Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 231

Well, our ride to the airport vanished in a cloud of dust when some cop thing took our limo with the wire screen and the chauffer away at the last minute.  Elen, his wife, offered to take us in her pickup.  I declined because I would have had to share the pickup bed with the luggage and their German Shepard who has big teeth.  We ended up taking our car to the airport long term parking. Ugh.    The shuttle bus took us to a point about 30 feet from the curbside check.  We were quickly checked in at the side of the curb. Then we went to the counter to have our bad window seat changed to a nice aisle seat way up front in row 12.  The girl who had the window seat there ... read more

One day left to get all the last minute things done.   Why are there last minute things?  We should have done them yesterday.  But, you know the old saying, "Never do today that which can be put off until tomorrow."... read more

An Open Letter from Bernie and Rita post Maui Vacation.... Aloha dear friends, Almost everyone has the experience of some sort of vacation - the Initial Planning, the Anticipation, The Day One Departs, and the End! When Rita earned her Sabbatical last year we settled on a month in Maui, HI and afterwards a month in Seattle. How time flies...we are back home in Seattle and we thought we’d share a few memories from the Isle of Maui with you. Although we are very familiar with the island since we have made many trips to it starting in 1982, we had never been able to afford a full month stay in a condo. This was a unique vacation in that respect. The Condo: Our rental unit was the same one we used two years ago thus ... read more

Where would you find one million gooney birds and forty-five humans all living on a historically significant island? Yes, it’s Midway Island, five days from Tokyo and two days from Hawaii. As we went ashore, we couldn’t believe all the albatross with their chicks on every square inch of this ten mile long island. Midway is mainly known because of the battle of Midway during WWII. Today, it is a bird sanctuary under the US Department of Fish & Game. It also acts as an emergency stop over for jumbo jets between the US and Asia. We were only the first of two cruise ships to be allowed to stop at this island this year. We always love our visits to Hawaii. This time the Voyager Club took us to Waimea Canyon on Kauai and as ... read more

I arrived in Honolulu airport with very little knowledge of Hawaii save Magnum PI in the 80's and I used to work for a company that choose an Hawaiian name for itself - Kokua Communications - the word Kokua in Hawiian means Help (more or less). The company went bust after about 18 months, after a long and drawn out funding process that from one day to the next changed from "We're funded" to "We're doomed". So long dot com. Arriving in Honolulu on Wai'ki'ki beach I instantly realised that this is a big tourism centre. I have never seen so many Japanese people congregated in one place before, and I lived in London. I'll one-day go to Japan so I expect that to change, but for now Honolulu holds the record. 90% of the rest ... read more