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I covered snorkeling, and the road to hana, and the chopper ride, but how did we spend the rest of our trip?

Doing less.

We still did plenty, we went to Oahu and ended up having a great time with friends, who were also in Hawaii (the Fey’s), and we hit Pearl Harbor, but tried to let us all wind down with some more  time in the pool and at the beach.. These pictures reflect that.

Mack went to surfing school!  He did real well, totally fearless, paddled out with his instructor and had a bunch of good attempts to get up.. I think he swallowed a gallon of sea water, which is not fun, but kept trying and eventually made it!!

We went early, try and catch some good breaks off the reef..

The video is short, but that’s Mack on the surf board..

Before we left Maui, we went to “town” and saw this massive Banyan Tree - seriously large dude.

Big tree.. makes boys look very small

We then flew back to Oahu (Honolulu) with our boogie board in tow.  Common practice in Hawaii is to get a boogie board, use it and enjoy it, and then give it to strangers as you depart… we enjoyed the custom.

current whereabouts unknown

In Honolulu, we decided to visit Pearl Harbor.. a) because it wasn’t a full day, like 2 hours, and  b) it was free  It was actually great to go, you see a film and it really hits home how crazy it must have been during this time and to have our backyard bombed like this.. as well as better understand the dynamics for why and how the Japanese did it.  What I didn’t know, until now, was that the monument is sitting right above the USS Arizona, which remains at the bottom of the harbor, in plain sight!  Some pics to show..

Stunning sight..

still underwater after all these years..

The Feys

Our hotel in Honolulu had a nice room, but a crappy pool that didn’t allow any toys in the pool - no floats or anything.. we knew we were in trouble.  Thankfully our friends were up the coast at a really nie JW Marriott, with a great pool and private lagoon for fun in the ocean!  Alan took me snorkleing, the kinds played, we enjoyed an amazing sunset, and checked out the hotels cool pond with massive sting-rays and hammerhead sharks.. check these puppies out!

For us, this meant 2 things:

1) A ride on a helicopter to tour Maui and quite a sight it was.. pineapple & sugar farms, volcanoes and waterfalls, amazing rocky cliffs and ocean views, and a few times when I wanted to beg the pilot to veer away from the mountain! We rode our friends at Mauiscape
 

The coastlines are stunning

The requisite group shot at the end..

Picture highlights:

Miles boarding the chopper

Mack digging the Bose headphones

Hawaii is full of amazing waterfalls, none accessible except by heli

 #2 was the “road to hana” - a long, super-windy, many bridge affair through some of the most beautiful rainforest-like country you’ll see.. with elevated views of the coasts and waterfalls along the way.. this hawaii place has a patent on beauty..

Check out the ride.. this doesn’t begin to do justice to all the turns and one-way bridges

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prison labor played a role here and after many hours pondering how I-70 was ever built, I know have a new road to marvel at.

To get to Hana, you need stylish wheels

We saw some amazing trees - check out the bark! Looks fake and pastel-like

We stopped at a black sand beach, it comes from lava, and sure enough, boys will throw rocks when given chance

The boys liked the open air Jeep.. never ever remove the top! I learned that the hard way

The end of Hana has an amazing black sand & rock beach.. it’s so cool, it looks like mud or dirt, but is just black sand.. very cool stuff with some amazing tide pools.

Looks like mud, but is just plain old beach sand

 Working title: It hasn’t all been easy, but it’s been worth it..

Sunday was “get on time zone” day, which meant poolside and at beach, relaxing and enjoying amazing Hawaii weather - mid 80s, blue skies, and nice breeze. I took a few pics, but am letting the photog in me build up momentum..

Digging at the beach is one of their favorite things to do

They also have a mint pool!

Swimming with the fishes

At the pool you see interesting things.. like people at pool: Guy with a scorpion tattoo reading National Enquirer and couple sitting there, with woman reading “Men’s Fitness” while guy reads a book.. no explanation available at time of publish.

We just bummed around at the pool all day.. we took showers and drove down “into town” for dinner at “Cheeseburger in Paradise” which was solid.. but, in a commonplace episode, the kids are great, play and swim each day and then we get them to the room to shower for dinner and the melting down sets in with amazing speed.. Miles goes from nice fun-loving island boy to just so tired he can barely stand himself.. But let’s focus on the good stuff for now..

Monday was our big snorkeling day!  Gemini Tours was the reco of the conceirge - which is affiliated with Expedia.  Anyway, we had 2 choices - a real “local tour,” which required us to be up at 5:45AM and to drive 20 minutes or Gemini, which was supposed to be very nice and 11-3, and was a few hotels down the beach.. we chose 11-3, just so we didn’t need to ruin the vaca with such an early awakening.

Let’s just say it worked out better than could be hoped.  It was an amazing catamaran, with a great crew, and just a fun & relaxing and perfect day…  Notes:

• We saw and swam with sea turtles
• Miles did great snorkeling
• The boys latched onto Dave, one of the crew.. he’ll not soon forget these 2 chatterboxes

The Gemini - a sweet ride

The boys trying on their flippers

Miles trying on his floating belt

Snorkely boy

Shark! Oh wait, Miles

Good side view of sea turtle

Umm.. I thought it was gonna poop on me

We sailed in- most of the way, until wind died, then we fired up engines..

Not a bad self-portrait after snorkeling and 2 beers..

October 25, 2008 – Our family is making its maiden voyage to Hawaii!  We’ve never ever been – any of us, but are all looking forward to it, of course.  I’ll try and blog many of our adventures, a nice living history for the kids, because if they don’t behave, I can assure you – they will not be going back

Saturday AM: I got to wake the boys with, “Who wants to go Hawaii?” (in a slight whisper).  We had my usual work car service pick us up at 6:15AM and we were off to DIA.  We got the spend a few minutes at the DIA Red Carpet Club, which the boys just love.  But it soon became time to head down to our gate, and the fun began!  Not only did we have a 777, my favorite plane (until the 787 dreamliner comes out), but we were flying business/first class – something we kept a secret from the boys.  When they boarded the plane and turned left, towards the front of the plane, they got a sense something cool was going to happen.  When they saw the size of their seats, and the blankets, headphones, and buttons galore – they were in heaven. The fight attendant quickly offered them a chance to visit the cockpit, and what a thrill that was, for me, I mean, for the kids… ok, for both of us.  The pilot and first-mate were very friendly and let the kids sit in the cockpit seats for some pictures, and the cockpit for a 777 is seriously intense.

Go 777!

But thankfully, they got to sit in it before it was flying..

The flight was fine, everyone had a snack and lots to drink.. the boys watched tv on their personal video screens and enjoyed the 1hr 45min flight from Denver to Los Angeles (LAX), where we needed to change planes to fly to Honolulu. 

Miles took us for a short tour..

We also flew over the Grand Canyon en route to LA.

In Honolulu, we’ll change once more for the short flight to Maui.  We spent about an hour in the LAX red carpet club, the snacks were pretty weak, as usual.. but I scarfed down a granola bar.

Photo from LAX RCC:

Then we had the big flight!  over 5 hours from LAX to Honolulu and immediately United shafted us!  The 777 was like the Ritz-Carlton: personal video screens, foot rests, spacious seats, even nice blankets and pillow/pillowcases.  The flight from LAX was a 757, which is the AMC gremlin of the United fleet.  Now, business class there is way better than economy – we got a meal, lots of beverages (including a bunch of adult ones and good attentive service.  But no personal screens, the seats and space were just worse… even the bathroom was worse.  In the end, we made the flight just fine, but considering that the 757 is also a gas pig, United needs to get rid of those for anything beyond 2.5-3 hours. From DEN to NYC, I can live with a 757, but for this flight, eh..

We arrived in Honolulu and the first thing you notice, besides the tropical humidity, is that the airport looks like it was built in in 1968 and not a single dime of upgrades or renovations has yet to occur.  Now, hard to complain about being in Hawaii, but might as well share the observations.  However, my T-Mobile Blackberry works great and my Sprint mobile broadband card also works nicely.. go Hawaii!

We transferred from the main United terminal over to the “puddle jumper” of Island Air to take us to Maui.

And then we landed in Maui…

We checked in, went to dinner, and Miles crashed.. so we ate fast and put them both to bed..

<day one fin>

This doesn’t have anything to do with todays rain, but we got some cool pics from the underwater camera the kids used on the NY trip!

A few of the good ones.. well, they were all good..

We just spent a real fun day/night in the mountains - Estes Park to be exact. We had a great time and the kids got to do 2 things they had really wanted to: horseback riding and fishing!

In a little over a week, we’ll be heading out to Telluride for the first time.  It’s not close, but from the photos, well worth it.  Not only is it beautiful, but the skiing looks simply sublime.  When I see photos like this, I just want to get my ski boots on right now.

The head of Telluride (Dave) has a blog that he updates very regularly, with all sorts of stunning pictures and tid-bits, it’s just great.  There are 2 ways for us to get there, via I-70 or a more southern route, we’ll see, depending on weather and road conditions.

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We’re heading to Great Wolf Lodge, in the Poconos, for some fun and splashing for the kids - should be a blast!

Flying home from our June 2007 vacation to Florida.  Overall, it was a great trip, which when you go to Florida, this time of year means the weather was nice.  It was the start of the rainy season in Florida, which, for past vacations, has meant days and days of dark skies and pouring rain.  But for this trip, the weather was outstanding, hot; yes.  But the humidity and heat was as palatable as one could ask for, for mid-June.  We got in tons of pool time, lots of good eats, and a nice array of fun and recreation that you’d expect.

 Lots of great pictures on Kodakgallery!

We started for a few days with Grandma Minnie.  Well, we started off with a Saturn Vue.  As I’ve blogged (more like whined), american cars are just awful, and american rentals are the crap cars they can’t even sell, so you’re really talking about the bottom of the barrel.  we did upgrade to get to this, but anything nicer was gonna cost, and having never been in or driven a vue, i thought it worth the try. i’ll give it an overall rating of a C+, which is a compliment.  the ergonomics were awful as expected, the entire car felt like it had been pressed from a single plastic mold, and when you slammed on the gas, it sounded like you stepped on a fat old cat, it just whined and wheezed, with zero power response.  but it got us where we needed to go and the air conditioning worked well.

minnie’s was great, except i had one minor migraine like headache.  aviva was a hero, called the doctor and got me some relpax.  it may not have been a full blown migraine, or the relpax did its job, either way, i took a nap and by the next AM was feeling much (not 100%) better.  we had a few meals at the beverly hills cafe and found our new food love: Ritter’s Frozen Custard.  Miles loves “Cubby Paws” - their version of the Carvel ice cream sandwich.  We spent tons of time at the pool, enjoyed a few nice clouds, and took for an evening swim, which they loved.

We took the 2 hour drive to the Hyatt Coconut Point and did all we planned: lots of swimming on the slide and lazy river, an evening boat ride to see dolphins (which we did), took the boys on wave runners, a few evenings on the beach to collect shells, and just lots of easy relaxing.  We did go to Roy’s Hawaiian for father’s day dinner, which was great.  MUCH more kid friendly than we expected and the food and service were top notch. We hit Ben & Jerry’s once too, of course.

Other miscellaneous excitement:

• We sat through a 2 hour tour of the timeshares at the Hyatt, they gave us the hard sell, but we held off.  We might plunk down one day, but didn’t feel the urge that day, we’d like a new roof more
• On the last day, Mack was swimming and a  bug the size of a small poodle crawled onto his shoulder (yes, in the pool, this bug was an excellent swimmer).  while it was probably some harmless beetle, i cooly dragged mack out of the pool and swiped the big off him.  i was proud he didnt shrill or freak out, i tried to play down exactly how large the bug was.  the handy net man came over to remove said insect.
• the hyatt is wonderful!  we had 2 adjoining rooms, which were great, nice big bright bathrooms, nice big clean rooms, great toiletries, you name it.  the hotel restaurants were excellent and the hotel staff & service are also outstanding.  we got a great deal, in fact, we took them to the cleaners ;-)  we used like 3 different specials: 1) family fun to get the kids room at 1/2 off, summer splash for like 20% a bunch of crap and some other vacation getaway to make our room discounted.  top that off with $150 gift certificate we earned for the timeshare “hard sell” tour and 2 free nights, courtesy of AMEX points, and the ending invoice was a fraction of what it would have cost had we just booked it.
• The lazy river is awesome, 3 feet deep so Miles loves it, and you just and float and float, with the new age music in the background, every pool should build one of these
• I found Florida has a cool new kind of bug - the no-see-um.  they are smaller than mosquito’s - so they fit through even screens! and they don’t bite… well… they don’t bite, but when they land, some chemical on them has a negative reaction with your skin that causes welts.  i managed to pick up 1-2 of these bites, what a wonderful new breed of insect.
• Wave runners were great, I took Mack, Aviva took Miles.  Which meant Mack and I went fast, Aviva and Miles were in the right lane.  But we all had a blast.  I was wise and suggested we do 30 minutes, not an hour (still $120 for all 4 of us), 30 minutes was enough for the kids and grown-ups
• Noone got sunburned - mostly because we went nuts on the sunscreen, I think we’re getting smart
• Finished almost 1/2 of “The World is Flat” - excellent book

The kids had a blast, we had a blast - definitely one of our best vacations ever!