Oahu Day: 02

Well, we're staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village - and we think it's in Honolulu, but it also appears to be in Waikiki - we're still not entirely clear on where we are. But that all being said, we're in a much more urban area than we were before while we were in Ka'anapali.

From yesterday during our travels to Oahu from Maui:

- Before we left Maui, there was a neat shot of Molokai (I think that's how you spell it) where a rainbow is basically only at water level, so it's not quite a rainbow, but rather a rainbubble, or something like that.









- Here is a hula gorilla













- After checking in (which was a bit rude, to be honest) we toured around a little and found a pond with both turtles and penguins in it, which my wife loves.








Here are a couple of neat shots from our tour today.
- Some crabs while we were crossing a little bridge.














- A neat view while we're crossing another bridge.













- On the other side of the bridge there was road work, but ... there was also this really excellent view of a neat hotel that was basically standing alone, with the backdrop of some fantastic green hills.









- Here is a neat row of hotels as seen from behind a golf course, which is neat.












- Another shot of stuff through a fence by the golf course. I think this is in the direction of something called "Diamond Head National Park."











- Here's the view from our hotel room, showing the Waikiki skyline, which is very neat. The hotels and shops around here are all very classy. It's kind of like walking the strip in Vegas, or what imagine Rodeo Drive would be like in Hollywood. Pretty neat.








- Finally, I had never seen a pineapple that's still growing. I didn't know that grew out of the ground, and have no idea how they work. Here is what they look like when they're growing, and it looks weird. Never seen anything like this.

Flying over Maui in a helicopter today

Hi - today we flew over Maui in a helicopter, and it was very cool. We actually took 100 pictures - far too many to post up on the blog; so I'll put a few highlights and ... some videos of the flight!

We flew with Sunshine Helicopters at the Kahului Heliport, located on the backside of the main airport just off Highway 37 (Haleakala Hwy). They were really great. We flew in something called a Whisper Star, and it was really great. We even upgraded to "First class" so we could ride up front right beside the pilot and get some really great photos out the front of the chopper.




Pretty cool, eh?



Toward the middle of this video you can see where it's a bit drier and there are some windmills. That's out in the direction of Ka'anapali, where our resort is. This was right at the beginning of the flight - we later went on to the other side of Maui and got some really excellent pictures.


In order of appearance:

1) A 500' waterfall;


2) The Haleakala Crater of the Haleakala National Park;

3) Jurassic Rock (from 1993's Jurassic Park - when the helicopter is approaching the Isla Nublar, this is the rock formation that you see); and

4) the Lahaina windfarm that's not too far from our hotel. Hope you enjoy the shots. I'll try and put all this stuff into a movie of some sort to show you - again, there's about 100 shots - far too many to post all at once. I hope you're enjoying everything so far.

West Maui Day: 03

So here's a nice shot from yesterday of the champagne flutes and champagne we were given for our honeymoon from the Westin. It is nice of them to give us something like this. I've already broken one of the glasses, though. It was too close to the towels by the sink, unfortunately.

On this balcony we get a variety of little birds that hang around looking for something to snack on. We've yet to begin feeding them, but ... it's only a matter of time. We were also surprised to find that there are cardinals here. I didn't think they made it this far out into the Pacific, but... shows how much I know about the matter.

We only ventured away from the hotel a little yesterday, and that was to pick up a few necessities that went missing over the last few days. First off, my wife forgot all of her soaps and shampoos at the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at (Branteaney's, which was awesome) so we were out of that for her by the time we were on the road back to Toronto on Sunday.

Also, my shampoo was squished in my suitcase while we were flying to Hawaii, so my pajamas were basically ruined (although nothing else was, so it's not so bad). Frankly, when I broke the champagne flute, it spilled champagne all over my PJs, too, so they're doubly no good to wear. So we went out to a Walgreen's to get some stuff. We also stocked up on some things for a picnic later in the week. That'll be good fun.

We also saw what appears to be the construction for a new aqueduct that's being installed around here. I can't find a link to it, but I'll try and get a picture later on today for the blog. It looks cool - but also like it needs some water, real bad.

Then we lounged around the pool, and swam in the pool, for a couple of hours - though no sunburn/suntan yet. Don't worry, I'll get a picture of one if it happens. The pools here are really awesome, and in several cases, there are actually big tunnels that go beneath waterfalls that connect one pool to the next, including a hidden pool that's located beneath the waterfalls.

I read some of Timothy Findlay's Famous Last Words, and I have to say, it's always remarkable to read an excellent author and watch him work. It's an incredible story already and I've only read about 10 pages or something stupid like that. It's remarkable what he was able to achieve with his words and ability to build a story structure. Absolutely remarkable.

We didn't get in the Ocean (yet) but it's only a matter of time before we hop in. Likely, it won't be as relaxing as the pool, but it'll be nice to get in and swim around a bit.

On the right here is a picture of a piece of art floating in the pond by the front entrance of the hotel. Underneath hides a big coy - and he's there most of the time. This happens to be a noticeably large coy, and he's always under that boat.

We took a few more photos of the hotel at night - and the lighting is really special. Everything looks very lovely - and again, there's something very special about the amount of space and peace there is when there are enormous crowds of people all over the place. It's so nice to have some peace and quiet. I can't really relax when it's like an amusement park at the buffet tables, or the circus by the poolside. It's been very, very nice here.

As for these evening pictures - these are the best of the bunch. It's a little more difficult to take good photos in the dark without a flash - but these seem to capture what it's like around here in the evening. It's really nice.

We'll have lots of good photos for you tomorrow. Have a good one.

West Maui Day: 01

So here are some of the first pictures from our first day of travels on our honeymoon. Now, some of you may not know (or yet realize) that Hawaii is far from Toronto. Travel is like kryptonite to me and it basically will kill me if I spend too long exposed to it. Yesterday, I was almost dead after 20 hours. So it feels good to be alive.

Our first stop in the trip was in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, where I left a small blog post from a terminal in the airport while we had a 3-hour layover. It was an alright spot, and we even had a chance to have some breakfast.

On the right here, you can see my Texas breakfast. My new wife also had the largest Chicken Tenders I'd seen ever. They weren't that good, but it was lucky that there was so much left over, because we were in the 36th row of the airplane, and they'd run out of dinner's to serve by the time it was our chance to eat. We weren't happy with that. We were starving. It made the eight hour flight feel even worse.

So we had the left-over chicken tenders to satisfy us later on.

Flights also seem longer when the in-flight movie is Paul Blart Mall Cop. We mistakenly rented this a few months ago - and it's no better the second time around. Again, travelling slowly kills me, and so do inescapable bad movies. Grooaan.

But when it was all said and done, finding where to go next was no trouble. We were found by someone holding a sign with my name on it who then dowsed us both in flowered necklaces. These are heavier than you'd imagine they are, believe it or not.

Then we easily took a shuttle to where we rented a car from Dollar, and they gave us fine directions to our hotel.

To help you get the feel for where we are, this is a map of Maui, and you can see the airport we flew in to is on the North side of the middle of the island in Kahului. We drove south west from there to arrive on the West Side of Maui at our resort in Ka'anapali where we're staying at the Westin Resort and Spa [2365 Kaanapali Pkwy, Lahaina, HI 96761, (888) 625-4949 room 1053 if you'd like to come visit us. We're here all week!]

Ka'anapali is on the west side of Maui, near the "T" in "West" on the above map. On the drive up to the hotel we took these shots. We have a few photos of the water, but they were taken from a moving car (while I was almost dead from travelling, remember) so they are so great. Then we got our hotel room and slept for 12 hours straight - someone even showed up to deliver champagne - because we're on our honeymoon - and I can hardly remember it. The bucket of champagne on ice is now filled with only water, the bottle completely uncorked (for now).

More updates will follow during my wife's naptime. I'll keep you in the loop. See you all in a few weeks.

Honeymoon starts now

It may have technically began when we left my parents' house at 4 a.m. (EST) on Monday morning - but it actually begins now that we've woken up in our hotel room. We checked into our room around 11:30 p.m. (EST) which was only like 3:30 p.m. here.

then we fell asleep until about 3 in the morning, and slept some more until about 6 a.m. here. So we tried to get some rest with about 12 hours in bed. Now me, I was out cold, had absolutely muddle dreams and I think someone came into our room (sure enough, we not have champagne in a bucket of melted ice waiting for us) and was basically a walking zombie for the last few legs of our trip - I don't travel well.

Anyhow - we've got a breakfast to get to, so I'll leave you with two items. 1) a picture from our balcony of the resort below;

and (2), if the Leafs win while I'm in Hawaii, I guess I'll have to stay in Hawaii until the end of the season to ensure their success. I'll take one for the team.

Also, if you were in attendance at our wedding - drink lots of liquids, get plenty of rest, and have vitamin C while you have the chance. All those people from all over the place all suddenly shaking hands and hugging - don't get the flu!