Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 170

Impressions of Japan This past week I have visited Naha, Okinawa, Nagasaki, sailed the Inland Sea and explored Kobe and Osaka. The Japanese are the most polite people I have ever encountered. They bow to each other, when getting off the bus, when shopping, when greeting one another on the street or in the hotel. The port Police salute each other. When a Japanese woman or man helped me or waited on me or answered my questions their eyes smiled as well as their mouth. The only unfriendly folks were the taxi drivers and one “took me for a ride” just like the guys at JFK. I was charged 3000 yen or $30 for a 660 yen ride. That was my only negative taxi experience. On the positive side, I was looking for camera batteries in ... read more

Så er spurten sat ind - vi skal lige nå de ting vi har sat os for og de ting vi er faldet over - for sandet er for alvor ved at løbe ud af timeglasset. På forkant er 6 uger tæt på at være en uendelighed - på bagkant er det alligevel ikke nok! Pussigt hvor irratonelt tingene i sidste instans viser sig at være! Med fare for at kede de gode læsere, får i nok et par historier fra vores ophold på Oahu - og trøsten er at nu kommer der ikke flere historier - det var hvad der kom ud af den 25-øre! Opmuntret af familien og andre gode mennesker meldte vi os til en eftermiddag og aften i Polynesisk Kulturcenter. Centeret er drevet af Hawaii University og drives ved hjælp af studerende. ... read more

Så kom turen til udflugterne på Oahu - selv om lean back-livet på Turtle Bay Resort er til at blive afhængig af, syntes vi det var vigtigt at rive os løs, sætte os ind i vores nr. 2 Ford Taurus og sætte kursen mod forskellige steder, som vi havde besluttet os for at besøge. Første besøg gik til Dole-plantagen, som ligger midt på øen. Som lille dreng i 60'ernes Norge huskede jeg konservesdåserne med Dole-mærket på. Og for mig stod ananas - dengang kun på dåse - som noget af det mest eksotiske frugt jeg kunne få. Vi svingede ind - købte biletter til labyrinten og togturen i ananasland for at ende i et supermarked af ananasprodukter i alle tænkelige og utænkelige udgaver. Turen i labyrinten var OK for ungerne - vi skulle finde 8 poster ... read more

It's fair to say that I've seen my fair share of cold weather this winter. Working for Westjet means that I get to visit many Canadian cities and in winter - they're cold. In Calgary a few weeks ago it was minus 52 with the wind chill and the poor baggage handlers were feeling the effects of frostbite, bbrrrrrrr. However, it also means that I get to use passes to go to nice warm places - like Hawaii. Mike and I decided that we'd go away for my Birthday weekend. It's the best way to give presents to one another (since his a few weeks before mine). We were thinking of going somewhere like Palm Springs as it's only a two and a half hour flight from Vancouver. The flights were all busy coming back into ... read more

Today we were all up and about by 7:45 a.m. and we didn't even need to be up by 9:00 a.m! We left for the shore station around 10 and spend about 2 hours there. At the shore station we did the same thing that we did on Tuesday. We used the theodolite and took the postions of all the vessels and pods of whales in the area. On Tuesday there was a lot of whales and only a couple of vessels. But today was totally the opposite, there was a ton of vessels and not as many whales. We also saw a school of Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins. There more than 50 dolphins that were jumping and swimming right passed us. It was incredible. After the we were done with the two 15 minute sessions, we ... read more