Scotty Dog’s (Scotty’s) in Ka’a overlooking the beach. Had a Pork and Cabbage sandwich with fries and a Mahi fish sandwich with fries. A smidgen spendy ($12 or so each), but quite tasty and a great view.
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Beaches, Noodles,
Got up late again, drove through Knutsen Gap, the Tunnel of Trees, through Kasdfds??, to Puipu and took a Waiolai Marriott Resort Presentation of about 120 minutes which landed us about $125 in Mahalo dollars which actually goes pretty far on Kuauai. We tried the southern beaches, pretty good snorkeling but a bit rough. I saw a giant sea turtle at all of 6 inches away from me. We sort of freaked each other out and both swam away as fast as we could. The turtle won the speed race by a large margin. They can MOVE! Checked out the Grand Hyatt (quite nice),
We drove up to Kintaro in Ka’a and had fabulous sushi for about $9 + tip after applying only 1 $25 certificate!
8:30am Helicopter ride with NO DOORS! It was AWESOME. We left from Port Allen and went up Waimea Canyon, then across/through the Na Pali coast, then across most of the island.
We then grabbed a quick breakfast at Restaurant “M” and then drove to the top of Waimea Canyon stopping at every view point possible, pretty much.
We briefly overlooked the so-called Russian Fort which is pretty much a horrible job of putting up about 1.5 feet of poorly lain rock walls, more like rock piles. The story of the maniac behind it all is pretty interesting though.
This night we got some meals at a BBQ place on….. It was okay, in particular the Kalua Pork & Cabbage and Kalby beef (not coby). But maybe not incredible.
We got up late, a good 12hrs sleep.
Made the usual trips to Costco, local stores and WalMart to get ‘supplies’ and food we had forgotten or did not want to bring. We got some salad and accouterments, boogie boards, sunblock, milk ($5 at Costco, was $8.99 at local Star Market!), chips, mango-peach salsa, Slack Key Hawaiian CD, etc.
Back to the room.
Owner’s reception was at 5. It was not that eventful, but they had food and drink and some entertainment and the night was lovely. We noticed we were well under average age for Marriott timeshare owners, but hey… enjoy it now, right? By 8:30 we went back to the room and pretty much crashed with a little TV. Jet lag still made it feel quite late.
Noonish Delta flight SLC to HNL Honolulu. Went right over to Go! Airlines on a CRJ200 to Lihue. We picked up our rental car, an Impala with leather and sunroof for the low low price of about 220/wk from Budget. We made it just in time to check-in at the Lihue Marriott Vacation Club at 6:59pm. They were packing up but were very gracious and made us feel very welcome.
We got to our rooms and it was a great view in the Kilohana tower on the 8th floor. The Lihue Marriott is Marriott’s first Hawaiian property I was told and was purchased and repurposed so the rooms are not quite like a typical Marriott let alone a Marriot Vacation Club. But they are not bad, quite nice really. We had the 2 room dealy which was plenty big, so 2 bathrooms, a Murphy bed hidden away in an armoire, a big TV with DVD player, a galley kitchenette with sink, dishwasher, microwave and 36″ fridge. No stove or oven though. The other room had king bed, armoire with TV and cube fridge and the usual desks, tables, chairs, etc.
Our balconies overlooked the bay there and the crashing waves were just the right decibel level to make you know you were on vacation. We almost immediately crashed after traveling all day.
2008-03-03 Monday: Piers arrived 3rd March, Monday. I’ve taken a few days off and a few half days to spend as much time with him as possible. We had some troubles getting him here on United Airlines because of their ambiguous unaccompanied minor policy. Many phonecalls later and failed trip to the airport on Sunday the 2nd, and three schedule changes later, he arrived a day late, but not too much worse for wear. (We are using Delta next time). I picked him up Monday afternoon and since it was nearing rush hour decided to spend some time in Salt Lake. We ended up at the Gateway and grabbed a bite at the foodcourt and then saw “Be Kind, Please Rewind” which was actually a pretty nice little film.
2008-03-04 Tuesday: I worked a half day or so and then Jenivee, Piers, and I went to NOJHS to watch Shaylee play against THBell JHS. In the fourth quarter when NO was up 36 to 6, the coach started to put in the 4 7th graders on the team. So Shaylee had about 4 minutes of action and even sunk a foul shot for the first 7th grader point of the year! We all (Rylee & Shaylee) grabbed some Sams Club pizzas on way home and had pizza, then bed.
2008-03-05 Wednesday: I took day off and Piers and I made rounds of some stores, got him some shoes and pants, then played quite a bit of Wii bowling, baseball, and tennis. We grabbed dinner at Carl’s Jr where kids eat free on Wednesdays. Not sure that was really worth it, but it was fine. That evening we went to my work where I finished up some paperwork and helped Piers with his math homework. After, we watched “Underdog” on DVD from a Redbox and then it was bedtime.
2008-03-06 Thursday: Half day at work and then Piers and I spent afternoon playing Wii and Xbox. We went to my Dad’s for dinner (it was very yummy) with all the kids and stayed for a good while. My dad took some photos that hopefully we will get copies of. Unfortunately he took them after we had gorged ourselves on desert. Home, watched just a little TV, then bed.
2008-03-07 Friday: Spent some time getting some errands ran and prepping ski trip, then visited Jenivee at work for few minutes, then went to the Union Station in Ogden which was hosting some sort of Stone and Jewel event. We visited the Browning Arms museum and the Railroad Museum. We actually spent quite a bit of time there. We then went and got Shaylee and all the girl’s snowboard equip, went to Canyon Sports and picked up ski’s and a pass for Piers and me (but they forgot to actually give me the pass, long story). Then we dashed off to meet Damon and Justin at Florider at the new downtown center in Ogden. As I was driving away I noticed all I had was a receipt, no physical pass, and wondered if this was normal. Anyway, the Florider was AWESOME. A smidgen expensive at $20/hour but overall, worth it. Other than employees and probably a couple of their friends, we had the place to ourselves. It’s something like $200 to rent it by the hour, so maybe the employees are supposed to jump in so we don’t get too good a deal or something, since we didn’t rent the whole thing. But unfortunately, the employees and their friends are rather good, so even though there were five of us and five of them, it ended up being like we were 5 and they were 20 (their rides were typically, and easily, 4 or 5 times longer than ours which were usually only a few seconds long). This was not too annoying, but when our hour was up, they turned off the ride without a second to spare and kicked us out. So… maybe it was a little annoying on that note. But it was still a blast. We went to Costa Vida next door after and had some great food. The kids sucked down a few balloons and made munchkin voices for a little while, won some ice cream bars, and then we headed out. Home, bit of Wii/TV, bed.
2008-03-08 Saturday: Got up, breakfast, rounded up ski clothes, tried finding receipt for Canyon Sports to call them, finally found it safely tucked away in pocket in my jacket I was not going to take. It’s now 11am and I am frustrated we are maybe going to get a half day skiing, and not the better half. I call Canyon and they act like I am crazy, that I must have the pass. I tell them I’ll be there to pick up my pass, as the receipt is NOT all you need. You need the pass. I am now thoroughly frustrated as we now also have to stop by the shop again. We stop by, they say I must have it, I notice they have video, I ask them to please review to see if I really was handed the pass; 30 miutes later, the young woman helping me walks back out from the back office, makes no eye contact. I ask if she saw what happened, she said ‘Yep.’ Walked up the register, opened the pass drawer, handed me a pass, and said ‘Here you go.’ She didn’t seem too happy, so I just said, ‘Sorry for the confusion,’ and got on my way. I am fairly unhappy with the unfortunate experience as I just had to fight to get a discount day pass for $51 and it is now approaching 1:00pm and we still have good half hour of driving left. The adult non-discounted half day pass is also $51 so this has cost me way too much time and grief. Otherwise, Canyon Sports was great. So we eventually found our way to Snowbird after a few wrong turns trying to take a shortcut through South Weber, up Weber Canyon and across Trapper’s Loop. We got about 3 hours skiing in and for Piers and Shaylee, that was really plenty. I would have liked to try out more runs, but maybe next year. The snow is noticeably getting mushy this time of year, but I bet it was better higher up. All in all, we had a pretty good time. Home, dinner, Eli Stone, Wii, bed.
2008-03-09 Sunday: We watched the BBC version of Chronicles of Narnia during the day. We had planned on going to a Grizzlies’ IHL Hockey game at 4pm, but Piers sort of decided he didn’t really like watching games unless he could run around and cause trouble, as he put it. So we went to RedBox and got “Dragon Wars” to watch, grilled some steak, steamed asparagus, had caeser salad, and home made milk shakes. Then bedtime.
2008-03-10 Monday: Piers is spending his day with Grandpa Lester today.
2008-03-11 Tuesday:
2008-03-12 Wednesday:
Events:
· University of Hawaii Arboretum
· Hike to Aihualama (1.3 miles or so)
· Hike to Manoa Falls(1.25 miles or so)
· Moana Terrace (fish sandwich, $14)
· Shopping, Sunset on Waiki and lighting of the torches
· Todai sushi (catty corner from the Hilton Hawaiian Village)
www.hawaii-dot-edu/lyonarboretum/
Events:
· JIB Breakfast ($8.25)
· Snorkeling at Ko’olina (free)
· Aoki Ice ($2.50)
· Matsumoto’s Ice ($11 sandals)
· Snorkeling at Shark’s Cove (free)
· Romy’s Shrimp Shack ($24)
· Sunset Beach, Chu’s Beach, Bonzai Pipe, Turtle Beach (free)
· Shorebird Restaurant at Outrigger Reef on the beach ($52)
Up early, grabbed a bite from Jack-in-the-Box on Kapahula and ate it as we drove to Ko’olina. It’s about 30 odd minutes depending on traffic taking H1 across until it turns into a highway. We took the Ko’olina exit and soon you are entering a private resort area. Marriott is the main owner, I guess, but there is also Paradise Cove which is one of the big 5 luau’s you can do on Oahu. Also there are some condo/houses, a golf course, and I think at least one other big building builder. Marriott has a few Marriott Club International timeshares going on there though (prices are 33k to 60k-ish, not too cheap for a week a year) plus the JW Marriot Resort (category 7 hotel/resort/spa) is over here. Anyway, the draw to Ko’olina is there are 4 man made lagoons along the west shoreline which are really great for snorkeling. Pools 1 and 3 are roundish in shape and are the better ones for snorkeling in my opinion as they have deeper channels that go out to the ocean. This is where all the fish hang out in teems and teems. Also you are protected from rough waters by a break wall in the channels as well. Just stay out of the middle channel which does not have a break wall and you’ll be fine. Otherwise, the west shore is pretty rough and there really isn’t much beach. Our last trip out we went to Hanauma Bay and by far preferred snorkeling the lagoons at Ko’olina. Just as many fish, just as many varieties, and a LOT LESS people. And it is free, free parking, no movie to watch, no dangerously shallow coral areas waiting to rip you apart. So it proved again, that the conditions are great for fish watching. I tried getting some pictures with our underwater camera with 800 film and a flash. We’ll see how they turn out. Last time out it was a bit iffy. Underwater photography with a $15 camera usually yields 1 good shot for every 5 taken. But that is still cheaper than getting a real underwater camera, but Pentax has tempted me a few times with their little underwater digital square camera that floats… Maybe next trip.
Jenivee snorkeled a little while too, but lay on the beach for about half the time we were there. They have great beaches at these lagoons. Lagoon IV has all the parking, about 100 public spaces. The other ones only have about 15 0r 18 spots and unless you go early in the morning, they are going to be full.
After snorkeling and laying in the sun, we headed out for Hale’iwa. We took the 750 up and the 99. We stopped in Haleiwa and went to Matsumoto’s and Aoki’s shaved ice shops. The line was super long at Matsu’s so we got our shaved ice at Aoki’s and then Jenivee bought some sandals at Matsumoto’s. Very interesting little ice shacks…
We then went up to Shark’s Cove to snorkel. Pretty cool snorkeling. At first I was thinking it was not that great, but once you get out in the Cove a little bit; WOW! All kinds of fish! I was trying compare with Ko’olina for snorkeling, and if I had to choose one or the other ONLY, I would say do Shark’s Cove. However, I would say they are more different than better or worse than one or the other. So do BOTH! The fish were good, some bigger types here, but mostly the same, and Ko’olina had a few that were better varieties as well and bigger too. So, different, not necessarily better or worse. They both had Tang, Surgeonfish, Snappers, Chubs, Boxfish, Porcupinefish, Moorish Idols, the famous Humuhumunukanukaapoaa, Butterflyfish, Trumpetfish (very interesting!) and MORE. And Ko’olina is definitely less crowded. I did see a huge eel at Shark’s Cove (probably a Yellowmargin Moray, kinda had leapord spotted skin with yellowish edging) that would stick its head out of a rock and make menacing faces with jaws wide open every so often when BIG sunfish would come by. Otherwise, it ignored the little fish that approached, and as soon as little fish would come by and see the eel inside, they would quickly take off. The big flat fish, like the big Tang fish that were bigger than my head and the Yellowfin Surgeonfish, almost seemed like they would come up to the eel hole and float sideways over it, taunting the eel to come out. Usually the eel would stick its head out, make some grimaces, and the big fish would eventually swim away. I got it to stick its head out a little by diving down and waving the camera in front of the hole, but it didn’t seem too interested. I was a little scared to taunt it too much either. It had a pretty vicious looking mouth. It had to be pretty big because it’s coiled up body looked like it was about 6 inches in width and I could see it coiled around at least twice in the hole. Hopefully one of those pictures turns out.
After snorkeling until we couldn’t stand it anymore, we drove up further along the North Shore and looked for a shrimp shack. We knew Giovanni’s and Romy’s were supposed to be good. We found Romy’s first and got Sweety & Spicy and the Garlic plates. A bit spendy ($11 each plate) but it was pretty good. They make it fresh, so you have to wait. They grow their own (or get locally) their own prawns, so those are what they are known for. Pretty messy too. They were NOT shelled, so we got butter and sauce all over. We pulled over at Sunset Beach (or Chu’s beach) and ate them up and then went out to the ocean to wash off. Then we just headed down the beach. We stopped at the Bonzai pipeline beach (Ehukai is the real name; it is across from a green painted school building and soccer field). The waves aren’t big this time of year, but there were still a few surfers and boogie boarders. They were filming a wedding scene some Japanese film on the beach and we had to cross the set a couple of times. They were trying to keep the section of beach foot print free and between the people and loose dogs, it took them a while to get the shot. Kind of interesting to watch. It was raining off and on as well, which probably didn’t help them.
We finally found Turtle Beach and sure enough, there were at least a half dozen turtles floating in the surf near the shore. None on the beach though, probably not a warm enough day for them and there were a fair amount of people around.
After hanging out at all the beaches for a while, we drove back to Honolulu. We cleaned up and went to the Shorebird for dinner. It’s in the Outrigger Reef, a bit past the official Waikiki strip, but still generally called Waikiki, near Hale Koa. They have live music, and you cook your own steaks on hot hot grills. I got a bug top sirloin, and Jenivee got the Hukilau basket. Excellent grub. Maybe not hoity toity, but just plain good. Plus I cooked the steak just the way I like it, about 3 minutes on each side, very very pink in the center. It came with a salad buffet as well which was good too. It’s right on the beach so the view and atmosphere are great. We listened to the music for a little while, walked back along the beach, and crashed at the hotel. Only one more day! It starts to dawn on you that you have to leave soon! How sad!
Events:
· Doris Duke’s Shangri-La and Honolulu Academy of Arts
· Zippy’s
· Wal-mart stop
· Chinatown
· Legend seafood (dim sum) (100 N Beretania)
· Leonard’s Bakery (Malasada’s) (933 Kapahulu)
· Pali Lookout
· Run Sushi at end of the Marriott Waikiki ($49.83)
· Hot tub
We got up a little late today. Ran off to get to the Honolulu Academy of Arts to catch the shuttle to Doris Duke’s Shangri-La. You need to reserve these well before hand (like 2 weeks before, not the week of), especially if you want the early tour. We didn’t get the stuff in the mail from them in time, so we weren’t quite sure where to park. I dropped Jenivee off to make sure we checked in while I found a spot. As it would have it, all roads past Ward have NO reasonable parking even going down as far as Punchbowl: All private parking or 1 hour parking. Even if you are willing to pay a LOT, there is nothing. I drove around and around. Signs are not obvious and lots of one way streets with no left turns. Jenivee finally had to switch with someone who was there early and was on the 11am tour so all in all it worked out. I finally found parking at the OTHER academy of arts. If you stay EAST of Ward and Victoria there is LOTS of places to park for free or cheap. If you get the stuff in the mail, the parking is clearly marked, but make sure you know where you are going before you head out. Even after I knew where the parking was, since we had some time to kill we drove around a little, and even then, starting from driving by the Honolulu Academy of Arts on Ward and Beretania and trying to directly go to the parking behind the Honolulu Academy Art Center (which is NOT the Honolulu Academy of Arts, but catty corner to it on Victoria street), it took about 18 minutes because of all the one ways’ and the roads you would normally take were closed to turns from King because of construction. We had to go down King, reduced to a one lane eastward, clear back to where Sam’s club was and get back on Beretania/Vine from there. Wow! Giant slow circle, we were almost late for the 2nd tour because we did not realize it would take almost 20 minutes to park from something we could see, but not directly get to! In the meantime, we went to Zippy’s on Vine and had a fine breakfast of pao dolce (sweet bread) French toast, beef-hash for me, ham for Jenivee, 2 eggs each. Zippy’s is Hawaii’s version of JB’s or Shoney’s, or maybe you might call it a Village Inn. It’s got a lot of localized grub, is decently priced, and most of the shops have a fast food side, the sit down side, and a bakery in the middle. I recommend it as a good value and a safe way to try out what locals might typically eat. It’s got a bit of everything with Japanese, Portuguese, Hawaiian and Western influence. Spam dishes too! You can now go to Zippys-dot-com and get an idea of what they have. They apparently ship some things too, hum! Then we ran over to Wal-mart and grabbed some cortisone anti-itch cream for Jenivee who seemed to be getting little sun blisters that were itching quite a bit. We were going to get this at ABC or whatever the night before, but the Equate brand was less than $3.00 and ABC name brand was more than $7.00 so we waited ‘til morning since we knew we would be in the neighbourhood. Anyway, there is lots of parking on Vine. $5 at the Art Center, less if you remember to validate (I did not remember and paid a full $5). Free at Safeway another block away if you dare. About 5 or 6 at the Medical Arts building also on Vine. And you could always resort ot Wal-mart Sam’s club parking for free if you wanted which is about 3.5 blocks kitty corner from the Academy of Arts and Art Center to the south east. We would have been better off just staying there and hoofing it than driving around and around like we did.
Once we got on the tour, it was pretty dang cool. It seems a bit odd at first, though. You get the sensation that this is a top secret place and they might haul you away if you step out of line. There is a security guard with an earpiece who follows your group around. The shuttle takes 20 people over at a time and they split you into two groups of ten each with your own guide. Apparently Doris Duke was a little bit eccentric and recluse of sorts, and rich enough to make her world conform to her standards, and that has rubbed off a bit on the tour system and the foundation running the tours. No indoor pictures, which probably just reduces hassle for what really should be or should not be allowed to be photographed for copy-right issues and flash deterioration issues. Outdoor photos are allowed though. It’s a pretty interesting building that reflects some of Doris Duke’s eccentricities. Big house, only 1 guest room plus her bedroom. She wasn’t an idiot though, and did a lot of her own grunt-work to boot. This house has only been open since 2002, so it is still relatively *new* to outsiders, and the tour makes you feel that way. Our tour guide, Lawrence Ward, was very very good and knowledgeable. He seemed to have a German accent, but apparently grew up mostly on Oahu, lived a few years in Vienna. But I can’t be sure of his actual origin and didn’t bother asking. I would guess he might be Hungarian if not German, and possibly Turkish (?), but has been a Hawaiian for most of his life regardless. Anyway, this tour is way way cool and very informational. I’ll let you discover the rest on your own. Back at the Academy of Arts, we checked out the native Pacific Island exhibits, the Asian stuff, the Islamic stuff (mostly donated by Doris Duke as well), and a bit of whatever else they had. We finally left about 3 o’clock.
We then decided we were rather hungry and had Legend’s seafood on our list. It wa rated an ONU and we had seen it highly rated elsewhere as well and especially famous for its dim sum variety. This was also on Beretania in Chinatown. We went and finally found parking. When we got to the front door along the canal facing side, we found it was closed between lunch and dinner and didn’t open again until 5pm. Our guide book did not mention this and we hadn’t bothered checking out the hours, so we were plenty disappointed. We walked a little through Chinatown, where apparently everyone sells leis, but we didn’t see much interesting so went back towards our hotel. We stopped at famous Leonard’s Bakery and got a dozen Malasadas. They are basically hole-less donoughts of Portuguese descent. To me they seemed pretty banal, but Jenivee loved them. We got six cinnamon-sugar and 2 each of chocolate, custard and coconut filled. I didn’t like any of the filled ones at all. Jenivee loved what she thinks are the coconut ones, but I think they are actually the plain custard ones. I think the other one is the coconut one with the whiter filling, which she did not like as much.
We went back to the room, freshened up, and then went out to Pali Lookout off of Pali highway. We just took some snapshots and hung out for a few minutes. We went here last time, but just wanted to take a gander again. We think we might hike the old trail road next time, but it is a pretty long hike. I didn’t take a jacket, but it didn’t seem too cold to me. Jenivee thought it was a bit chilly though. It’s pretty cool how windy it is there all the time. The story about Kamehameha pushing everyone off the cliff there is sort of spooky too. There are also the stories about how they buried the kings in the cliffs along with their best servant of selected family members. Whoever was lowered down to dig the tomb was then cut loose from above once they were done so they would keep the exact location a secret. This was of course considered an honour to take the king’s bones location to the grave… Hum… I’m thinking not.
This night, we wanted to do better, but we rushed into just going to Run Sushi in the Marriott. It was okay, a little expensive, but nothing spectacular. We got there a little late and they weren’t seating outside which actually is right across from Waikiki so has a good view. We got Miso, tempura shrimp, fried noodles, sashimi bento combo, and gyozas. On the whole, it was fine, but nothing we couldn’t make ourselves just as well or better, and for a lot less. So considering all that, we should have just gone out to a nicer restaurant. I recommend Run Sushi for their daily lunch special for a quick bite, or for just a snack of sushi, but not as a main course kind of place. We had tried them last time out to Hawaii too, and it is still about the same. Great for a quick bite if you are in a hurry, but don’t expect to be amazed.
After, we went and sat in the hot tub again. Very relaxing. Nice way to end the night