Another day spent lying on the beach, we rented a couple of surf boards for the morning and attempted to put our new learned skills in to practice, we quickly got tired of this though as it's a totally different ball game with no-one telling you what to do and that, here all the posers are just waiting for you to fall off, I traded our boards for a couple of lie-lo's and we were far more comfortable, I still tried to surf on mine while Fiona used it as a comfortable matress on the beach. It was roasting today, no [View Full Entry]

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We went to Makapu'u beach today and 'learned' how to surf, I was a total natural, totally and naturally kept falling off as soon as I stood up, Fiona was a bit better but she wasn't going for the monster waves that I was going for, WIPE OUT!!! Fiona has a healthy fear of sharks, a fear that I add to almost every day by telling her that I think I just saw one, I never tire of it and she seems to get as scared everytime so it's all good, this makes her stay in easy swimming distance of the [View Full Entry]

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It's still in the 80's today but a bit cloudy first thing, not to worry though we'd already decided to go for a trek up Diamond Head today, it was some Polynesian name but I can't remember or pronounce it so let's stick with the white man name. It's an extinct volcanoe and has a nice park and that around it, it's a fair trek from Waikiki so I'm glad Fiona made plenty on sandwiches, all in all it was nice to see but not a patch on the Dundee Law, now that's a volcanoe!! Stayed in at night with some [View Full Entry]

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Really nothing much to report here, spent the day lying in the sun on Waikiki Beach, it was 84 degrees and we were loving it. The beach is real busy and full of Americans on holiday, a lot of surfing too but the waves don't look that big to me, nothing like the waves in the 2002 motion picture "Blue Crush", now that's what I'm talking about. Went to the International Market Place at night for some food and drinks, it's real expensive here so though so we're taking in pretty easy, planning to go see some volcanoe tomorrow. [View Full Entry]

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I'm happy to announce that it finally stopped raining in LA this morning, just as we were leaving, in fact in was an amazing morning, about 70 degrees and has been since, maybe we weren't meant to be there, anyway it was good for us as our flight to Hawai'i was on time, in fact we just made the flight, the shuttle bus guy who picked us up from the hostel (Danny Glover) was obviously auditioning for another version of Speed, but in this version he couldn't go over 25MPH, "What was the movie called when they had to stay at [View Full Entry]

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Each of us should have had great holidays and an even better new year to look forward to. If not, my thoughts are with you. Good buy 2004! You are now a group of memories. I like to write a general update from time to time to fill the world in and keep y’all up to date. However, I also realize that I can go on and on in my e-mails and will try to be concise with my thoughts for 2004. SPAIN - A wonderful experience. I enjoyed my host family and the travels that I was blessed enough to [View Full Entry]

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Imua Kohala! Adventures of 5 Gals in Kohala Lari, Leanda, Tina, SandyK, SandyR Our adventure started on the plane ride, when we sat up front between all these men going for business and golf trips to Kona. Tina sat by Mr. Gomes, who gave us breakfast and energy bars. Leanda and I got the van from Dollar while the rest picked up our luggage. We drove off looking for Sam Choy’s, and after driving around searching we found it and shared three orders: fried rice omelet with pork adobo, poke omelet and stew omelet. We couldn’t eat it all. Then we [View Full Entry]

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NOVEMBER 15 MONDAY It was about 3pm by the time we arrived at our accomodations. After a very long day of travelling we just walked down to the nearest store (about a mile away) grabbed some quick food for dinner, some Mai Tai mix. We had a few drinks sitting on the deck listening to the sounds of the waves and the gecko's all around us. We were asleep by 8. NOVEMBER 16 TUESDAY Awake at 6 am whether we liked it or not. We have a quick breakfast then pack up the the backpack with water sandwiches and sunscreen the [View Full Entry]

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I had already dubbed myself the world’s most inept volcano-chaser. I’d been to some of the most famous eruption sites in the world, yet seen little more than enough steam to make a cup of tea. Admittedly my spectacularly unsuccessful lava quests were usually a by-product of a journey for some other purpose. I did manage to broil my buttocks in the steamy flooded caldera of Deception Island down near the Antarctic Peninsula and spy the ominous cone of Krakatoa before a rising storm blew our tiny boat back to port on the western coast of Java. But what I really [View Full Entry]

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Maui was beautiful and relaxing. We find it difficult to actually relax on vacations. Since most of the places we go have so much to see, we usually go non-stop. This trip we spent much of our time lounging, sunning, snorkeling, and reading. We did take the famous “Road to Hana” trip. It's the world's curviest road and takes appx. 3 hours to drive 15 miles...but it's worth it! We ate at two amazing restaurants...the famous Roy's and Mama's Fish House. Two dining experiences we won't forget. [View Full Entry]

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