Not sure if I posted these - pretty sure I didn't. Here are the links for our last San Francisco & Hawaii trips:

San Francisco - May & June 2009

Hawaii - May-June 2009

PS I had to get these posted before I could feel good about posting the soon-to-come UK & Russian Adventure photos from the 14-night cruise with my Dad.

Enjoy!

Today we woke up early to get a head start on the day. Well, I did. I woke up at 6:40 AM because we'd gone to bed at 10:00PM the night before - we were exhausted last night. Matt was coming out of the condo and overheard an elderly couple talking:

"I can't let you plan it," spatted the wife. "No, I can't."
The husband retorted, "I'm not gonna go snorkeling. I'm not gonna go skin diving and if I let you plan it you would have me doing all these things."
Flailing her arms, the wife yelled in her best Queens accent, "I can't let you plan it because I can't trust you."

Giggling about that exchange, we started driving at 9:30 and headed to the Waimea Canyon. We made our way through Lihue - again - and went further on to the other side of the island. The trip up was very windy and very steep. Halfway up the mountain I realized that we had about 1/2 tank of gas and I thought, "That should be fine to get us up and down."

While I stopped to take pictures at the overlooks, Matthew mostly stayed in the car's A/C. He's not that into mountains (I had forgotten this tidbit before we started out and he didn't think that we'd be going through mountains.). The views were spectacular. By the end of the canyon trip, we had no more words, frankly. Breathtaking, stupendous, awesome, awe-inspiring, and other words started escaping our vocabulary. The Grand Canyon is interesting because of its depth and colors, but the Waimea Canyon is mostly red dirt, but lush and green. mondragon and faghatesgods took the same trip up, but unfortunately were met with mostly thick fog. We happened to have a clear day; all the weather reports and travel sites said it was a crap shoot whether we'd have good views.

We went all the way up into the Kokee State Park, but found fog where we should have been able to see the ocean. We did get some decent views of Nihoa and Lehua (islands off the south western shore of Kauai) later on.

On the way down the the mountain, our gas tank showed less than 1/4 tank and Matt was basically asleep. I mentioned we were low on gas, so would have to put the car in neutral and turn off the A/C in order to get down safely for a fill-up. So, he white-knuckled it all the way down, remembering a recurring dream he has of driving down a mountain at break-neck speed and going off a cliff, not knowing how far he would fall. I had forgotten that dream until he mentioned it again because his blood pressure was soaring.

I kept wanting to stop and take pictures, but had to give up on it in order to make it down the mountain quickly and safely. It's both a shame and a good thing we got a sold metal Mustang convertible for the week - they go downhill without much prodding and neutral sufficed most of the way down. We made it to the gas station and put in a full tank of more than 11 gallons!

We stopped at Kauai coffee plantation to see the coffee plants, and then got to the outskirts of Kapaa, where I bought two Hawaiian shirts - one vintage print from the 50s by Tori Richards (very limited reprint), and another with a reprint of Elivs' shirt from Blue Hawaii:



The day ended with us racing back up to Haena State Park to watch the sunset - again. In front of the rocks we mounted for our photoshoot, another group set up their model photo shoot almost in front of us with models, four photographers, and lighting guys, waiting for the money shot at 7:20 PM. We all got the money shot and took off.

On the way home, a dog barked at us passing his yard, so I barked back. It was a great day!

This was our route for the entire day.

Tuesday we had a meeting with the condo association for them to sell us a time share. Happily, we got out of it pretty quickly because we mentioned that we are both unemployed!! Great thing to remember - if you are at a timeshare given to you by a friend and you get invited to the sales pitch, just tell them you're unemployed!! You're automatically an unqualified sell. According to their standards, people to whom they pitch the sale, must be employed.

That was at 11:30 to 12:15 or so. It was SOOOO hot that day that we decided to sit in the path of a full force fan and then hit the pool in the afternoon. We were at the pool from about 2:00 to 5:30, which was great!! Part of the pool has a sand base. We had a sort of "Zen"-ly cathartic time in that side of the pool. I lay there in the sand waving sand out of the way into a hole or indentation in the sand. Then I sat in it with a big grin. My Sand Dent!!

We both fell asleep poolside for about 15-20 minutes. When we got back to the condo, we decided to go shopping a bit up the road in Hanalei, a lazy little town with a ton of restaurants and shops. There's also a world renowned beach (rated #1 in the world) that we wanted to visit to get some sunset shots, but that didn't happen on Tuesday - that happened yesterday - Wednesday. In the first shop (out of the two we went to), the shop girl, Chelsea, told us we had to go to Bouchons for sushi and see Drake, whose last day was that night and he was leaving the island.

Drake is a sushi chef from Montana who learned the craft from a NJ Jew in Montana, and brought his sushi to the island about 6 months ago. He got a few phone calls recently to open up his own restaurant back in his hometown. So we were a couple of his last customers here in Hawaii! We basically sat at the sushi bar and said, "Make us four rolls of your choice or signature stuff and have fun with our chopsticks!" He giggled and served us up rolls that highlighted tuna (albacore, ruby red, and belly), eel, salmon, roe, avocado, mango, mackerel, and red snapper along with a number of sauces. It was REALLY good!! The only drawbacks were the initially oppressive heat, the roach that popped out from in front of us and scooted around the corner of the refrigerated case, and the millions of tiny little yellow-white spiders making their way across the "back splash" of the bar in front of us.

We got back home and cooked up the swordfish that we bought at Costco on Sunday (had to eat it!), did laundry, and went to bed. Oh, and I forgot to mention my rum concoction of pineapple juice, simple syrup, and coconut milk. YUM!! Love having our own kitchen.

Made it to Hawaii!! Made it to Princeville!! Made it to our condo!! I say these things separately because on 4 hours of sleep, it was a true adventure: Together with our GPS telling us every inch where we needed to turn (new experience for us - in NJ, it's slower - yes, we brought our GPS), me driving, Matt gripping the Jesus handles every time I said, "Oh, wow!! Look at that tree!!" or "Look at that house!" or "Wow - Chickens are EVERYWHERE!" for fear that I'd careen off the narrow, precarious, dangerous road.

We got about four hours of sleep because our neighbors in San Francisco got home at 2:30 AM and starting banging each other for TWO HOURS! We called the front desk, but heard the guy giggle as he closed the door and they starting up again about 15 minutes later. No, it wasn't a Motel 6, and no the walls aren't paper thin. A solid wood headboard was the issue. In the morning, we set the alarm to go off after we left (and had the radio blasting for about an hour before that). The alarm was scheduled to go off at 7:30, which would then stay on for 30 minutes at maximum volume positioned to touch that wall and vibrate NPR into their room. Then again at 8:15 for another 30 minutes of it. Hopefully, they got less sleep than we did.

We've been here just under 24 hours and have heard "Aloha!" no fewer than 24 times!! Also, yesterday at the condo association's "orientation" (the sales pitch from the sales office), we were asked to repeat some Hawaiian phrases to practice "our Hawaiian". Meh.

BUT!!! The scenery from our condo is spectacular!! Mountains on the left and ocean to the right - we're not next to either of them, but we can see them. In our condo, we have a two bedroom place with a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room, flat screen TVs in three rooms, a lanai, and a jacuzzi! The space is beautiful (yep, we took pictures). The only drawback is there is no air conditioning in the condo at all. They rely on trade winds, ceiling and floor fans. Last night's sleep was unexpectedly really nice - one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long while. But during the day, the heat is exhausting.

There are these little birds flitting around that are so cute - and look really intelligent. They're black and white and look like mocking birds, but they have yellow around their eyes (looks like yellow at least). We saw in passing another bird that has a little red tuft poking out the top of his head - almost like a red headed woodpecker, but those wouldn't be here I don't think, nor would they be running with other birds out in the open.

And, BOY, there are TONS of chickens EVERYWHERE!! In fact, our buddy who gave us the place for the week warned us about hitting them on the road. There is even a fridge-magnet warning in the condo that reads, "Please do not feed cats and chickens". Strangely, the feral cat population can't seem to keep down the chicken population; we have seen a ton of the cats, too.

We went through a few jungle-y spots yesterday on the way up from the airport after we hit Costco, and the flowery trees are simply breathtaking against the backdrop of the volcanic mountains. The Costco was REALLY interesting. They have a special Asian food section laden with Japanese wares and foods. The fish here is happily very cheap - we picked up swordfish, tuna (dinner last night), Mahi-Mahi, and halibut along with a shrimp platter. We also got fruits and veggies to eat at the condo (because the island lacks restaurants). We're hoping to find local tropical fruits, too.

There is NO nightlife. We will be going to bed by 11PM every night and waking up at 7:00 AM, which is a good thing. Everything - including most gates to the condo property close at 9:00 PM! By 10PM everything's quiet. Very quiet.

The pool is about two buildings away and the beach is a short walk away, but we're going to explore the end of the roadway up here and other beaches. We might do some minor shopping, but just sitting in our white convertible Mustang (!!) driving along the highway will be fun.

Gotta shower and GO!