bring various forms of fish food into the water with them. Kind of like pidgeons and seagulls, these fish were scavengers looking for the easy meal. We didn't have food but they would approach anyway.

This time around I would like to see more in the way of the countryside. There is the Haleakala crater, Iao Needle, the north shore. Tedeschi winery also sounds intersting. They produce pineapple wine. The grounds are reportedly spectacular. We had done a quick jaunt into Lahaina a few times on our last trip. We did the Old Lahaina Luau, Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gump's. I think we may have shopped one afternoon. I would like to see some of the historic buildings in the town. I guess when you're an old coot like me (hmm) you want to do those kinds of things. I just find history extremely interesting.

On Oahu we will do the obligatory Pearl Harbor excursions. There is also an aviation museum I would like to check out. It's a mini New York so I guess we won't be bored. It will be my first time there except for being at the airport on six other occasions. If you have any suggestions for the off-the-beaten-path excursion, leave me a comment and any tip that would come in handy on the islands.