VoidRaven
12/29/2007, 04:15 PM
Aloha and a belated Mele Kelikimaka (I know I spelled that wrong) from the Big Island, Hawaii!
The missus and I are just chilling out in the main lounge area of the resort waiting for the taxi (not due to arrive until 1pm and it's only about 11am now) to come and take us to the airport for the LONG flight home. So I managed to get on the resort's wireless and catch up on a few things.
The last two weeks have been spectacular! On week on Oahu in Waikiki and one week on the Big Island in Kona. We've been to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, hiked up Diamond Head, toured around Waikiki, went to a Luau (sp????), went whale watching (kind of fun until I got seasick), shopped, ate great food, spent more money than we should have, went snorkeling on Oahu in two spots and saw all kinds of sea life, went to Hilo (not sure why), went to the North Shore (no waves....bummer), toured the Dole Plantation, met up with my cousin who works on one of NCL's ships that tours Hawaii...OH! and we took a 2 hour horseback ride across parts of the Parker Ranch here on the Big Island!!! (a REAL ranch Dino....153,000 acres of active ranch. Used to be 250,000 at its peak but they downsized over the years)
It has been a BUSY last couple weeks and I am VERY sad to see it come to an end. This is an amazingly beautiful place...despite it's high prices and poverty rates, though Kona seems more sane than Oahu. Real Estate prices are astronomical (new development going in near our resort, prices starting at the low low price of $999,000.....I'm serious! That's what the sign said! And the lots are MAYBE a tenth of an acre at best)
Oh, and Oahu (Waikiki) might as well be "little Tokyo" or "little Hong Kong". Signs were in both english and japanese, LOTS of asian cuisine (good stuff too!), and half the population/tourists there seemed to be from Japan/the asian continent....compared to Kona where there are not nearly as many. Had dinner with a wonderful japanese couple in Waikiki at a Japanese Steak House. They had just gotten engaged and were on their honeymoon. Wonderful chat despite the language barrier (our lack of japanese and their limited english) but a great time had by all.
YES, I do have pictures. Not nearly as many as I thought I might have but still a LOT. Some I will be able to up-load faster than others. First things first. Need to get home and get settled back in. House is probably a mess. Didn't have Christmas with the families yet so need to do that...probably over New Year's. The missus and I want a few days just to ourselves (versus the last two weeks with the in-laws the whole time...except for a few hours here and there that mrs vr and I got away to wander around the town). May be a week or two before I get to posting but I will try just as quick as I can....I promise!!!
Mrs VR is doing well. Unfortunately she was sick all day yesterday (Friday) and so we spent our whole last day in the room while my in-laws roamed around the town. But that's ok. Better on a day when nothing is planned than on a day when we were supposed to go somewhere. Other than that, only a couple days where she had a brief bout of upset tummy but otherwise a-ok!
Alright, that's all for now. Need to charge up the lappy so we can watch our movie on the plane. Got her the new Harry Potter for Christmas but since Amazon botched the order I just bought it here on the island. We'll watch it on the LONG plane ride home.
First leg, Kona-Kailua to Honolulu. Then Honolulu to Chicago (the LONG flight). Then Chicago home to Cleveland airport where we pick up our car and drive home. Scheduled to be landing in Cleveland (after all the time changes and such) around 9am Sunday morning.
I hope everyone has been mis-behaving in the Lounge! Have to catch up on some threads.
Aloha!!!
The missus and I are just chilling out in the main lounge area of the resort waiting for the taxi (not due to arrive until 1pm and it's only about 11am now) to come and take us to the airport for the LONG flight home. So I managed to get on the resort's wireless and catch up on a few things.
The last two weeks have been spectacular! On week on Oahu in Waikiki and one week on the Big Island in Kona. We've been to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, hiked up Diamond Head, toured around Waikiki, went to a Luau (sp????), went whale watching (kind of fun until I got seasick), shopped, ate great food, spent more money than we should have, went snorkeling on Oahu in two spots and saw all kinds of sea life, went to Hilo (not sure why), went to the North Shore (no waves....bummer), toured the Dole Plantation, met up with my cousin who works on one of NCL's ships that tours Hawaii...OH! and we took a 2 hour horseback ride across parts of the Parker Ranch here on the Big Island!!! (a REAL ranch Dino....153,000 acres of active ranch. Used to be 250,000 at its peak but they downsized over the years)
It has been a BUSY last couple weeks and I am VERY sad to see it come to an end. This is an amazingly beautiful place...despite it's high prices and poverty rates, though Kona seems more sane than Oahu. Real Estate prices are astronomical (new development going in near our resort, prices starting at the low low price of $999,000.....I'm serious! That's what the sign said! And the lots are MAYBE a tenth of an acre at best)
Oh, and Oahu (Waikiki) might as well be "little Tokyo" or "little Hong Kong". Signs were in both english and japanese, LOTS of asian cuisine (good stuff too!), and half the population/tourists there seemed to be from Japan/the asian continent....compared to Kona where there are not nearly as many. Had dinner with a wonderful japanese couple in Waikiki at a Japanese Steak House. They had just gotten engaged and were on their honeymoon. Wonderful chat despite the language barrier (our lack of japanese and their limited english) but a great time had by all.
YES, I do have pictures. Not nearly as many as I thought I might have but still a LOT. Some I will be able to up-load faster than others. First things first. Need to get home and get settled back in. House is probably a mess. Didn't have Christmas with the families yet so need to do that...probably over New Year's. The missus and I want a few days just to ourselves (versus the last two weeks with the in-laws the whole time...except for a few hours here and there that mrs vr and I got away to wander around the town). May be a week or two before I get to posting but I will try just as quick as I can....I promise!!!
Mrs VR is doing well. Unfortunately she was sick all day yesterday (Friday) and so we spent our whole last day in the room while my in-laws roamed around the town. But that's ok. Better on a day when nothing is planned than on a day when we were supposed to go somewhere. Other than that, only a couple days where she had a brief bout of upset tummy but otherwise a-ok!
Alright, that's all for now. Need to charge up the lappy so we can watch our movie on the plane. Got her the new Harry Potter for Christmas but since Amazon botched the order I just bought it here on the island. We'll watch it on the LONG plane ride home.
First leg, Kona-Kailua to Honolulu. Then Honolulu to Chicago (the LONG flight). Then Chicago home to Cleveland airport where we pick up our car and drive home. Scheduled to be landing in Cleveland (after all the time changes and such) around 9am Sunday morning.
I hope everyone has been mis-behaving in the Lounge! Have to catch up on some threads.
Aloha!!!