Aloha! How about some Hawaii pics?

[VoidRaven]

Aloha Loungers! And Mahalo for your patience! I finally got some time to go through *some* of our photos and put together a good grouping for you all to enjoy. We still have probably another 500 shots to go through but here are some snap-shots that we took with our small pocket cameras.

There are a lot of pics and I thought I'd narrate a bit so this'll take a few posts to put together.

So how's about a Hawaii tour? We begin on the island of Oahu.


Welcome to Waikiki! This was the view from our balcony on the 9th floor of the Wyndham Waikiki located on Lewers Street. We were about 1 block from the beach (opposite direction from the way the photo is facing). Waikiki is a big city all things considered...lots of HIGH end retail and restaurants. While Hawaii is expensive in general, I think that Waikiki is possibly one of the most expensive cities.







This is part of Lewers Street, right along the front of the resort. Lots of shops and restaurants. Everything from a italian, japanese, and bar/grill with a hawaiian foods to gelato, bakeries, coffee....unique gift/clothing shops, sandals/beachwear, to even a Wyland art gallery.









This was a cool mall right around the corner from where we were staying. Kind of neat for me...3 or 4 floors all "open" except for the actual stores. Lots of stores to wander through and even....Cheryl, you might want to sit down for this....even a Salvatore Ferragamo shoe store. Now, I have no idea what that means but Mrs VR simply stood at the window and drooled for a while over the shoes. We eventually had to drag her away.






These finely dressed lads are part of an elite rifle drill team. They performed the flag lowering ceremony at the end of the day at a very unique and cool shopping area in Waikiki. I think it was called the King's Village Shopping Center or something like that. These guys were incredible. I have a 5 minute video somewhere of their performance.







Now a short break as we assemble the next part of our tour......

[VoidRaven]

Onward with the tour!

This is a shot from the beach around the corner from our resort. I'd say about a 4 minute walk. Pretty close all things considered. We went snorkeling here one day the week we were there. In the background of this photo is Diamond Head, which we hiked up/toured one day (those photos are in the massive batch that have to be processed).






So after a long first full day on Oahu the crew (me, mrs VR, mrs VR's mom, and her mom's hubby) went to a luau to start the trip of right. Here's a not so great shot of the two of us at sunset enjoying a nice, non-alcoholic fruity beverage (up, that's right...no tasty adult beverages for us. If she couldn't drink then I decided I wouldn't).






A few shots from the evening at the luau. This was one of the flower ceremonies. They would climb up and toss a shower of flowers over the crowd. There was a whole story behind the ceremony but I really can't remember all of it. It was really cool though.






This "villager" was demonstrating tossing of the fishing nets and bringing them back in.






And these two went out in an outrigger canoe and demonstrated another fishing technique.






Sunset at the luau.....it was a beautiful evening and really good food.







Now if you'll excuse me....I need some more iced tea before posting up the next leg of our adventure......

[Jeffrey Porter]

it's just like bermuda...........................only 1000 times better.

[ZooZ]

no pictures of the reef?

[MarkS]

Ever notice that bikini-clad women are conspicuously absent in Hawaii pics posted on RC?

[VoidRaven]

Ahh....much better....back to our trip.


Some random shots from Waikiki....


These tiki statues were outside of the Army Museum about a 10 minute walk from the resort. I thought they were cool.







This next photo was the only time I was stopped dead in my tracks out of dis-belief. I mean, I thought I had seen it all and then we turned the corner and saw this place. The photo speaks for itself.







And so that's about it for Oahu. We were there for a week and it was quite a wonderful time. Our second week was on the Big Island. MUCH different from Oahu in landscape, "speed of life", and even in cost.

Rainbow Falls, literally a 3 minute walk off the road. Couldn't tell you what city it was near....I think it was just north of Hilo.






We stayed in the city of Kona. A nice, slow paced, seaside city. Just a couple quick shots from the street.









My ugly feet showcasing a rather neat "sign" in the sidewalk right outside one shop we were leaving.






And a beautiful mural at one of the public parks along the seashore.







Alright Nina....now for the pics you were really waiting for....the Parker Ranch......up next.

[VoidRaven]

The Parker Ranch is the largest, oldest operational ranch on the Big Island. 153,000 acres currently of prime cattle and horse land. At its peak the ranch was 250,000 acres. Sadly none of the existing family wanted to continue running the ranch so it was turned over to a trust that continues its operation. We took a 2 hour horseback ride on the ranch early one morning. Very windy. The cool part was that it was a real ride...as in we had to fully control our horses. This was NOT a "nose to tail trail ride". We were both in heaven the whole time. First time ever I got to gallop a horse across a rolling field....I never wanted to leave.

One of the ranch's stags...






Horses at the ranch out grazing...






Cattle out in the pastures...






My view for the 2 hour ride. The horse head was my mount, Tennessee. A fiesty guy that I was given when the lady who was supposed to be assigned to him got scared of him.






Mrs VR on her horse PJ...









Me and my ride for the day, Tennessee. Tell me I don't belong on horseback...I look pretty dang good on horseback if I do say so (and mrs vr said so!)...





As I mentioned, Tennessee was a fiesty one. Mrs VR got a shot of me reminding Tennessee exactly who was the boss on this ride. Our guide commented that I did a great job of keeping him under control...better than some of the other riders that she had recently had on him.






And just for you horse folks...I got a shot of this guy. Yes, it's a good looking horse but it's the saddle that is the real point of interest. The saddle was a hand made Hawaiian rancher saddle that many of the ranch hands use for their personal horses. It was a gorgeous piece of craftsmanship.







Almost done! One final set of shots to go!!!!

[dc]

Beautiful pictures VR..

[amcarrig]

You have SOOOOO reminded me how much I need a vacation. Great pics...thanks so much for sharing!

[VoidRaven]

We saw several waterfalls during our stay on the island. Many we couldn't get to because of the previous heavy storm that had come through and damaged many of the paths.

These falls were 720 tall...






Mrs VR and her mom at the falls...






And it turns out that appearently I have a mai tai bar in Kona!






And we end our tour on a sweet note....this VERY tasty dessert that Mrs VR enjoyed our second last night in Kona. A chocolate "volcano" molten center dessert.







That's all folks! Hope you liked them as much as we enjoyed being there! I've got LOTS more but it will be a while until I get to them. But I think that this should be enough pics to satisfy the Loungers' appetites!

[VoidRaven]

Originally posted by MarkS
Ever notice that bikini-clad women are conspicuously absent in Hawaii pics posted on RC?

Because 1) we were only twice on a beach for any extended period of time when they were out....2) we were snorkeling both times and I wasn't leaving my camera unguarded on the beach....and 3) I didn't need to get slapped by my wife....or any of the other folks that look at you a little funny when you have a camera on a crowded beach. Plus these days you can't tell who's underage and who's not so I find it best not to stare OR take pics

Yes, mrs vr is sitting right next to me as I type this

As to the reef shots...we tried with a film underwater camera but there was no point. We never got to any of the really good reefs to snorkel and my wife can't SCUBA since she's pregnant, but hey you gotta leave something to do on the next trip. Maybe next time.

[VoidRaven]

Originally posted by dc
Beautiful pictures VR..

Thanks. This is just a quick compilation of the many snapshots that mrs vr and I took with our little pocket cameras. I never used mine as much as I did on this trip...carried it almost everywhere, especially days when I didn't want to pack the "beast".

We still have hundreds of other shots from the big cameras that I've been slowly weeding through. Almost done. Then the work on processing them begins. Joy. Lots of other things we did and places we went that are in those pics....Diamond Head, Volcanoes National Park, the Dole Plantation, one of the black sand beaches, etc.

But we got some really awesome shots from the little cameras (like the sunset) that I think we will print. I'd love to see how that one sunset shot looks printed in like 16"x20". I also have a second shot of the fish net toss where the net is fully opened in the air that would be cool to print. I've got some ideas

[MarkS]

Originally posted by VoidRaven
Because 1) we were only twice on a beach for any extended period of time when they were out....2) we were snorkeling both times and I wasn't leaving my camera unguarded on the beach....and 3) I didn't need to get slapped by my wife....or any of the other folks that look at you a little funny when you have a camera on a crowded beach. Plus these days you can't tell who's underage and who's not so I find it best not to stare OR take pics

Yes, mrs vr is sitting right next to me as I type this

I understand! Very nice pics!

[size=small]Is she asleep yet? [/size]

[VoidRaven]

Originally posted by amcarrig
You have SOOOOO reminded me how much I need a vacation. Great pics...thanks so much for sharing!

Glad you enjoyed! It was about 18 months since our last vacation before this one so we were in the same boat of desperately needing a vacation. It's going to be another 2 years probably before we can go on vacation again with the little one on the way now.

This was also the first time ever that I went on vacation for 2 weeks straight. I've only ever gone away for a week at a time. We REALLY got to unwind and relax being away that long. It was a wonderful thing.

[VoidRaven]

Originally posted by MarkS
I understand! Very nice pics!

[size=small]Is she asleep yet? [/size]

LOL! Yup, she's out. And I will get slapped for this later but I was seriously not kidding about the age thing. Girls did NOT look like that when I was a kid. I happened to see one pair of girls walking down the beach and I went "Hmmmh"....and then I saw their mom (very obvious it was their mom....especially when they say "did you get the money mom?") approach them and hand them some money to take surfing lessons and sign some consent form and all I could think was "thank god I'm married...I would NOT want to be playing the dating game today!!!" Too freaking dangerous!!!

And had that been *my* daughter she would not have been wearing that skimpy of a bikini!

Somehow I think I'm going to be one of those dads who doesn't let his daughter date until she's 30 (if we have a girl...still have weeks to go before we can find out!).

[xxaquanutxx]

Great pics... Looked like so much fun. Cant wait to see the others!

[MarkS]

Originally posted by VoidRaven
LOL! Yup, she's out. And I will get slapped for this later but I was seriously not kidding about the age thing. Girls did NOT look like that when I was a kid. I happened to see one pair of girls walking down the beach and I went "Hmmmh"....and then I saw their mom (very obvious it was their mom....especially when they say "did you get the money mom?") approach them and hand them some money to take surfing lessons and sign some consent form and all I could think was "thank god I'm married...I would NOT want to be playing the dating game today!!!" Too freaking dangerous!!!

And had that been *my* daughter she would not have been wearing that skimpy of a bikini!

Somehow I think I'm going to be one of those dads who doesn't let his daughter date until she's 30 (if we have a girl...still have weeks to go before we can find out!).

Yeah, I understand the age thing. Same problem around here. To make it even more confusing are the 20+ year olds that look like they're underage. I have a friend that's going on 29 with two kids and she looks 15. Don't blame you at all!

[Nina51]

beeeeeautiful pictures!! the scenery looks breathtaking, love the waterfalls. that ranch! wow! looks like you had a great ride.

so, how hard was it to come back to the reality of ohio???

[dc]

Originally posted by VoidRaven
LOL! Yup, she's out. And I will get slapped for this later but I was seriously not kidding about the age thing. Girls did NOT look like that when I was a kid.

Always cracks me up when I hear this, and I have been hearing it since I was a kid...Besides you were a kid, probably too dumb to notice....

[wizardgus®]

Did you notice all the rich old guys (you know the ones with a huge gut and heavy gold chains) there are in Hawaii that are nice enough to bring their young bikini clad nieces with them? I think that is so cool.



Nice pics, making me lonesome for the Islands again.

[dc]

I need a rich uncle....

[clavery]

Great pics, VR. Looks like you and the Mrs. had a great time.

Dino, now THIS is a vacation picture thread. Note all the pictures?????

[amcarrig]

Originally posted by dc
I need a rich uncle....

[VoidRaven]

Nina...it was VERY hard to come back to Ohio! I was trying everything to stay in Hawaii. I was even trying to negotiate with our guide on the horseback ride to come work for her mucking stalls on her own ranch (she has 20+ horses on her own ranch just a short distance from the Parker Ranch). I was desperate. It was such a beautiful place. We weren't home but 24 hours when I turned to mrs vr and said "this bites...what's it going to take to get you back on a plane?" Mind you, she was sick the *entire* flight home so the idea of getting on a plane is not something she wants to think about for a long time.

DC....yeah, but then again I was looking at some old late-gradeschool/early high school photos and NO, they sure didn't look like that back then!

wizardgus...the sad thing is you're right! There were a few of those big old men with gold chains and Speedos that were gracious enough to bring their young nieces with them Frightening. Truly frightening.

Cheryl...We did indeed have a wonderful time. Though it will be many years before it happens again, we WILL go back. Different islands perhaps but we will go back. There was a ton of stuff we didn't do or see so plenty of reasons to go. Such a different feel to life down there. I just can't say much more than it was simply wonderful.

[BigSkyBart]

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