Saturday - return to civilization

We checked out of the condo at 9:30 and went for a last breakfast at our favorite breakfast place, Kountry Style Kitchen. The traffic through Kapa'a was almost as bad as the night before, so I am thinking that weekends always get crazy here. We stopped off at Snorkel Bob's and found that the gal forgot to look for my snorkel gear under the dumpster, and we found that it was all still there. (Ahhh... island life.)
The traffic ate up whatever extra time we had, so we headed straight for the airport, and checked our luggage in for the trip back through Honolulu and (we hope) ending up in Minneapolis.
After filling up the tank (and lowering the top on my Mustang convertible one last time, I dropped off the car at the rental place.
The flight back to Honolulu was delayed due to bad weather in Oahu, so I feared that we might miss our connecting non-stop flight to Minneapolis, but it seemed that all flights were delayed a bit, so we made it with time to spare.
The wide-body aircraft was a pleasure after all the single-aisle aircraft we have flown. The in-flight entertainment was a treat... video screens built-in to the seatbacks provided games, music and many movies (0ver 20) from which to choose.
We departed at 6:00 pm local time (11 pm Minneapolis) and were scheduled to land at 5:30 am in Minneapolis. My hopes of catching some sleep were never fulfilled. I got maybe 15-20 minutes shut-eye... as did Kyle and Rosie.
When we arrived home this morning around 6:30 am, I was toast. I headed straight for bed and slept 4 hours uninterrupted. Hopefully, that nap plus tonight's 'early to bed' plan, will help us get adjusted to going back to school and work. We retrieved Roscoe from our neighbor's (the Carlson's) who gladly take Roscoe whenever we decide to go out of town. We truly appreciate the lova and care they give him... he is also always a happy dog when we return, too. He is a very, lucky dog!
Well, this concludes the Hawaiian vacation blog for spring break 2009. It was an awesome week, and we know that Kauai is a magical place and one we all want to go visit again.
Thanks for reading along. I hope it was somewhat enjoyable for you to follow along on our dream vacation as we experienced the sights and sounds of the beautiful Hawaiian culture; and as I contributed heavily to the Hawaiian revenue stream.
See ya!
Tom

Friday - the final day on the island

We spent the day relaxing and looking forward to the big luau finish. We rented snorkel gear at Snorkel Bob's and started at Lydgate Park where they have a rock wall to protect snorkelers and swimmers from surf and dangerous currents, but it allows the fish to enter in from the ocean and make their homes in the coral environment. It was a great place for beginners like us...
We decided to venture up to the north end of the island and go back to one of our favorite spots... Anini Beach. Unfortunately, they issues a high surf advisory on the windward side of the island (most of the island where we spent our time), and by the time we made the drive to Anini, the high tide combined with the high surf essentially made our beach disappear. It also was raining pretty hard, so we made our way back to the condo and Kyle and Tom went swimming at the neighboring pool. Apparently, most people don't like to swim in the pool when it is raining... so we had the pool to ourselves again; just call us quirky. We showered and dressed and made the drive to Kapa'a. The drive is normally 30 minutes... but whether the weekend crowd caused the increased traffic or as we were told the drivers on the road were rubbernecking watching the surfers tackle the high surf... the drive took us an additional 45 minutes. We were late in getting the snorkel gear back to the rental shop, so I called and the gal said to leave them under the dumpster and she would retrieve them when she returned in the mrorning. (People aren't even that trusting in Minnesota!)
We got to Smith's Family Luau on time (luckily we allowed extra time) and were very impressed. They have 30 acres on their property and can feed 450 people at a time (and we are told it is always sold out) and do the whole luau experience perfectly. The specialty is the "Kalua pig roasted in the earthen imu oven"and is incredible, along with their other specialties... teriyaki beef, Ono mahimahi and tasty chicken adobo along with the traditional poi. (Contrary to popular belief... it's not really bad. It's just a bland starch product that Hawaiians like to include with their meals.)
The theatrical show they put on after dinner, includes "the lyrical sway of the Hawaiian hula, the colorful precision of the Tahitian drum dances and the fiery emotion of the Samoan fire knife dance all speak deeply of the people who have come to call Hawaii home". (I couldn't have said it better myself.)
We straggled home afterwards and went to sleep in preparation for our long journey home.

Thursday - Poipu and Wiamea Canyon

We ventured out to the south end of the island today... we wanted to go see Poipu beach community and the Waimea canyon and hope for better weather than our side of the island. We ate breakfast at the condo and then took off for the day... we went to the Shell Factory in Kapa'a for a little souvenir shopping. We then headed further south and set Poipu as our next location. We drove around Poipu and saw emergency vehicles by the beach... we later heard there was a shark sighting on the beach, which would explain the increased activity we saw. The homes we saw were incredible (slightly out of our price range) so we went looking for Puka Dog... a specialty hot dog stand. We found it in the Poipu Shopping Village, so we stopped for lunch. We luckily got in line just in time to beat the tour bus that showed up. The food was good, but there were a lot of choices for relishes and sauces, so if you are adventurous, you might pick the wrong combination. :-) We had dessert at Papalani Gelato...



We then headed for Spouting Horn... a natural geyser driven by the crashing waves. The weather was quite windy and sometimes rainy, so we didn't stay long after snapping a few pictures; and a little souvenir shopping, of course. Before going to the canyon, we took advantage of the beautiful beach at Waimea and took our shoes off and strolled the beach for a while. Once again, since we were on a beach and didn't bring our swim suits, Kyle wasn't very happy. He would prefer to be in the water, 24/7. We should have named him Flipper, instead.



We then headed to Waimea Canyon, which is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. We drove up, and up and up the road... ending at an elavation of 3400 feet. The temp had dropped 20-30 degrees, so luckily we had our sweatshirts with us. The cloud cover prevented any great viewing, so after a few pictures, we took off for warmer and lower elevations.




We headed straight for Jo-Jo's Shaved Ice stand in the town of Waimea. We met a nice couple from Chicago who is staying on Kauai... they have already been here for a couple of months... it is amazing how many people you run into that came here by accident and keep coming back or just decided to pick up and move here. On our way back to our side of the island, we stopped at Wal-Mart for a little shopping. There is real civilization here... we saw Costco and Macy's, too.
We came back to Princeville and had dinner at the condo and to relax to get prepare us for our final full day on Kauai (Friday).

Wednesday - Kilauea lighthouse and Anini beach

We decided to check out the Kilauea lighthouse today and possibly do some geo-caching with our hand-held GPS. The lighthouse was only a 10 minute drive and was a beautiful view and location. There were plenty of people whale watching from the cliffs. The views from the lighthouse was "to die for" but unfortunately we couldn't climb to the top of the lighthouse. We decided to check out some geo-caching sites in the area but they were all apparently in remote locations and not easily accessible to us... i.e. we would need to cross private property boundaries (I think) and I didn't care to spend any of my vacation time in the Kauai jail. :-)
Afterward, we decided to stop and have lunch at Duane's Ono-Char Burgers... a roadside burger stand between Kapaa and Kilauea. The chickens walking around while we were eating was a little unsettling but the food was great.
We then went to Anini beach; as the story goes... "This beach used to be called Wanini, but during Hurricane Iniki in 1992, the "W," fell off the name sign, and rather than fixing the sign the name was permanently changed." That is the kind of history I like. The calmness of this beach is fabulous... you can sit and relax or swim in safety while you watch the waves crashing in the near distance.




Interestingly, Hurricane Iniki occurred a few weeks after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, but that storm took everyone's attention (especially the media), that no one on the mainland US knew much about or remembers Iniki.
We ended the day with dinner at the Lighthouse Bistro in Kilauea. Beautiful place... great food... and the skies decided to open up while we ate. (Boy, am I glad I don't routinely leave the top down on the Mustang convertible.)
We finished with ice cream at Lappert's Ice Cream in Princeville and went back to the condo.


We are not sure of our itinerary tomorrow, just yet... just that there is lots to do before we have to leave on Saturday afternoon. We are booked at the Smith Family Luau on Friday night... which is a 5 -hour dinner/entertainment package and will be a great send off before our departure on Saturday.
Aloha.

Tuesday - Pearl Harbor and Waikiki beach

Wow! What a day! We flew to Honolulu, rented a car and went directly to Pearl Harbor... we had every intention on going to thall three museums... the USS Arizona memorial, USS Missouri battleship and the USS Bowfin submarine. We started out at the Arizona memorial and as usual, there is a flurry of activity when it opens. Our 35 minute flight departed at 8 am, and by the time we got the rental car, we arrived at Pearl Harbor around 9 am. We got our tickets and were told we would be in the 11:15 group to see the 20 minute movie and then be herded into the boat shuttle to take us to the memorial. The audio tour through the museum was extremely interesting and informative and we had just a little down-time before our group was called. The movie recalled all the details of the attack on Pearl Harbor and dredged up a lot of memories of the feelings we all had on 9/11... an unprovoked attack on American soil resulting in thousands of American deaths and the follow-up effect of bringing all Americans together to do whatever it took to ensure our country's safety; although they didn't even mention the topic of the forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps". (yes, that was a commentary)
By the time we were done at the Arizona, we were hungry enough that we left for a nutritious meal at Jack in the Box and returned to tour the USS Bowfin, the WWII submarine. Afterward, we lost our energy and didn't feel like we needed to see the battleship USS Missouri.
Kyle was eager to see something besides a museum, so we ventured out with our GPS to find the Diamond Head Crater national monument. Unfortunately, the GPS led us in circles and Kyle was eager to go to the beach, so we abandoned our search for the crater.The weather had been glorious all day long, so we headed to Waikiki beach... unfortunately, when we planned this day-trip we didn't have the desire to drag luggage with us, so we didn't bring any bathing suits. We knew hanging by the beach with no opportunity to go into the surf was killing Kyle, so we stopped in a store ABC stores (which are everywhere in Hawaii), and purchased a bathing suit for Kyle, towel and any accessories we needed. Kyle then played in the Pacific surf and we hung out and enjoyed the day, with its beautiful weather and the opportunity to people-watch. We had an 8 pm return flight so about 5 pm we headed back to the airport and looked forward to basking in the beautiful weather for the rest of the week on Kauai. The differences in islands is striking... because Kauai was my first impression of Hawaii, on my arrival on Oahu, I really disliked Honolulu; it is a big city and didn't really feel like an island. I felt like I was in Miami. So far, I am loving Kauai and hope we can get to Maui next time, so I can compare. The time spent in Waikiki was cool... being at a world-famous beach, watching people from all over the world; definitely an experience. The surfing school/area was fun to watch... and watching people paddle-surf is amazing.
The funny thing about being in a location so far from home... we always run into people from Minnesota. There was a family going to Oahu on our flight, and the little boy had on a Twins cap, so we struck up a conversation. They were from Spring Lake Park. At Pearl Harbor, we also ran into several families (that Rosie knew) from the New Ulm/Sleepy Eye area). It's definitely a small world.
On Wednesday, we will be staying local and venturing out to see parts of Kauai we haven't yet seen... and to take advantage of the sun, which we haven't seen much of lately.
Aloha!

Tuesday in Oahu

We'll be in Oahu the entire day, so I won't be able to upload and publish until late tonight/early tomorrow.
On Wednesday, we have plans to attend the Smith Family Luau but we reserved too late and we are currently on the stand-by list. They apparently have a capacity of over 400 guests at each luau, so the chance that someone will back-out is pretty good.
Updates later...
Tom

Monday - in Princeville, Kauai

This morning we slept in and made our own breakfast in the condo. The Kona chocolate macadamia nut coffee was superb. We then lounged around until it was time to venture around the island. Our plan was to drive to Lihue (about 20 miles) and do some shopping and then drive to the south part of the island to see some interesting things in the area we don't normally get to.

We got on the road (the only road around the island) and after about 2 miles, traffic slowed to a dead stop. We were in traffic about 20-25 minutes and had progressed about 1/4 mile (probably only from cars turning around) when we decided to give up and turn around. We drove back toward Hanalei and kept driving... around the part of the island that dead-ends. There were lots of one-lane bridges in this area (each direction takes turns) and we went about 6 miles when the road just ended. We stopped and took a couple of pictures. The scenery is exquisite... including the mermaid we found.
The traffic , it turned out, was the result of the only road being blocked by a mudslide, caused by all the rain we have had recently. We had lunch at Bubba's Burgers in Hanalei Bay (and they were awesome). We did some shopping (bought some sunglasses) and then went swimming at the pool in the afternoon.
Also, there were several earthquakes over the last few days... a 2.6 on the Richter scale yesterday on Hawaii, a 4.0 on the big island today and a 2.9 on Maui today. This may be considered somewhat normal, but it's a little freaky to me.
Our plans tonight are to get a pizza at the local pizza place and keep a low profile so we can be rested for tomorrow's plans. Tomorrow we have a flight to Oahu and rental car planned, to stay the entire day visiting the museums (3) at Pearl Harbor and do whatever else we can find to do. We will arrive in Oahu at 8:30 am and have a 8 pm return flight, so it will be a long day being a tourist.
Aloha!

Sunday in Kauai

After breakfast at a great local eatery, The Country Kitchen, we spent the better part of the day on the Hawaii Movie Tour. It was a great experience and we all had a blast... the tour guides (Jesse and Tom) were fun, knowledgeable and made the day a wonderful experience. The idol used in the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is pictured with Kyle tempting the island-god and is also pictured with Tom, our guide.
They would play the DVD movie clip as you were at a particular location, and provide some insight, rumors or specific detail so you can compare what you see on the silver screen to real life. The list they gave us mentioned over 80 movies or shows filmed on the island of Kaua'i, and these either were filmed entirely, partially, or barely. :-) Interestingly, the opening scene from Fantasy Island "de plane, de plane, boss" was filmed at the old run-down Coco Palms Hotel, although the rest of the series was filmed in a studio in Hollywood. This hotel was also world famous as the location for Elvis' "Blue Hawaii" and "South Pacific". This hotel location can be seen in our family picture and the palm tree picture. The remaining picture is the location where Gilligan's Island pilot episode was filmed.
The weather complied for part of Sunday. We had some glorious weather for the most part of the day until the 5-hour tour ended around 2 pm, then the rain rolled in. Since our resort's pool is still under construction, we have free use of the Hanalei Bay Resort pool and beach. (Apparently, every beach in Hawaii is considered public domain, so a resort can't prevent you from using their own beach.) We went to check it out and were duly impressed, although the constant drizzle and occassional downpour kept us from too much swimming.
We had dinner at a local restaurant in Princeville... CJ's Steak & Seafood. It was a great dinner and we retired back to our condo and I crashed around 8:30 pm.












I am fairly confident our bodies are adjusted to the time change, since I seem to wake up automatically at 5 am each day, :-( although we are all exhausted each night. That's probably indicative of us enjoying ourselves.)
The three remaining pictures at the bottom are all of Hanalei Bay, where the movie "South Pacific" was filmed, and many celebrities reside.
Aloha until tomorrow. Until then, we are praying for some sun... or at least the rain to subside.


Weather update:
The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Monday morning:
2.47 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
3.18 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.21 Molokai
0.14 Lanai
0.54 Kahoolawe
1.29 Oheo Gulch, Maui
6.54 Hilo airport, Big Island

Saturday - The beginning of the journey!

Kauai on Wikipedia...

Well, the trip was long, yet uneventful. That's always a good thing when you have to take 3 different flights; are crossing an ocean; are putting the lives of your family in the hands of strange pilots... and have watched the last 4 seasons of "Lost".
We left the house at 6:45 am and made it to the parking place, and got checked in at the airport with plenty of time for a good hearty Mickey-D breakfast. Our flight departed on-time at 9:30 and we got to Portland around 11 am Pacific time.

The time zone changes were a little confusing because some of us travel with one time zone, (home or destination) and do the mental math... and some travel always changing to the local time... and trying to stay on the same page was a little bit 0f a challenge.
We had about 90 minutes for the layover so we stretched our legs and found a "Good Dog Bad Dog" hot dog stand and had the all-nutritious chili-dog and corn dog meals. We made it to Honolulu around 4:30 pm (local Hawaii time) and had another 90 minutes before our inter-island flight to Lihue airport on Kauai.
It was a bit dreary and rainy in Hawaii so far, but that did little to dampen our spirits as we eagerly trudged through the airport, found our luggage waiting for us and got to the rental car. Unfortunately, my initial fears when I rented the Mustang convertible came true... when you want to rent a sportier car, always think of luggage, too. The 3 large suitcases were crammed in and almost didn't quite make it, but we did it.
The drive was about 35 minutes to the North Shore town of Princeville and the timeshare resort did not disappoint us. It is as luxurious as we had hoped but we had feared that we would be disappointed. The Cliffs at Princeville has undergone a multi-year renovation and they just updated the furniture in the units with $50K of furnishings... and it shows! It is gorgeous. Unfortunately the pool is not yet completed... and that bit of bad news almost set the tone of the week since Kyle always wants to go swimming... but they told us that we have the use of a neighboring resort's pool. Hallelujah!!! In preparing for the next day's activities, I checked and found that Hawaii does not observe daylight savings time... so our 4 hour difference from Central time zone just changed to 5 hours.
We got some badly needed sleep and I awoke at 5 am while the rest of the family got up around 6 and we are heading out for breakfast before we take the Hollywood Movie Tour. We'll probably just relax by the pool after our day's activities and get accustomed to "the island way of life". My Internet connection is being temperamental, so I will upload the pictures later today.

Aloha for now!

Tom, Rosie and Kyle

The 2009 Ryan family vacation - Kauai

I will be posting blogs and uploading (our own) pictures as we travel to our 50th state and take in the sights, sounds and experiences of the beautiful Hawaiian islands. In the meantime, while you look at these photos, take your shoes off and put your feet in the sand on the beach... and listen to the soft Hawaiian music playing in the background. "Ho'oponopono" (that doesn't actually mean anything pertinent, it just looked like a cool Hawaiian word.)Stay tuned...

Pack 330 - 2009 Blue & Gold awards banquets

In addition to this event marking Kyle's graduation from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, it also marked the end of my stint as Cubmaster. I spent a year and a half as Assistant Cubmaster under Wayne, then when he left the pack (because his son graduated to Boy Scouts), I naturally assumed command. I spent the last two years as 'leader of the pack'. :-)
I truly had an awesome experience, mostly due to the people with whom I worked.
Julie (pictured with me as we both departed the pack), Cathy, Natalie, MaryGen, Scott, Eric, and all the other den leaders were an incredible group to work with and I will treasure the time we spent together. The great part is that it is not really over... I will still see them at church and school and can stop by and visit whenever I want.
It's not like I am moving away from the area, destined never to see these people again, whom I now consider my friends.
Although, as Kyle gets involved in Troop 370 in Eden Prairie, I will naturally get more involved with them and devote more time to assist the boys achieve their rank and merit badges.
Scouting was an awesome experience for me as I was growing up, and I am very happy that Kyle is getting as much out of it as he does. He seems to have the drive and ambition to go as far as Eagle, although there are lots of distractions along the way... the 'fumes'... perfumes and car fumes. Those were definitely my distractions and were ultimately the reasons I left scouting at the age of 16. Also, back in the early 70's, scouting wasn't as cool or accepted as it is today.

Cub Scout graduation ceremony

Well, after 5 years of uninterrupted Cub Scouting, Kyle has graduated from Cub Scouts and earned the Arrow of Light award. He participated in the crossover ceremony to symbolize leaving his parents and Cub Scouts behind, and crossing the bridge to Boy Scouts.
He is very excited about his Boy Scout adventure and has promised me he will get his Eagle award someday. He said he was doing it 'for me'... I told him I didn't want that kind of guilt in my life.
I have enough guilt... I don't need that.
All kidding aside, he is gung-ho and is eager to start working on his rank badges. Our first meeting with Troop 370 in Eden Prairie is March 16th... the day after we get home from Hawaii.