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...