Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 145

We travel today from Maui to Honolulu (2hr lay-over) to Kaua'i. So we start with shuttles to the airport. Our group is too big to fit in one shuttle trip so we make 2 trips. Luckily the airport is not far away. Our flights from Maui to Honolulu and Honolulu to Kaua'i are uneventful and we pick up our baggage and go outside to wait for our bus. Now, Susan has already told us that because of the unavailablty of motorcoaches on Kaua'i, and the fact that some areas where we need to go are too small for coaches, we will be using a school bus - Yes, a yellow school bus. When we see the yellow school bus turn the corner, we all cheer and make many jokes about going back to school and being ... read more

Friday January 23, 2009 - Wednesday January, 28 Last island stop for our Hawaii vacation is the Big Island. By far, our most enjoyable stop for our vacation. Friday: I loved the landing at Kona airport. Very cool feel with the runways surrounded by lava rock desolation. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought we were landing in a zone dedicated for evacuations. It was an eerie welcome to the unusual geography of the Big Island. Picked up our yellow, soft-top, rental Jeep (Short Bus) and headed to Hilton Waikolola Village for check-in. The resort was very large with numerous amenities. As a whole, we both felt a tad disappointed. Between ridiculous service fees, long commutes to our car (10-15 minutes), and uninformed hotel personnel, it just seemed the resort missed on all the ... read more

Ann took it easy. I was the one with an adventure, but it wasn't any that Susan had suggested. Because the program did not include the first two meals and because Ann was not up to walking someplace to eat, especially given the circuitous route required to get from our room to the street, I went over to a nearby grocery store and bought some portable edibles for our breakfast. The clerk at the store suggested I sign up for their store's card. Despite letting her know I was leaving the next day, she insisted and promptly saved me three dollars! Pleased with my cheap plunder (we still had more than a week and less than a third of our cash supply), I returned to the hotel by the route I'd followed to get to the ... read more

"As this flight terminates in the US, regulations demand that passengers do not congregate, particularly around the lavatories" was the announcement. Sniggering, was the reaction. "It is important that you remain in your allocated seat for the duration of the flight" was the second announcement. "Fuck that" was the reaction from everyone, at least at our (back) end of the plane. Never again will I badmouth JetStar. The plane was more empty than full, and a comfortable nights flight beckoned. As pushback got nearer there were nervous glances up the aisles from everyone, all hoping that the gaps wouldn't be filled. They weren't. Conversations were struck up between adjacent passengers and tacit agreement was reached about who would relocate where. It worked like a dream, a chance for sleep was grabbed by all, and not a ... read more

We get our continental breakfast "to go " this AM from the dinning room and quickly board the bus (Duane's Bus) to ascend from sea level to Haleakala at 10,000 ft. We are all prepared with warm clothing (rain coats)and told to walk slowly and breathe deeply to guard against altitude sickness. So we all settled in and ate our breakfasts and dozed. It is a 2 hour bus ride and we got to the top about 8:30 am. Susan had been told by park rangers that the road would be closed from 9:00 am on for road maintenance and repairs so we needed to be there before 9:00 and be ready to descend by then too! So it seems we were on a tight early morning schedule. Once we arrived, we were told that the ... read more