Hawaii 05

I've taken such a long time to post this Blog, because I planning on adding photos. I will post a link when my photos are up online.
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I’m sorry to say I am now back in Vancouver after two, glorious weeks in the Hawaiian Islands. I became very used to the lifestyle there: going to the beach everyday, tanning, swimming – I was in heaven. Now I am home, and it is wet and cold, I can’t show off my tan, because I have to dress warmly – no more running around in bikinis and flip flops; but enough complaining, let me share my trip to Hawaii.

We left Vancouver on September 30th. I didn’t enjoy the first half hour or so of the flight out of Vancouver – it was very turbulent, and I don’t do well with turbulence. Once we were over Oregon though, it settled down, and I even got a good view of Crater Lake and Wizard Island. Considering the number of times I have flown to Los Angeles, I have never seen this geological landmark. All the other times it was either cloudy, dark or I was on the wrong side of the plane.

Since the flight to LA was only two and a half hours, with no movie and no food, Colin and I passed the time by playing cribbage.

This is the first time either of us have had to make a connection through LAX. Usually flying to LA means going to Disneyland – but not this time. Because we were flying on (British Airways) points, we couldn’t book a direct flight from Vancouver. This was mildly frustrating, considering that flying from Vancouver to Hawaii is only about thirty minutes longer than flying from LA to Hawaii. But it was a free flight (courtesy of my parents), so I can’t really complain.

DON’T EVER MAKE A CONNECTION AT LAX IF YOU CAN AVOID IT!

I have never seen such a gong show! We had an hour and half layover in LA. I assumed it would be enough time, except that it took the shuttle to take us from the Alaska Airlines terminal to the American Airlines terminal forty minutes to show up – and this is the only way to get from one terminal to the next, in our case.

I have made connections in many major US airports: SeaTac, O’Hare, DFW – they all have a great system; hop on a monorail and in a few minutes you arrive at your next terminal. This is not the case with LAX. When your shuttle does finally show up, you drive along the runway, dodging food and luggage trucks and breaking for planes taking off and landing.

We thought we finally reached our destination. But no, it was the American Eagle terminal, not the American Airlines terminal. So we hopped on another shuttle and again drove through the maze that is the LAX tarmac.

We had about 45 minutes before boarding by the time we reached our terminal. We scoped out the fast food restaurants and settled on dining at Burger King.



American Airline boasts that their airline has more legroom in economy than any other airline. More legroom my ass! We were in the second to last row of the plane, with a window and centre seat. God we were cramped!

We arrived in Maui at 8:30 PM (Hawaiian time), got our bags and looked into the cost of taking a cab to our hotel (the Maui Lu). It was going to be about $25 for one way, so we looked into renting a car. Good call Colin. While Oahu has an amazing bus system (The Bus), you really need a car to get around Maui, and the price was right.

We hopped into our car, left the airport in Kahalui and headed to our hotel in Kihei.

I quite liked the hotel we stayed in – we had an ocean view, right on the beach and our room turned out to be a loft. Too bad we were only in Maui for two days. I will have to re-think that when we return to Hawaii.

I called Lisa to let her know that we now had car, and she didn’t need to pick us up to drive us to the wedding… Travis’ mum answered the phone and told me that Lisa had gone to the hospital – she had been kicked in the head by a horse! Thank god she was ok.

I woke up early Saturday morning, around 5:30 AM. Of course I was still on Vancouver time, so it was really 8:30 AM, so nothing ridiculously early. I drifted in and out of sleep, until Lisa phoned at 7:30 AM. She filled me in on the previous evening’s events. She also updated us on the wedding plans:

Just before we arrived in Maui, Hurricane Kenneth was bearing down on the Island. By the time we arrived, it had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but this still threw a wrench in the wedding plans.

The wedding was to take place at a house Travis and Clare rented, near Paia. This part of the island, however, is susceptible to rain, and made it impossible to hold the wedding there. Lisa informed us they we looking into moving the ceremony and dinner to Kihei, which happens to be in a rain shadow area, so is quite dry. Of course, nothing was final.

Since we had all morning and a good chunk of the afternoon, Colin and I went out for breakfast at Stella Blue’s Café. Afterwards we drove along the coast to Lahaina. We returned to the hotel around 1:00 PM to find out about the wedding plans: it was being moved to Kihei, to the Mana Kai, which was about ten minutes away from our hotel. We still had some time so we went for a walk around the hotel grounds and went in search of the Vancouver Monument.

On the beach, next to our hotel a monument has been erected to George Vancouver – it is the spot where he (supposedly) first landed when he came to Hawaii. The monument consists of a large cairn, with inscriptions and two (West Coast) totem poles.

After our walk, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The ceremony was a quiet one (only about 20 people attended, mostly family), on the beach in Kihei. Afterwards, we went to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. I, of course, ordered the Mahi Mahi (a type of fish, if you were wondering).

Because of Lisa’s accident, Andrew and Lisa decided to leave the house in Paia and return to staying in Kihei, and booked a room at the Mana Kai. Shortly after dinner began Lisa left to go to bed. Andrew offered to drive us to the house in Paia to go to the reception. He followed us to our hotel, where we dropped of our car, and the three of us made our way towards Hana.

The house was gorgeous, unfortunately is was dark (and pouring with rain) so we couldn’t really see the property. There was an outdoor washroom, however, complete with toilet, sink and shower. I would have loved to use the washroom every day (which most of the guests at the house did), and it was surprisingly private.

I had a good time at the reception. Clare and Travis did the traditional cutting of the cake and the first dance. And later in the evening everyone got into dancing, something rarely seen at a house party. I drank a lot that night: I had some sort of tropical concoction at dinner; and back at the house I had a Malibu and Pineapple (you can purchase Malibu Rum at Costco in Hawaii!), a Corona, and 3 glasses of wine. And I was still standing.

We left the party around 1:00 AM and returned to Kihei just after 1:30 AM.

The next morning we got up, packed, checked out and met Lisa and Andrew for breakfast - back to Stella Blue’s Café. After breakfast the four of us checked out Hilo Hattie’s and then said our goodbyes as Colin and I had a flight to catch to Oahu.

We had some time to kill, so we checked out a small shopping mall in Kahalui, filled the car with gas (more like topped it off), and returned the car. While we were waiting for our flight to Honolulu, a ticket person at the gate said anyone flying to Honolulu could hop on an earlier flight – so we did.

Just after we taxied away from the gate it hit me – we were on this flight, but our luggage doesn’t know we were on this flight. So we sat around the airport in Honolulu for 45 minutes waiting for the plane with our luggage on it to arrive. Oops.

We grabbed a shuttle bus to Waikiki and settled into our hotel.
As is often custom for a first day/night of vacation, we decided to explore Waikiki. My grandpa wasn’t kidding when he said there were a lot of ABC stores in Honolulu – there were at least two per block in Waikiki Beach. We ate dinner at Smorgy’s – if you are in Waikiki, don’t ever eat at Smorgy’s. It was a buffet-style restaurant: the salads and desserts were ok, but the main courses were not very appetizing. Our digestive systems paid dearly.

October 3rd was our first, full day in Waikiki. Our hotel offered a buffet breakfast every morning, “breakfast on the beach.” Every morning, between 6:30am and 9:30am, you head down to the pool deck with your insulated lunch bag and fill it with breakfast goodies. We opted to sit by the pool and eat our breakfast every morning, then rent our chairs and towels (free) and literally cross the road and spend our mornings on Waikiki beach.

This particular part of Waikiki Beach, where we were staying, is known as Kuhio Beach. Kuhio Beach has been badly eroded over the years, so a wall was built to stop the erosion of the beach, forming a lagoon. It reminded me a lot of the pool at Kits Beach.

I liked this particular part of the beach because the water inside the wall was calm. Everyday we were at the beach Colin and I would swim out to the wall, where the water was quite rough, and get thrown of the wall by the waves. Lots of fun! We noticed one day, that someone has lost their swimming trunks. No we didn’t see a naked person, but we did see a pair of swim trunks floating in the water.

Later that day (because we have our priorities straight) we went in search of a sports bar that would be airing Wednesday’s Canucks games (Vancouver vs. Phoenix). After only a short while of searching we found one – the Round Table. We were set for Wednesday.

On Tuesday we hiked Diamond Head. Our trip there was our first experience with the Oahu Bus system – the Bus. It only costs $2 (to go anywhere on the Island), and, in most cases, we were able to use our transfers, so transportation was frugal.

Diamond Head is a relatively easy hike, apart from the 100 stairs you have to climb near the top. The hike is well worth it; once you get to the top you see the most amazing view. It was absolutely breathtaking.

On Wednesday we took the bus into downtown Honolulu to check out some of the sites. We walked through a small museum in the Hawaiian Supreme Court and then took a tour of the Iolani Palace – the only royal palace that exists on American soil.

The palace was beautiful with a distinct European style. The Hawaiian king who had it built was a world traveler and wanted to incorporate design and décor from around the world. It was even finished with West Coast cedar.

After our trip into the heart of Honolulu we returned to Waikiki and watched our first Canucks game since game seven, of round one of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals.

On a side note, we were actually at that game. Apparently we were featured on the CBC as 2 disgruntled Canucks’ fans – we were the last to leave our seats at GM Place that night. Anyways, back to Hawaii.

Of course, the Canucks won their season opener.

On Thursday, Colin and I went to Pearl Harbour. It was an awesome experience, apart from the bus ride (it was an hour and a half each way!). We arrived at the Arizona Memorial at 10:30 AM, but had to wait until 12:30 PM for our group to head out there, so we headed over to check out the USS Bowfin.

The USS Bowfin is a World War II sub that was commissioned on December 7, 1942 (exactly one year after the bombing of Pearl Harbour). I could not imagine spending anytime on a sub, but somehow 80 men managed to live, sleep and work on it.

After our tour of the Bowfin we headed back to the Arizona Memorial for our tour. It started with a brief video showing the attack. It actually had footage of the Arizona being hit – the woman next to me jumped out of her seat from the sound of the explosion! After the film, we boarded a boat and made our way to the Memorial. It was very interesting to say the remnants of the Arizona lying eerily in the water. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what Ford Island and Pearl Harbour were like 64 years ago. I tried imagine what the Arizona was like before her tragic end.

After our visit at the Arizona Memorial, we headed over to the USS Missouri. I have been on two aircraft carriers before, but never a battleship. The USS has great significance in [American] history (don’t forgot my degree is in US and 20th century history). It was on this ship the VJ (Victory over Japan) declaration was signed, thus ending the war in the Pacific.

On Friday and Saturday we decided to take a break from site-seeing and spent a couple of relaxing days on Waikiki beach. On Saturday afternoon we retuned to the Round Table for hockey game number two, Vancouver vs. Edmonton, but it was a Saturday and we were in the USA, so all screens were dedicated to football and baseball. With only a few minutes to spare we had to find a new place. The waitress at the Round Table suggested a bar that was only a couple of blocks away – Legends. Does every city of this planet have a sports bar called Legends?

This was one of those situations where something (mildly) disappointing happens, but the end result is so much better than you could have hoped for. This particular sports bar had hockey all the time, $2 Mai Tais and Canucks fans. The day we watched the Canucks-Oilies (not a typo, just my nickname for them) game there were even Edmonton fans there – well, the guy was actually a student from the University of Hawaii, who happened to be from Alberta, but was actually a Flames fan, but was cheering for Edmonton.

So there we were, in a sports bar, in Waikiki, with a good, fun Vancouver-Edmonton rivalry going on.

The Americans thought we were nuts. Who cares, there were more of us than them…

After numerous $2 Mai Tais we stumbled a way to dinner. A couple of guys from Vancouver suggested we try the Shore Bird (I thought they were saying Shoberg). We drunkenly stumbled our way through Waikiki, heading in the right direction, but not absolutely sure of where this place was. But funny things happen when you have been drinking. We were cutting through the Outrigger hotel, when all of a sudden I said (quite loudly) “hey it’s the Shore Bird, oh the Shore Bird not Shoberg, that makes more sense.” Yes in a drunken stupor, we quite accidentally happened upon our destination.

I managed to convince Colin to go shopping with me, so on Sunday we made our way to the Ala Moana shopping center. Definitely a must if you are visiting Honolulu. We bought lots of souvenirs, including macadamia nut honey (which Gavin had asked for).

That evening we went for a run along Waikiki Beach (about our third one). Colin went running more often than I did, but then he is training as part of his application to the police force (either VPD or RCMP). On the beach that night (and the previous evening) they had a huge movie screen set up, and were showing Bend It Like Beckham. We had both seen this movie before, but thought it would be a unique experience to sit on Waikiki beach and watch a movie. So we ran back to the hotel picked up a couple of chairs and towels and enjoyed a movie on the beach. It was unfortunate that we missed Saturday’s show, since they were showing a sneak preview of Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which I really want to see. And it was free!

Let me weigh this: see Wallace and Grommit for free on Waikiki Beach or pay $10 to sit in Silver City to see it. Needless to say I was quite disappointed that we missed it.

We spent Canadian Thanksgiving lounging on Waikiki Beach. It made up for missing out on TWO turkey dinners. Guess I will just have to wait for my TWO turkey dinners at Christmas.

We headed back to Legends to watch the Vancouver-Detroit game. Because it was Columbus Day, we were somewhat outnumbered by Americans watching football and baseball, but we still made a good showing, and made a good point to be the loudest in the bar!

October 11 was one of my favourite days – the day we visited the Polynesian Cultural Centre. This was our big, vacation splurge. We decided to buy the Ambassador package which included a round trip coach ride to and from the Centre (it is on the North East part of Oahu, up towards the North Shore), a guided tour, luau, show, leis and other souvenirs.

The Polynesian Cultural Centre is run by Mormons and employs students from Hawaii’s Bringham Young University (which is right next door to the PCC). Before that I thought that there was only one BYU campus – the one in Salt Lake City. You learn something new everyday.

The PCC is a wonderful experience: you visit 6 Polynesian villages: Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga. Each village is recreated to depict what that particular Polynesian country was like, including housing, clothing food and traditions.

After our visit to the Aeotera (New Zealand) village, Colin had gained minor celebrity status for the day. Many of the villages get the audience involved; for instance we learned how to hula in Hawaii (this is also where I tried poi). In Aeotera two audience members were asked to come up and participate in a Maori War dance, not the Haka (which is done before every All Blacks game), but something similar.

Colin stole the show. He had the moves and the vocals down pat, and had the audience hooting and hollering. If you want to see his Maori war dance I have it on video.

Everywhere we went that day people were coming up to him and telling him how great his war dance was. I even overheard some people as we walked passed them say, “that’s the guy from the New Zealand village.” At the luau there were two women at our table from Utah, and one of them was just so excited that Colin was sitting at her table. She touched him and said “I am never washing this hand,” or something along those lines. It was hilarious.

Do you know how to get out taro root stains? I managed to sit in some at the luau and now have a purple stain on my shorts. I got some of it out, but it is still there.

Last Wednesday was our final day at Waikiki Beach. I sat on the beach and read for a record four hours. Later that afternoon we went to Legends to watch our final Canucks game in Hawaii. It was that stinker against Minnesota, a 6-0 loss. Thank god it was raining outside or I would have wasted my second to last day in Hawaii on a crappy hockey game.

For our last day in Hawaii Colin and I went to Hanauma Bay, a nature preserve and popular snorkeling destination. We were there for six hours, swimming with the fishes… I was hoping to see a sea turtle but didn’t manage to find one. I love being in the water, so snorkeling was an excellent idea. It took me a bit to get used to the gear, but once I settled in we were swimming far out; both of us are very strong swimmers so despite the strong tow and large waves, it wasn’t much of a challenge or danger.

It was the perfect way to spend our last day in Hawaii.

Because our flight home left at 8:00 AM, we were up at 4:30 AM to finish packing and be ready for our shuttle at 5:45 AM. The shuttle was 10 minutes late, and we were the first pick-up. We didn’t get to the airport until 6:30 AM, but were advised to be there no later than 6:00 AM. I asked the driver how the American Airlines counter was at the time of morning and he said it wouldn’t be busy. Not busy my ass, the line-up was almost out the door – thank goodness we were flying first class; and our plane was delayed 20 minutes.

The flight back to LAX was much more enjoyable than the flight over, but it helps when you sit in first class. The chairs were big and comfy and we were served food – an anomaly on planes nowadays.

Our breakfast started with fresh fruit and bagels; then, for the main course, we had a choice of frittatas, scrambled eggs or an omelet. A while after breakfast we were served warm, roasted nuts, then milk and cookies. Before we knew it we were in LA for our four hour layover.

We knew we could kill some time transferring terminals, but it wasn’t quite as bad as when we first transferred in LA; except we did almost collide with a baggage truck.

We settled ourselves at our gate and passed the time reading and eating dinner. There was a sports bar in our terminal, but it wasn’t airing the Canucks game. Had they been playing the Kings or Ducks there was a good chance the game would have been aired though. So Colin went back and forth from the gate to the bar to check out the highlights.

After awhile I started to feel cold. The air conditioning was blasting, but little did I know I was suffering from the onset of a cold. When Colin went to get dinner, I asked him to pick me up a Pumpkin Spice latte. I was looking forward to it. Except the Starbucks had closed. All the employees went for a break. WTF?! You are a Starbucks operating in a terminal full of flights going to Vancouver and Seattle and you shut down?!

It was supposed to re-open before my flight left, but never did.

We returned to Vancouver around 11:00 PM, and blew through customs in a record 5 minutes. We waited about 10 minutes for the baggage, and within 20 had two of our three bags, and then the carousel broke down.

We didn’t end up leaving the airport till 12:30 AM.

And here I am, back in Vancouver.