Jan 28, 2011 - Hawaii Vacation

Freddi and I have planned a short vacation in Hawaii since early summer last year. It was shaped as a family vacation and over time it has changed slightly but retained the family format with some small changes. As a result we are currently on our way to maui for a week and then a week in Kauai where we will be joined by Tara-Lee and my sister Lucy. The following few entries are a record of some of the things we will do on our vacation and in some cases some opinions of how it vacationing in this well known paradise. Read on if you wish or sign out and go about your day. Feel free to comment and add your pown perspectives should you feel so inclined. I welcome the interaction.
Paul Jan 29, 2011.

Day one
Stage one of vacation is now behind us and I am pleased about that. Stage one is always hard as it is met with full enthusiasm as you finish the vacation prep but the reality of the travel inconvenience becomes very evident, very quickly. The rush to get to the airport a good deal of time in advance followed by the queues to get your boarding pass, the queue to surrender your luggage for its incredible journey, the ever growing queue to get your official pat down and be herded by the Transport Canada contracted staff as they go about their security routines all contribute to the stress of the first vacation day. Once through that set of stalls the “cattle” seem to breath a sigh of relief and then settle into the flight loading process and eagerly await “the wheels up” feeling of getting away from whatever they are getting away from. In Canada, of course, your plane has to be sprayed by some chemical to ensure that the overnight, frost, rain, snow or whatever doesn’t overload the wings or the plane and bring it down in some ravine nearby. All worth the short visit to the spray station I might add. All that to say, that we made the early morning flight and were out of Ottawa at 7:30 am to arrive in Honolulu for an overnight at about midnight EST.
I am sick with a cold that I picked up during my travels for business over the last few weeks. No surprise as we were in many provinces, with many different climatic happenstances, met with many folks in board rooms, stayed in many hotels and of course shared the stale air in aircraft with many other people – some of whom were as sick as I am now – Huh!. So I have a cold. That meant that I had to control my coughing and blowing with the miracle drugs of the day. That sort of worked out but I found that I was restless and not very impatient with some of the people mentioned in the above paragraph. Freddi reminded me that it was not a good idea to talk back to Transport Canada’s contracted staff of dubious qualifications. They had their job to do and regardless of my opinion about how they were doing it I should not engage those people in banter – enough said on that one.
So in this drug induced state of mind I managed to read about a third of a book but it was torture and I should probably start over! On the first flight to Vancouver I managed to watch two movies on the personal TV sets and certainly will have to watch at least one of them again as I flipped in and out of sleep. The run to Vancouver was without incident or even any noteworthy comment as the AC staff did an incredible job and even enjoyed what they were doing. The trek through the Vancouver airport was easy and ended with an official inspection and processing through U.S.Customs. I must add here that we were exposed to the new “baggage identity” system at customs and I was greatly impressed. The agent scanned our boarding passes and photographs of our bags being held hostage in some ramp somewhere were displayed for all to see. We were asked if we recognized these bags and the affirmative response allowed us to proceed and released the bags unharmed to the next flight. I wonder what would have happened if we had said NO. Not to be thought about now .....
We sauntered down to the Lounge for some soup and small glass of wine as we waited for the departure of our next flight. We were early so we had the pick of the spots and assumed a small fortress in the middle of the space. We stayed there until our bums were numb and decided to walk about until our flight departed and take advantage of the great offerings that were duty free. We bought nothing.
On this flight I listened to music a good deal of the second flight as we were on a 767-300 that must have been pulled from the desert as it had the three large screens on the walls – one for each area – and they played some very odd movies – fantasy fighting movies – that were quite inappropriate or even current. I have no idea what they were thinking and the resolution was terrible as it come from a single beam with three colours all of which were totally unsynchronized. The AC staff refered to the aircraft as an "antigue" in the post boarding address to the passengers.
The arrival was on-time and it was just dusk in Honolulu. The amazing thing about arriving in Hawaii is that you leave an air conditioned plane and walk down a gangplank of sorts and end up in an open air corridor that leads to the open air terminal building and the temperature is summer-like and the air itself is fragrant and moist. It is always a nice feeling as we migrate from the cold Canadian climate. We walked the length of the terminal and found the baggage collection area and eagerly awaited the confirmation that in fact the bags were released to the same travel itinerary that we were on. We managed to get our bags and out of there in about 30 minutes and 15 minutes later we were in our room at the Marriott Courtyard. The van we hitched onto dropped us first and that was a godsend as there were some weird folks on that van – including the driver. The hotel is OK – not great but OK – and it is a bit run down. However it is clean and the bed was very comfortable for a one night stand. Clean and comfortable are requirements for one nighters.
We went out for some Thai food which was delicious and just enough. We then walked Kalakalua Ave where all manner of life forms can be found. It lead us to the International Market which is a good place to buy gold and silver jewellery and t-shirts with anything written on them. It is a tourist Mecca and I found myself very uninterested in bantering with the overly aggressive sales people. I also noticed a marked increase in the fake generation – tats, push-ups, stilettos, short shorts and iPhones – walking about. There were also way more folks from Brooklyn and the Bronx than I have ever seen here with the normal abundance of Orientals looking to spend money and traveling in large groups. We were part of the usual grey heads that saunter, stumble, and creep along the sidewalks of Waikiki. We walked a few blocks and then returned to our hotel as we were very tired after a long day of travel.
Note: while re-reading this post I get the impression that we only met weird types but I do have to mention that we chatted with some very nice folks and happy families with lots of kids from different parts of Canada who were looking to enjoy their first vacation in Hawaii. There were many happy people on vacation and I do not want to leave you with only my jaundiced view of travel.
Today we are going to the beach breakfast in Waikiki and then to the airport again. This time it is for a short jaunt to Maui where we will pick up our car and drive to Kihei and settle into our condo for the next 6 days. We are very familiar with this routine and I look forward to just settling back and enjoying the warm weather, the sunsets, the beaches, the occasional shopping excursion and of course the BBQs and some visits to the local restaurants. I think I am in need of this vacation at this time.
Mahalo and enjoy your day ahead .......