Special events at Espwa

Here is a recap of some of the activities we had planned on doing while we are visiting at Espwa... we sent money ahead of time to Free the Kids for paint to be bought in order to paint one (or two) of their houses in the main village. We also brought paint supplies with us to use... like brushes, rollers, pans, etc. On Wednesday most of the group went over and spent the morning painting the inside and outside of one house. I was working on the laptops while they did that so I missed out... but on Thursday, I broke away and while the girls treated the various housemothers to a 'spa day', us 4 guys went back over to the village and while we expected to put coat #2 on that house... but the older Haitian kids who were directing us brought us to house number 2 for its paint job. While it could have used another coat, to them the house looked great and it made more sense to put our paint and efforts toward painting a second house. The houses are fairly small, they have three rooms, and are loaded with beds. The only belongings we saw were the kids' backpacks. To me, the houses seemed  small and cramped, but that is a western perspective and we are obviously so much more used to compartively luxurious accomodations. BTW: only painting in the morning... it is too hot in the afternoon for that activity.
On Wednesday evening, we filled over 1,000 water balloons in preparation for the water balloon fight with the kids. Sometime after lunch on Thursday, we climbed up on the roof of the second floor and prepared for water war! The kids started swarming (most of them rembered the activity from the last time our group was here) and we counted down and started throwing them. We all had a blast... the boys were trying to catch the water balloons and throw them back at us. It probably lasted for 20 minutes and we were all soaked!

Daily Activities at Espwa

The people who really know me... know that I (1) never ate peanut butter as a kid and even though I like it as a flavor in candy and cookies, I don't eat PB&J sandwiches as a rule. I was initiated into that well-known delicacy on a recent scout campout when there was nothing to eat but PB&J sandwiches. (I really struggled to admit this... but I liked it.) and (2) I don't drink black coffee. When I started drinking coffee when I started working in Manhattan in 1977, I have been loading it up with cream and sugar or French Vanilla creamer (YUM!!!); Well I am seeing a few 'firsts' on this trip already... (1) I am intentionally eating peanut butter toast in the mornings with my other breakfast items; (2) I am drinking their coffee with nothing added. They do have sugar on the table, but I figured that while I am experiencing new things in life, learning to drink (and even like it) would be a good thing to do. The coffee down here does seem stronger than the usual brew at work.

Tuesday
Our week started out by unpacking the 1200 pounds of goods and organizing, sorting and documenting what we brought so they know what they have to give to the kids when it is required.
Personally, my week started by gathering the 12 laptops and going through them again (I already did this before our trip at home) and uninstalling any existing antivirus programs, installing their preferred Antivirus (free) program, some version of MS Office programs so their office and school personnel can be productive with these computers and setting the proper time and time zone, while I am documen ting the specs for the inventory list. I probably spent more than three full days on and off working on this task since there are several daily challenges working in Haiti; their power is intermittent and they use satellite Internet so they are limited in bandwidth. I am actually surprised at how dependable both of these have been... considering the conditions, but it seems that just as something was finishing downloading, there would be an interruption. I also ran into laptop hardware limitations and issues... but that is what you have to deal with when you need to rely on donated goods. (I will be a much more fervent fundraiser for Espwa in the future so we can provide more updated equipment.)
I also now know what specific programs they require so in the future, I can do more prep work beforehand. I setup my IT workstation at the dinner table, which was very central to all activities and people, but as meal time got closer, I would have to shift everything elsewhere to make room for the kitchen staff to do their thing. I started doing one laptop at a time but started multi-tasking as things sometimes went a bit smoother. They also had a broken laptop they wanted me to look at, so I didn't want to start troubleshooting a broken unit until I got past these initial laptop tasks.

Daily life for visitors at Espwa
The guest house is called "the Quad" and they have 8 guest rooms available. Most have two beds, a few have three. They have a 'drink plan' here... last year I was told that you kept track of what you drank and paid $1 per pop... or beer... or drink (rum and coke). This year they changed it so that they just charge a flat fee of $50 for the group for the week. That fee seeems extraordinarily low (especialy considering how much is consumed at happy hour and evening relaxing time), so I am pretty sure we will pay much more than that when we depart on Monday.
The meals have been great. Sometimes we have local style meals, and sometimes it is an American type meal with a Haiti twist. The pasta meal we had the other day was spaghetti with no sauce but other additives, which was superb. There is usually rice served with something... usually cheese and crackers and there is always peanut butter. :-) I was hoping to shed a few pounds on this trip, but I now fear that I will gain a few instead.
We are all taking Malaria medicine, although it seems the dosage and instructions vary wildly. They issued me 6 tablets... one a week before I entered the country, one to be taken the day I enter Haiti, and then one a week for 4 weeks after. Others are taking one pill a day for 15 days, others have a different pattern. It seems odd that it differs that much, but as long as we are taking it, I am sure we are all protected.
("I am not a doctor, but I play one on television.")

For health reasons, all the water we use is bottled water. A large office-style dispenser is in the kitchen for our daily use and the kitchen staff uses the same large bottled water when they prepare and cook meals.  All but one of our rooms has a sink in them for brushing teeth, etc., but we need to remember not to put that water in our mouths. I keep my travel water bottle near the sink for that purpose. The bathroom/shower room is a dorm style setup... stalls for each purpose and all guests use the same facilities, but there is sufficient privacy.  The showers are cold water only, but due to the ambient temperature, the water is not very cold; so I consider them 'cool' showers, which is usually exactly what you need to cool off and feel refreshed after a hot, sweaty day.

They do have a woman here who will do laundry for you for a few dollars per load. I packed 'fairly light' but I think I brought enough to get through the week. So far, I have not noticed that I failed to pack anything. I usually don't worry about it when I travel because I figure I can always buy it when I get to my destination... not so much here. I am happy that I seemed to remember to bring everything I needed... and more.

The people here are amazing... polite, happy to see us, patient... as we struggle to remember names and words and try to learn (and usually butcher) their language, Creole. Some of the older kids are very good at English and are sometimes fluent in Creole, French, Spanish and English. One of the older kids, Junior is his name, promised to stop by the Quad and help me learn some more Creole. I am starting to put names with the faces I see regularly, but some of the woman that were here last year have a great recollection of the people they developed relationships with and those folks are ecstatic when you do remember them.
We did some visits to the girls' houses, the mainvillage and various parts of the compound. A brief 'Bon Jour' or 'Bon Soir' will evoke a big smile and a sweet response... usually the same greeting.

Now that I have been here and started establishing relationships with some of the folks, I experienced some frustrations in not be able to communicate. There is a great iPhone app for learning French Creole, there are some great resources for learning the language on the web, plus there is always Google Translate. :-)
I am vowing to learn much more Creole (and French) before I come back next year.

Working in Haiti

(I didn't know blogging would take so much energy after full days of whatever we had planned.)
Monday
We all congregated at the American Airlines check-in counter... but my frustration started mounting real quickly... it didn't seem that any of the AA employees knew where we should go.  I started in line #1 and was told I needed to move to line #2... then was redirected to line #3, and brought back to line #2. At that point an AA employee oversaw our group since he was Haitian (and lived in NYC for a number of years, so I sucked up to him as much as possible) and helped expedite our check-in process. We had plenty of time at our gate so we got our lattes and bagels... or whatever before we boarded.
We got on the flight just fine and had an uneventful flight and landed in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on time. The trip through customs was interesting and having our custom green Espwa shirts really helped keep our group visible and together... we rented 8 carts with three of our 50 lb. totes stacked on each cart, and had this train of carts going through customs. (We were hard to miss!)
We had a misstep of paying a guy to 'handle' us in customs and Sue paid him $50, but it was the wrong guy. we found the right guy and paid him to 'help us' with our luggage and were able to start getting processed. They started going through the first few of our group's luggage, but they got bored real fast, so the last three or four of us were waved through without a notice.
We wheeled our carts about a 1/4 mile to the parking lot  and found our drivers, so we started loading the vans. Our group was able to fit in one vehicle (13-passenger van) and the 24+ bags were loaded into van #2.
We finally departed the airport at 9:15 am and the trip from Port-Au-Prince was a 4 1/2 hour drive with a short stop for gas (200 Haitian Gordes = $4.75 USD per gallon). While they were filling up, we took a restroom break (I opted not to experience that activity since I didn't have the urgent need!) and a quick purchase of bottled water for most of us.
We arrived at Espwa (in Les Cayes) at 1:45 pm and started getting settled. We unloaded the luggage and found our personal belongings and chose our rooms. The guest house is beautiful, nicely decorated and well protected by security guards. We met Deacon Peter, Natalie the finance person, Jean Lexima (Director) and his wife Willeta the house manager (and dietician who plans the meals) in addition to the many young men (who are housed at Espwa) who work at the house in the kitchen by serving the meals and whatever else the guests need. 
The usual pace is pretty slow, but at 4 pm each day the pace slows down even more and the guest house turns into happy hour, and we choose our drink of choice and sit around chatting and anticipating the dinner bell at 5 pm.

We spent the rest of the evening discussing the plans for the week and what each of us will be doing and when they will take place.
My plans (as the IT guy) were to get working on configuring the twelve laptops we brought... just the way Deacon Peter wants them... and to take a look at the broken laptop I was warned about two weeks before.
It gets dark real early (at least it seems so) and my body is ready for bed earlier than usual. I think I was ready for bed at 7:30 the first night, but was awoken at 9:30 when we had additional guests arrive. Doctor Jerry is a Pediatrician who came from Achorage on his annual 3-week trip and the coordination and communications must have gotten crossed and he did not have a ride to get him from the airport. He somehow managed to get a cab ride from Port-Au-Prince to Les Cayes and then came across a gentleman who knew of Espwa and he escorted him to our place. They put this gentleman up in our room (since we had three beds) and Doctor Jerry got his room assignment.
I went back to sleep only to be awoken  by the rooster who crows at several times of the morning... usually 4:00 and several times throughout the morning. Some mornings, he would crow continuously... I started using my ear plugs on day 2, but the rooster actually helped me to wake up in time for morning church service at 6:45 am.
I will post again in the morning...

It's hard to believe we are really here. Going back a couple of days...

Monday morning - Our trip started out smoothly enough in Minneapolis... our team of 7 all congregated at the gate after getting our over-priced lattes and boarded our plane to O'Hare. The problem started by a delayed start (of course!)... which got us into Chicago (on the ground) about 45 minutes late. The plane then taxied for an eternity and got us to the gate 8 minutes before our connection was scheduled to take off. I had hopes of grandeur that our connection was also behind schedule. Since I ewas the closest to the door, I ran (O.J. Simpson style) to gate K-8 only to get there in time to watch our plane start rolling away from the jetway... a full 3 minutes before the scheduled departure time of 12:10 pm!!
Once all 7 of us gathered again, i found a gate agent who directed me to the reservation phones. She had looked up our options and saw only 2 seats on the  2:20 flight but was confident we could all get on the 4:25 to Miami. Well, once I got the reservationist on the phone and a little sweet-talking and a small tear (which didn't translate well over the phone) we all somehow got booked on the 2:20. We had lunch then got on our flight for a relaxing flight to Miami. 
The other 5 members of our group met us there and we started retrieving our twenty-four 50 pound totes. Well, 23 showed up. We spent the next hour waiting in line and explaining our situation to the guy at the lost luggage desk. After another search and a description of the wayward tote, we started completing a claim, when one of our team started scanning the various lugage conveyors (yet again) and lo and behold, it showed up. Hallelujah!
We all got checked into our rooms and most of us met for dinner in the ritzy restaurant in the hotel, and found that in lieu of the pricey entrees they agreed to make us burgers and club sandwiches. Things were finally going our way!
Off to bed for an early morning flight 6:15 am (check-in 4:15) to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
Updates to follow.

The day to start our trip has finally arrived!!

Well, the day has finally arrived. I bought my airline ticket and travel insurance over 8 months ago and in-between the usual 'life' stuff like eating, working, sleeping and family activities... we have been fundraising and preparing for this trip.
We have also been talking about every aspect of the trip so I have a mental image of what to expect but I am sure my expectations are inaccurate, as usual. I am told the sights, sounds and smells of Port-Au-Prince are 'different'. I have been to poverty stricken areas, often where cruise ships usually dock in third-world countries, but this trip will be vastly different. 
I am trying to keep my expectations in check as we start our journey.
These bags are just mine... the two larger ones are my 'pack mule' bags, filled with 48 1/2 pounds of donated goods each, and the smaller ones are my personal belongings, including the donated laptop we are leaving at 'Espwa'. Our group is traveling to Miami in two groups... one group left at 6:15 am and our group is leaving at 9:45 am, changing planes at O'Hare.
We are all meeting at Miami and staying overnight, then we depart together for Port-Au-Prince on a 6:15 am flight Tuesday. Then, the adventure really begins.

Preface to Trip to Haiti - November 2012

My posts for my Haiti trip from 11/12/12 - 11/19/12 will be on these pages.
I am part of a 12-person team visiting Haiti and Vilaj Espwa (Hope Village) in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Free the Kids is the organization that runs the orphanage that houses over 600 kids.
Here is my post on Facebook detailing Project Hope (Pwoje Espwa).


To all my FB friends... in case you don't already know, I am going a mission trip to Haiti (beginning on Nov. 12) as part of a group of 12 dedicated, caring people (headed by Sue Valiton).
Our mission is to visit an orphanage in Les Cayes (Hope Village or Vilaj Espwa in Haitian Creole). http://www.freethekids.org/
Our trip is for 8 days, and will be working with the 600+ kids who are housed, fed, clothed, schooled and trained by the staff there. Each person in our group will be bringing two-50 lb totes filled with donated goods as requested by the staff, in addition to a used laptop in a backpack.
We have been fundraising for more than 6 months to help raise enough funds to provide these kids with things they desperately need. If you haven't already given and have the means to and would like to donate to our cause, there are various ways to help.
1. You could send me a cash donation via Paypal to tom@tomandrosie.com which would be used by our team to fill the bags we are personally bringing to the kids.
2. For a tax deductible donation, you could donate via their website. On the main page, there is a secure link found in the upper right corner "Donate - Click Here".

Again, thanks for all the donations, good wishes and most of all prayers for our safe journey, and especially prayers for the kids; and especially the staff and Father Marc for all that they do on a daily basis to help the people of Haiti.
Thanks and God Bless you.

The program that Father Marc Boisvert started in 1998 is a heartwarming story of hearing God's calling and acting on it... he is truly making a difference in a country that needs more help today than ever before; especially due to the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the country on January 12th, 2010.

You can follow Father Marc's blog and watch the great things that go on in the Les Cayes community of Project Hope.

I am the official IT guy for this trip... taking the 12 donated laptops and preparing them to be personally transported to Haiti by our 12-member team and handed off to the staff at Project Hope.

We are planning a webcast from Haiti to St. Hubert's the weekend we are in Haiti ( 11/17, 18) so the donors in our Catholic Faith Community can see first-hand what we are doing and the human impact of their donations and to see the kids LIVE via the Internet. (Of course, this is all dependent on the available bandwidth and the various components of cyberspace properly working at the time we need them to be working.)

I will also be doing some computer and software application training with certain identified 'technicians' (I presume some of the older students) at Project Hope and helping in any other way that I can during our brief stay. We will also be helping with the painting of the girls' dome houses so that some of the boys can earn money doing the work.

The twelve of us are staying at the guest house on the compound and have several activities planned for the kids throughout the week we are there.

I will plan on updating this blog through the week whenever possible.

Tom

Planning spring break 2012

Because of the upcoming wedding of my niece Kate in June, her bridal shower is the weekend of March 30th, which is smack dab in the middle of our spring break.
Rosie has decided to go back east and spend 5 days with my sister and have a NYC, D.C. experience while Kyle and I go to the opposite coast and spend time with my nephew Kevin.
It should be fun. Updates to follow soon.

Indoor skydiving videos

I still need to update the last few days of our spring break adventure (the long drive home) but I just wanted to post the You Tube videos of our skydiving adventure.

Kyle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHTy4ZyRkxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XmPSrGmwlE

Rosie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDW-q0tS5DQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHHUYC2-FJY

Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1WzW5XHmaE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UD2kImYXTs

Our Instructor Adam’s acrobatics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8vJ6JVCe5Q

Spring break 2011 - Wednesday

The first part of the day was really nice... we visited iFly to redeem the gift certificate that Mom and Wil gave us for Christmas.

I admit that I did panic a bit when I could not reach them via phone for 2 days... the phone message sounded like they went out of business. I ended up calling corporate HQ to verify this place was still in existence . Even though their VOIP phone system was on the fritz, they were open and doing booming business.

We scheduled a 4 pm flight time which meant that we had our training session at 3:30. We went back to The Fountains and actually used the outdoor pool. We lounged, swam and ate and had a great afternoon. We then went back to iFly to begin our skydiving adventure. The training class was pretty basic, learning the critical hand signals and the concepts involved with skydiving.
Then at 4:00 we started our session which lasted about 15 minutes. We each had two skydiving sessions that lasted a minute and 40 seconds each. We discovered that we each thought we did better than we actually did. It will take more practice before we are considered experts. :-)
We walked out of there a little sore, extremely excited about doing this again, plus we have a 15 minute DVD of our adventure. Thanks to Mom and Wil for this wonderful gift!
The heavy rains (and severe weather) started just as we got back to our condo. Even though there were tree branches being knocked down with the extremely heavy winds, I am not sure if there was any hail; I although I did get hit in the side of the head by what looked like an ice cube as I was walking into our condo building. (Although I haven't been here nearly long enough to make any enemies.)
Here is a picture of the 'hailstone' along with my keys to put the size in perspective... although this was the only hailstone in sight.

That night we went back to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and to hit the Portobello restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, even though it was still raining, we found that Wednesday night must be the night for eating out in Orlando... the restaurant was packed and they were not taking any walk-ins. We decided to go back to our own neighborhood and hit a local Italian place called Carrabba's Italian Grill

The food was superb and we left very satisfied from the Calamari to the Linguine Pescatore, Seafood Canneloni and the Mezzaluna... in a word: Fantastico!
We retired to play some cards (Kyle won) and watch a movie before we went to bed.

Spring break 2011 - Monday and Tuesday

Well, the bad weather continued to follow us. Monday was a complete washout... so we took advantage of the rainy weather and scheduled our owner's update meeting. This is Bluegreen's way of upselling to existing owners. We usually skip these meetings since we have no intention of buying more timeshare points... but between the bad weather, the lure of $75.00 off attraction tickets and the fact that we haven't done one in a while... we had a weak moment and signed up. 'Long story short' they restructured the system and it would cost $30,000 to buy 10,000 more points and add to our existing 15,000 points, so we can take advantage of the new system. That was not going to happen. Even though they swore up and down that it will take no more than 60 minutes, we were there for 2 hours... but in the end, we still said no. It's also a good thing the weather was crummy.

We explored the clubhouse, had a late breakfast at their Cup 'o Joe's cafe, walked around and went back to the condo.
That afternoon we went to Downtown Disney (in our requisite raincoats, slickers, or ponchos). After walking through the whole area including Pleasure Island, we went into Disney Quest which is 5-stories full of interactive games and activities. We played some virtual reality games (Ride the Comix), played human pinball (pictured) and rode some simulation rides. The best were the human pinball, the Pirates of the Caribbean virtual reality pirate ship battle and the Virtual Jungle Cruise where you "Plunge down a prehistoric river on a raft in the Dinosaur Age trying desperately to avoid dangerous obstacles in the running rapids" in an inflatable raft, complete with paddles.
Since this activity is indoors, it is highly recommended for rainy days but that is also the time when everyone else goes; so when it is raining, it will be crowded.
Tuesday - we finally hit a good day. The expected bad weather pattern didn't materialize, so we went to Universal Studios and spent a rain-free day in the park. The highlights were E.T. Adventure, Men in Black - Alien Attack, and the Simpsons ride.

My brush with fame on this trip... I saw the Simpsons drive right by us. Now that doesn't happen every day! :-)

I also went to 'Disasters' on my own which simulated making a fun disaster movie. Rosie went to a Horror make-up demonstration while Kyle and I went back to Men in Black a few more times... and tried to better our scores.
We learned that you can shave off a lot of time by going through the 'singles' line... even though you are not guaranteed to sit with each other. It is much cheaper (free) compared to the Express pass which they up-sell at parks to allow you to skip ahead to the front of the line. The cost is upwards of $50+ per day per person... so it should be a busy day and you should be planning on spending most of the day for it to be worthwhile. (Staying in some specific resorts gives you this valuable feature for free.)
We ate dinner that night at Lone Star Steakhouse which is a wonderful place for a good steak dinner. We all enjoyed that restaurant very much.

Spring Break 2011 - driving to Florida; Days 1, 2 and 3

Well, we made the trip to Orlando, Florida this year for spring break. We had originally booked a week at the Fountains Resort in Orlando 2 years ago to swap for our Hawaiian trip, and thought, "if we can't get a swap, this place will do fine". That swap did come through so we didn't get a chance to go to the Fountains, so this year when the spring break topic came up, we decided to actually go to Orlando.
We booked this vacation months ago and didn't worry about booking non-refundable airfare that far out. Well, the airline industry decided to make up for lost revenue during our spring break week this year and try to charge $850 for each ticket from Minneapolis to Orlando... that would have cost us $3000 for airfare and rental car. I brought up the possibility of driving to and from Orlando and met no resistance from my family, so we decided to do it.

We departed Eden Prairie around 9:00 am on Friday 3/25 and headed south. We stopped in Waverly, IA for a quick lunch at BK, then back in the car.
We then took a break in Metropolis, IL and we took pictures with Superman and Wonder
Woman.

We stopped at a Drury Inn in Belleville, IL on Friday night for a good night's rest. We got a double-queen bed room and when we entered the room there were other people's belongings on the bed. They moved us to another room and gave us a discount on the room. Nice people, nice hotel... with lots of amenities. Free Internet, free pop and popcorn, free DVD rentals, a really nice hot breakfast; I really liked Drury.
We got on the road early and headed toward Nashville, and visited Martin's BBQ for lunch which was highlighted by Guy Fieri on Food Network's Diners Drive-Ins and Dives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgqjbi5KQ1w
It was an outstanding BBQ choice and we are all glad we made that side trip.
We then went through the Atlanta area and met up with some severe weather. The rain was coming down hard and the wipers were on 'really fast' and were having a hard time keeping up, so we pulled off for gas and DQ. Sirens were going off and we found that they were in fact tornado alarms but no one was paying them any attention... we then found that they had been going for about 4 hours and people had gotten quite immune to the potential danger. The rain has abated and after a quick check of the weather patterns on my computer, we got back in the car and headed south. We pushed on until we got to Lake City, FL and stayed in a brand new Comfort Suites hotel. We met our expectations of actually getting to Florida by Saturday night so we were happy with our progress. We left the hotel by 9:30 and had another 3 hours ahead of us before we got to our intended destination.

We got to the Tampa area on Sunday afternoon and got to visit with my cousins Terry & Frank Ryan and Carol Salta. Unfortunately, Terry couldn't make it that day, but we had a nice lunch with Frank and Carol. I hadn't seen them for many years and it was great to spend a little time getting caught up.

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