Hawaiian Vacation - Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

We got up Tuesday morning, got ready and headed to the lobby of the hotel. We were there in time to catch the 9am shuttle to the airport. It is a good thing we got that shuttle and not the 9:30am shuttle. When we got to our terminal we went to the kiosk and checked ourselves and our baggage in and paid the baggage fees. Then we looked for the line to get the bags to the counter. It looped back and forth through every rope they could place in the space and the line went out the door after that. We found the end of the line and waited patiently through it to get to a counter. More than one traveler had their bags open trying to figure out how to lighten their suitcase so as not to pay an additional $90 for weight. We got our bags checked and headed to the NEXT line. (They tell you that checking in at the kiosk makes this process faster but don't you believe that!!) With all the new security screening equipment the airports have had to rearrange things to get you through all the scanners. At the Delta part of LAX after checking your bags you go to the 2nd line to wait for a turn to go upstairs to the security check. All they do at this line is compare your photo ID to your boarding pass information and initial it. Again the line was through every possible bit of rope they could place in that spot and out the door. Again we waited patiently. Finally we made it up the stairs to the actual screening places. AGAIN we found a line looped through every bit of rope they could squeeze into that location. We looped back and forth until we got to the fun part where you take off your shoes and load your personal belongings in the plastic tubs and walk through a door hoping it will not send off alarms for steel supports in your shoes or a belt buckle or that metal plate you forgot they put in your head or...and the list goes on. We finally made it through all the security. As we sat on the bench tying our sneakers again, we realized we spent 1 1/2 hours just getting checked in and through security. We had only 20 minutes to get to our gate before boarding. What we thought would be leisurely was leisurely but in a standing position. Not to complain...we would sit a long time between Los Angeles and Cincinnati. We lucked out on the flight from LA to Honolulu and the return from Honolulu to LA. We were booked in an aisle and a window seat in a 3 seat row. Both of these flights no one was booked to sit between us so we had plenty of room. The return flight from LA to Cincinnati the window seat had a nice young lady sitting in it. Now my ears never popped when we landed in LA. I was having a hard time hearing and it was really uncomfortable. I was hoping the take off in LA would help my ears to pop but that was not to be. It would be another week before my ears would pop and I would hear normally. The young lady next to me wanted to ask questions and tell me whatever was running through her head. She was a simple thing (I do not say this maliciously just as an actual fact) who did manage to tell me she was pregnant with baby number 4. Her speech was slurred which would have been hard to understand anyway but with limited clear hearing it was next to impossible. I sat in the middle and Claude was on the aisle. So when she had a thought or question she would ask me. She had a habit of pressing the call button for the flight attendant. It would be an interesting flight. The planes between Cincinnati and Los Angeles have monitors in the back of the seat in front of you. You can play a trivia game for free. Claude has a head full of what might seem like very useless facts. But when one plays trivia these facts are very helpful. Claude entertained himself quite nicely on the way out with trivia. They run a score showing the seat number of who else is playing on the plane. A game is 20 trivia questions. You get more points the quicker you guess you answer if your answer is correct. At the end of each question they post the points for each player in that round in order from highest scorer to lowest. Then at the end of the game (20 questions) they post the champion for that game. For a competitive person (I'm not saying Claude is competitive...but...) this just ups the ante and keeps the adrenalin running. Claude was happy to be back on a plane with the trivia game and he played all the way home. I showed our little neighbor how to play in hopes it would keep her busy. For a bit it did. But she would get restless and fidget and then eventually log back on and play a bit more. At one point she did sleep for a while. Blessed relief. Then...they brought the snacks and meal menus for those who wanted to purchase a meal. She got a meal menu. Determined she didn't have enough money for that. She waited until they gave water and peanuts for Claude and water and a Biscoff cookie for me. Then our little neighbor said she had a sandwich in her bag that she wanted to eat. Oh my goodness!!! I explained to Claude what she wanted. He gathered his water and snack and stood up. I gathered my water and snack and stood up. She looked at me and asked if she could stand on the chair. I assured her it would be okay. Up on the chair went one pregnant lady. Now my hubby has a dear hat he wears to keep the sun off his face and ears. He purchased it at Cabelo's and carried it all this trip. He carefully waited until everyone's luggage was in the overhead bin and put his hat on top of their luggage so it wouldn't get crushed. You guessed it...our little neighbor began pulling and tugging and squashing his hat to get her suitcase out which was under his hat. Oh my goodness!!! I can feel the flames coming out of Claude's head. I quickly juggled my food around and took over carefully removing Claude's hat from the overhead bin. Our neighbor got her sandwich and moved back to her seat. We got Claude's hat back in the bin. Then he and I sat down, put down our trays again, and enjoyed our water and snack. Toward the part of the flight over Missouri we ran into major turbulence. The plane was going up and down BIG time. This was not a little bit of turbulence it was major. The captain came on the sound system and speaking very loudly told everyone to get back to their seats and buckle up and for the flight attendants to take their seats as well. Well, that was the signal for my neighbor to decide she needed the bathroom. She asked me if she could get out to go to the bathroom. I assured her this was not the time, especially with this bad turbulence. She fidgeted for a bit and then pressed the flight attendant call button. I could not believe it. The sweet flight attendant came to our row and my neighbor asked if she could go to the bathroom. The flight attendant assured her it was not a time that she could do that. My neighbor tried to explain that she was pregnant and really needed to go. Bless that flight attendants heart she kindly and with a smile explained that no one was allowed out of their seats. Then the flight attendant bounced down the aisle and back to her seat in the turbulence. Every time we would hit a big pocket of turbulence our neighbor would squeel. By the time the pilot got us out of it we were close to descending to land. Now the girl asked me if we were flying over some street. She said the name but I don't know the streets in Cincinnati. I assured her I didn't know. Guess what she did. She pressed the call button. The flight attendant came again. The girl asked her if we were going to fly over whatever street. The flight attendant told her the tower would tell the captain which runway to land on and this meant they had no control over which streets they would fly over. The smiling the flight attendant told her she knew the street and it did have lots of lights that you could see from the air. Turns out our neighbor lives on that street. We finally landed and made it off the plane. As we were waiting to leave the plane our neighbor said her mom was picking her up. I noticed she didn't have a wedding ring. Then she said she couldn't wait to get home to see if her daughter was asleep so she could say goodnight to her. No mention of the other two kids she said she had. I bet there is a story there. Bless her heart she made for an interesting ride home. Our luggage made it to Cincinnati. We got the first shuttle we could to long term parking. It was now 7pm EST. We found our car and Claude drove straight to a restaurant for dinner. Then we headed home to Sadieville. This trip was wonderful. Hawaii was great even with the changes in the itinerary caused by the weather. The tourist things we did in Los Angeles were also fun and things we had never done before. We came home with some fun treasures, lots of pictures, and memories to carry with us forever. Would we go to Hawaii again. Definitely. Next time though we would plot what we wanted to see and go to an island and stay a few days seeing what we wanted to there, then fly to another island and stay there for a few days to see the things we wanted to see there and continue that process until we finished our visit. We both agree that the cruise around the islands was a wonderful way to visit Hawaii the first time. You get the flavor of several islands and an understanding how things work when traveling in Hawaii. Mahalo (thank you) to Sue Ochoa and John who helped us book this cruise and tour, to the all the different tour drivers and guides, to the friends we met and to Mary Ellen Edmunds for 3 wonderful talks on board the ship. Aloha!!

Hawaiian Vacation - Monday, December 14, 2009

After flying through the night we arrived at LAX early. We were happy and grateful all our luggage met us at the airport. I called the hotel shuttle and we entered that cooler air outside to wait for the shuttle to pick us up. I had been told when we checked out of this Los Angeles hotel as we began our vacation that they would pick us up with the shuttle anytime of day or night. However, they could not check us into a room as early as we would arrive on our return trip home. We were assured they would hold our luggage for us for the day until we they had a room to check us into. I understood this from working in a hotel for 3 years. We found information on a company named VIP Tours in the lobby of the hotel and before leaving LA to head to Honolulu I booked us on a day long tour of Los Angeles. We figured we would get to the hotel and rest in the lobby until time for our tour. When we arrived at the hotel the young man behind the front desk just looked at the two of us and said, "Let me see if there is any room available." He had a suite and upgraded us to that suite and checked us in. We were so happy and sooooo tired. We hurried up to our room, set an alarm, and hit the pillows for a few hours rest before our 9am pickup to go to VIP Tours. That was just the sweetest sleep I had enjoyed in a long time. The VIP Tours people make a round of the hotels in the area and pick up the guests to take them to the VIP Tour office. When the tour is over they drive you back to your hotel. The tour we chose was titled the 'Grand Tour of Los Angeles'. Our tour bus driver was a colorful man that spoke over his intercom set in a way that seemed like we were hearing a revival preacher calling us to repentance. Claude and I just grinned at each other. The tour guide was a retired LA Police Officer. He knew the area and could share lots of interesting information. We would drive through several cities and have several stops to get out and walk around and view the area. Claude and I lived in Sunnymead, California many, many, many years ago. Claude was stationed at March Air Force Base. We arrived in California with one baby, Nissa. We left with two more children, Andie & Jacob. We saw many things while living in Southern California but this day we would see parts I never saw before. It was a really good tour. We drove past LAX. The tour driver explained that the 'X' in LAX stands for Annex. This portion of Los Angeles was annexed into the city. We drove around the back side of the airport property to Marina Del Rey. This cute community is built around a man-made marina. This is the world's largest man-made small boat harbor. Along one of the dock areas is a little area with shops and restaurants called Fisherman's Village. Most of our tour group wanted coffee and so it made a great stop for them. Claude and I enjoyed being out in fresh air after spending the night in a plane and then a few hours in a hotel room. Fresh air by the water is a great way to start a day.

We boarded our tour bus again and headed to a very laid-back part of the Los Angeles area. You see it in movies a lot. It is Venice Beach. I never remember going there before. Claude said he remembered being there but he has traveled to LA on business before and may have seen things then that we didn't see when we lived in California. This was another 'get out an stroll' spot. Now our tour driver was really cute when he would pull of to a bus parking sign. Quite often he would point to the sign and in his best revival voice say, "You see that sign. There is a $____ fine if you don't obey that sign. I don't want to have to pay that penalty. So I'll meet you back here in _____ minutes." Then he would write on a tiny white board the time we were to be back at the tour bus stop and hold it up for all of us to see. Then we would get off the bus and he would drive away. It occurs to me that this takes a lot of trust on his and our parts. Will he return and will we be there on time. We had our watches synchronized with his and we always met him at the appointed time. He didn't lose any of us or have to pay a single fine.

I'm posting 6 pictures of Venice Beach on this blog entry. The 1st is of the sign over main street stating you are in Venice Beach. We were dropped off on this street where the sidewalk that runs along Venice Beach is located. This is where a big V symbol is located on the beach. To the left of the big V symbol is the concrete wall and cone you see in the 2nd picture below. This wall is painted with graffiti. There is a sign posted there that says you can paint after getting permission. Then Claude and I walked down the beach to the left to the Skate Board Park. There were some young people but mostly mature men doing some fun skate boarding here. We didn't see any women skate boarding. I'm thinking they were surfers and this is practice for riding the waves. The park was really well made with several types of courses spread over a large area. The guys would just get on their skateboards and fly down into the shapes molded down in the concrete. They would ride the sides of the walls and when they were done they would literally fly over the edge to the top and meet their skateboard at the top. Great fun to watch. The 4th picture is of a life guard chair between two palm trees. The 5th picture is a guy in full clothes sleeping on the beach. I guess he was getting a winter tan. He did not really look homeless just resting on the beach. Venice Beach is really a laid-back city. The 6th picture is the basketball court used in the shooting of "White Men Can't Jump". I didn't see that movie but this is where it was shot. We had ample time to walk up and down and peek in some shops along the sidewalk before meeting the bus driver so he didn't get any tickets.

We would drive along the beach at Santa Monica and then through to see some different types of homes. This area has no graffiti and is clean and very neat. An entirely different feel that Venice. A bit more uptight.

We would drive through Beverly Hills. The tour guide pointed out the sign created for the TV show Beverly Hills 90210. They now use that sign on lots of stuff in Beverly Hills. I believe this church was in Beverly Hills. It was a very pretty church and it seemed familiar, like I saw it in a movie or TV show.

The driver took us to Rodeo Drive. We started at the end with Brooks Brothers and drove up the street (or should I say Drive?). Very upscale just as one would imagine. Body guard muscley men in the doorways. Except for this cute little shop. I can't remember the name of it. But I found it interestingly decorated for Christmas. It's bright yellow paint really made all these Santa's climbing in and out of windows pop. I really liked this decorating job.

From the funny little yellow store to these elegant ones decorated with HUGE ribbons and bows there was lots to see on Rodeo Drive. At this intersection there is a road that you can walk that V's off between the two buildings with bows. Up that road is Versace's. And at the bottom of the Versace road was this interesting sign. Please note it says 'free parking' before 6pm. I'm not sure, but most people that actually shop in these stores should not need free parking. The rest of us are on tour buses that drop us off on a side street and have you walk up and down and return as a specific time so the tour bus doesn't get a ticket. I mean REALLY!!!

Rodeo Drive was tastefully decorated for Christmas. I truly enjoyed the poinsettia Christmas trees in the center of the each block on the island running down the street.

Not to be outdone by what we would see later, Rodeo Drive has the 'Walk of Style'. I snapped a few pictures of some of the plaques cemented into the sidewalk. This one I found particularly cute. It is for Edith Head. When I was younger it seemed like Edith Head did the costuming for ALL the movies. The quote by her and written on her plaque says, "Your dress should be tight enought to show you're a woman and loose enough to show you're a lady." Now that was cute.

Claude and I are walking around in our traveling clothes and sneakers and I'm wearing my homemade quilted purse on my shoulder. We passed stores with price tags more than our lifetime salary on items that were just gaudy beyond belief. We passed one store with the bulky guard standing just waiting for a weak lady for him to bounce out of the store. I looked inside and told Claude, "You know what those ladies are saying? They are looking at my beautiful quilted handmade purse and saying, 'I wonder which store she got that in? I really want one of those!!'" We both got a chuckle. I truly did not see a purse I would have carried out of any of the stores that I liked better than my quilted homemade purple purse. Rodeo Drive was a fun to experience. But I would take JC Penney's or Kohl's any day of the week over these stores. And that my friends is why my hubby thinks I'm a practical person. Our bus driver would take us past the Beverly Wilshire Hotel which is located at one end of Rodeo Drive. In the movie 'Pretty Woman' movie Julie Roberts is given money to shop on Rodeo Drive. She was staying at the Beverly Wilshire. It was neat to get the location of these in my mind and realize how closely the are located to each other. We made a stop at Farmer's Market. I can't tell you if that was Los Angeles or some other city that is part of the metropolitan area. This was where we could find something for lunch. Once again Claude and stumbled right into a great place to eat, Moshee's, a Greek deli. I had a most wonderful falafel. Claude had a gyro platter. My falafel was just wonderful. The women working in this eatery all looked like they could have starred the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". There were awards all over the wall for their food and I can promise you they deserved them.

We had time after eating to walk through the Farmer's Market. Lots of places to eat and some to shop. It was a fun place to spend some time. I found a man and dog made out of left over metal parts in front of a kids toy store. Then I found this traveling angel.

Our tour bus would drive us past many other things before we came to the street with the Walk of Fame, Mann's Chinese Theater and the Kodak Theater. Again we got off the bus with the caution of the cost of this ticket and a little white board sign emphasizing the time to be back at the stop. By this time we would see our fellow tour group people and say, "What time did that white board say??" I'm sure this is why the driver was so careful to emphasize in word and writing the times for us.

We walked down the Walk of Fame. This is where the stars have a star set in the concrete with their name on it. The thing I noticed was that each has a symbol that signifies what their fame comes from like a TV set with antennae if they were TV stars, the comedy and tragedy masks if they were stars in the theater, a camera on a tripod it if was film and something else if it was music that I can't remember right now. I knew the stars were there with their names but I didn't know about the identifying symbols on the stars. These stars are on both sides of the street. They are even for cartoon characters and puppets. They were getting ready to set a new stone. That is the first picture. The guy working on this told Claude and I two times who it was for and we never understood his accent. The bottom two are both for television and have a TV set on them. One is Kelsey Grammer and the other is Big Bird.

We walked down to Mann's Chinese Theater. When I was younger it was Graumann's Chinese Theater. The theater was sold and now goes by the name Mann's Chinese Theater. However, the Grauman's sign is still up in the air. I took several pictures of the concrete squares where the stars hand and feet prints are. Many of them Claude has his hand or foot by the stars hand or foot for a perspective on size. For instance Claude's foot is every bit as big a John Wayne's. The one I'm posting Claude pointed out to me and reminded me it is from a very silly Mel Brooks movie called 'Blazing Saddles'. At the end Harvey Korman is runny in front of Mann's Chinese Theater and looks down to the Douglas Fairbanks square. He says, "How did he do such great stunts with such little feet?" This is the square.

We crossed the street and got a picture of the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars and right next to it Mann's Chinese Theater. I didn't realize they were beside each other. All the time we were on this street I'm trying to remember the set up of the street for the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards. I'll have to check that out in 2010 to see how in the world they did that.

Then we went out to the freeway and stopped on the freeway (very illegal by the way!!!) but this is the best view of the Hollywood sign according to our driver and guide who had constantly warned us of all the fines if we didn't get back to the bus stop to be picked up in time. My oh my!! Sometimes we pick the fines we are willing to pay. But it was a great view of the Hollywood sign. We sat there long enough on the side of the freeway for me to take two pictures and my camera is very slow to set the picture after you take it.

Our tour would take us through many of streets to see some landmark buildings. We didn't get out of the bus for these but drove by so we could try and snap pictures through the bus window. So -- Off with the flash and away we go. These are the buildings in the pictures below. Top row on the left is the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Hasn't been there very long. It was Walt Disney's dream and his daughter made sure it was finished after Disney passed away. It is a very interesting design and it would be neat to see the inside some day. Top row right is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Today it is used for conferences and weddings. Middle row left is the building used as the place where Clark Kent worked and would become Superman on the old television series. Middle row right is a subway stop in Chinatown. I just thought it very interesting they went to all the trouble to design it like Chinatown architecture. I didn't see any of the other subway stops so I couldn't compare it. But I appreciated the effort to make this one fit its surroundings. Bottom row left is the U. S. Post Office Terminal in Los Angeles. And bottom row right located just down the street is Union Station (trains). We saw many other things but these were the ones I got the best pictures of.

Our final walk outside of the tour bus was Olvera Street. This is where Los Angeles was born in 1781. A strong hispanic influence in everything at this location. Top row left was our first walk through. This is a Mercado full of all things hispanic. Then we walked across the square to where the center (top row right) of focus was a beautiful gazebo. It was filled with a Nativity scene. Again, giving us a moment to remember it really was December. There was action going on as we rounded the corner to arrive at Olvera Street. Trailers were set up behind the building in the picture on the bottom row left. These were full of clothes and let us know they were shooting something that day. When we rounded the corner we could see the cameras and lights set up in front of this building. Not sure if it was for television or a movie or a commercial but we paused long enough to watch them rearrange the set and move actors into place. I was surprised there was no "Quiet on the set!!" commands. Across the street was the bottom right picture of a little Catholic church painted yellow. This was a fun stop. I really enjoyed walking through the market and watching the filming crew.

As we waited on the tour bus for the final people to arrive, our driver shared with us this little man who looked ancient. He was a street person with a cart and boxes and bags of belongings. Our driver told us he is always on this street during the day. He takes a few things and moves them down the street a bit. Then he goes back for some more of his things and moves them down to the other things. When he has all his stuff together, he repeats the process moving a bit further down the street. Our driver said he is there rain or shine. He told us there is a city ordinance that during the day there is NO sleeping on benches. After a set hour in the evening it is allowed. I'm thinking this little man is moving stuff so he doesn't look like a street person. Then at night he settles in somewhere. We would begin the drive back to our hotels. The driver wanted us out of Los Angeles before 4:30 or 5pm. The freeways were already beginning to fill up and it was only 3:30pm. One very interesting building I noticed still had some construction going on in a tower. This building was just not right looking to me. Look below and see what you think. The rectangular lower portion is actually the JW Marriott Hotel. The tower that is attached at the bottom and rising ridiculously tall and oddly shaped next to the Marriott is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Go figure.

We got back to our hotel in good time. We took a walk across the street to a Mexican Restaurant. Pretty good food and something we had not had a lot of in the previous two weeks. Then it was back to our hotel, check the luggage to be sure it was ready for our trip to the airport the next day, and then curl up for a good nights rest.

Hawaiian Vacation - Sunday, December 13, 2009

I missed a portion of yesterday's blog entry. After the tour bus picked us up at the port, its first stop was at Aloha Stadium. Every weekend that the University of Hawaii does not have a home game the parking lot of their stadium is filled with tents of vendors selling their wares. You pay a small price to enter the swap meet and then you shop till you drop.

Before going to Hawaii I read James Michener's book Hawaii to get in the spirit of the islands. As I read I made a little list of things I wanted to find while in Hawaii. On this list was crackseed (a Chinese candy made from dried fruit and seeds) and tapa cloth (cloth made by pounding bark into then sheets of cloth then painting it). By the final Saturday I not found either of these items. One souvenier I really wanted to purchase was a ukulele. I had not done that either. The swap meet turned out to be my answer to all these things.

We found a vendor selling all kinds of Chinese treats in cellophane bags. They had several kinds of crack seed. This is also called li-huang. They sold it made with different kinds of fruit and with or without seeds and some was dry and some was wet. They allowed me to sample a few before I purchased any. I ended up with some cherry crack seed without the seed part. Claude found some dried coconut slivers that we also purchased.

As we were walking down one of the lanes of tents there was ukulele vendor. I popped in to see what he had an learn a little more about shopping for a ukulele. He had all price ranges. I didn't want a really cheap one and I had some concerns about carrying one home to Kentucky. He had a nice one he would sell me for $80 and include a hard cover case. I knew this was a good price for a nice ukulele but I told him I wanted to think and NOT impulse buy. He said he would honor his price if I came back to his store. We walked farther down the row of tents and found another dealer and his ukulele's were much more expensive he only seemed to be giving soft cloth covers. On our way out of the vendors our last purchase was the ukulele from the first vendor. I'm remembering the word ukulele to mean something like cricket or grasshopper meaning something that jumps a lot. It is not pronounced with a long 'u' at the beginning the 'u' in Hawaiian gets a soft 'u' sound.

We also managed to find some small pieces of tapa cloth. Before any missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands the people made their cloth out of the bark of different trees. The men gathered the bark and brought it home to the ladies. It was soaked until it reached the desired softness. Then they spent a long time pounding on this bark until it spread out and became a soft sort of thick cloth. They would paint pictures and patterns on this cloth and make clothing out of it. Otherwise they went without clothes. This swap meet was the only place I found tapa cloth. The vendor said her mother did all the painting. I envisioned the cost for tapa cloth and was prepared for it to be a very expensive item because of my understanding of the time involved in pounding that bark into cloth. Claude and I were pleasantly surprised to find a small piece with a turtle painted on it and a larger piece with geometric patterns on it. We bought both pieces for $25. Amazing!! The larger one will be framed and placed on the wall in our family room. The smaller one will go in my sewing room.

We also found a most welcome vendor selling fresh lemonade. How thirsty we were and how refreshing his drink. His wife used to come to Kentucky to buy horses at Keeneland. Go figure!!

All of that was Saturday morning before going to Laie, Oahu. NOW...I'm really into Sunday morning. We spent the morning in Waikiki, Oahu. We made sure our treasures were carefully packed so that all suitcases would pass the weight restrictions. We also made sure half our clothing was in one big suitcase and half in the other. This would allow us clean clothing if either suitcase was lost. We even put my cosmetic bag in one suitcase and Claude's ditty bag in the other. By redistributing we were able to get the ukulele in it's hard case into one of the big suitcases and things that would not get crushed in the softsided extra bag we used. It just worked out great and we were very proud of ourselves. Bags were packed and waiting in our room for the 10am pickup by the bellman. We headed off to IHOP for breakfast. Then we wandered down to walk on the beach. We didn't get to do this the night we arrived in Hawaii and were looking forward to some time along Waikiki Beach.

This picture is of the lagoon for swimming behind and to the side of our hotel. Our hotel is the one in the center with a turquoise looking color to it. We watched a family come to swim with a really cute little boy that I'm sure could not have more than just turning 2 years old. They stripped the little guy down to no clothes and he hurried off to splash in the water. His Gramma was watched him while Grampa came up with his surf boat and an oar. They would stand on the surfboards and paddle the surfboard with the oar.

I walked a little further toward the ocean. Claude found a place on the grass under the palm trees in the shade. There was a guy with outrigger canoes to rent. While not interested in time in the canoe they did make a good foreground for a picture of Diamond Head in the distance with some of the hotels on Waikiki on the left side of the picture.

I walked out to where the lava rock retaining wall separates the shore from the ocean. Through 2 palm tree I could see a big ship out in the Pacific Ocean. Once again, a real island picture for me. I watched some people surfing and lots of sail boats.

Eventually a park bench was freed up and Claude and I sat on it watching humanity living its life on the bench at Waikiki. Very pleasant way to begin a day. As it neared time for the bus to come we strolled back to our hotel. Sue Ochoa, our guide, took a picture of us in the orchid leis we got a the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I knew they would fade and wanted to be sure we at least had a picture to remember them by.

We all boarded the bus and headed to an LDS meetinghouse in Honolulu where some of our tour group had headed. Mary Ellen got on the bus at the back where Claude and I were sitting. She kept waving to a little man and his wife standing in front of the Church. It turns out she knew him in the Phillipines. He was Chinese and not respected in that country at that time. They have kept in touch over the years but she didn't know he attended this particular ward (congregation). She was so surprised and happy to see him face-to-face again. He was obviously touched to see her again. He had changed his name to live more easily. Somewhere along his life path he met this wonderful little lady and they were married and now living happily in Honolulu. The world is a very small place really. You just really should treat everyone well because you may meet them again somewhere. He waited on the sidewalk waving continuously to Mary Ellen and her grinning and waving back as the tour bus drove away.

Now Robert, our intrepid bus driver would drive us to Kaneohe, Oahu to the Valley of the Temples for our final excursion in Hawaii. As our plane was not going to depart until 9pm, we had some time Sunday afternoon in Oahu. The Valley of the Temples is out the same direction as the drive to Laie was the day before. It is actually a cemetary with sections for different religions. They even have a pet cemetary portion along the front wall. The section we were going to was the Byodo-In Temple.

The Byodo-In Temple is a replica of the same temple in Japan. It was like stepping into Japan to be there. From the parking lot we walked over a small bridge to the front of the temple. To the left of the temple is an enormous gong. You are to ring the gong and make a wish at the same time. Claude did the ringing and I did the picture taking.

These is a beautiful pond filled with koi (they are like enormous gold fish). The path from the gong winds around the outside of this pond. You can take it up a bit of a hill where there is a nice pagoda with a seat in the center. Claude took a picture of me sitting on the seat in the pagoda but it was really, really wavy. He suggested I check out the view inside the pagoda. I hopped up on the seat and looked down at the back of the Byodo-In Temple to get this shot.

We were allowed to enter the temple if we took off our shoes. On this day I wore my sneakers to keep weight out of the suitcases so I had to fuss with untying and retying my shoes. But it was well worth it to see this beautiful buddha sitting inside the main room of the temple.

There were obviously more rooms than this but we were not to enter any of them. On the grounds I found a plumeria blossom. Such a sweet fragrance. There was a stream from the pond on either end of the temple building and it encircled the temple. Every bridge you crossed over that stream allowed you a view of lots of koi swimming in the water. An artist was sitting painting and selling his paintings under one of the porches of the temple. Everything about this place spoke peace.

In fact I took this picture from the back of the temple on the opposite end from the picture taken from the pagoda. This is the porch under which the artist was painting. You can even see more koi swimming in the water.

There was a gift shop and I found a gold bell with red roping to purchase for a Christmas tree ornament. I add ornaments from places we visit when I can find them. This was a unique and fun one to add to our tree this year.

As we rounded the temple to walk across the front I got this shot of the entire front of the temple with the pond in front of it. Between the pond and the temple front is a zen garden with rocks. Claude pointed this out to me. Years ago when he was working for the Peace Corps I gave him for Christmas a wooden box filled with sand, stones and stone objects, and 4 little rakes of varying sizes and shapes. This was his own personal zen garden. He kept it in his Peace Corp office. Whenever I was able to get into DC and have lunch with Claude I would notice that the sand had been raked into a different pattern and the objects and rocks moved to a new place. Claude liked this larger zen garden. Maybe we should make one on our hill in Sadieville??

Byodo-In was a nice finish to our 1st visit to Hawaii. Robert would drive our tour bus to a mall so we could pick a restaurant to have a nice meal for hitting the airport before our groups travels home. Claude and I found a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor inside the mall. We used to eat a Gastronomicaldelicatessenepicuriandelight sandwich when we had company visit us in our California days. There was even one in Maryland when we first moved there but it closed. I was telling Leanne about our find when we got back on the bus. I shared my disappointment that these fun eating places seemed to have closed and to find one on Oahu was a real treat for us. Turns out Leanne knows the family that owns this restaurant and they are making a come back. Yippee!! Wonder if they would open on in Kentucky??

Robert shared a story with us as we were driving on Sunday. He and his wife are divorced and he has a daughter he doesn't get to see as much as he would like. There were drug issues and it was all very bad but is gradually getting better. He had a conversation with his little girl and she expressed to him how much she missed him and wanted to live with him again. He assured her that being patient a little longer was the thing to do. Then Robert told us that as a tour bus driver you never know who your group will be. Sometimes they are really nice people and sometimes not so much. He said during the last week he had felt blessed to have a group of people who were happy in their faith and religion and practiced it each day of their lives in the way they lived. It had prompted him to take an old book from his shelf do to some reading during the week. He said a little prayer before he read that he would be guided to something that would help him with his life right now. He opened his book to the book of Job in the Old Testament. He read the entire book of Job. He felt an empathy for Job and better understood and had a deeper perspective of his own situation. He told himself he would take this book down and read it more often and try to get his life more in order. He thanked us for being the kind of people we were to him and providing him with a good week. It was very touching. One of our very senior sisters spontaneously broke into singing "I Am A Child of God". We all immediately joined her for a gentle rendition of this beloved LDS hymn. Then the senior sister assured Robert he too was a child of a God who loved him and understood him and wanted the best for him just as he does each of his children. Robert got back on the microphone with a choking voice and thanked us for this gift of music and caring. Someone on the bus pulled out Book of Mormon and it made its around the bus for each of us to sign. It was given to Robert when we left him at the airport. What a tender way to end out trip to Hawaii.

We entered the airport, check-in ourselves and our bags, passed security and it was 5 pm. We had 4 hours before our plane would leave. Our tour group came from Canada, North Carolina, California, Utah, Idaho, Minnesota, Texas. Many would fly through the night and catch a plane to fly on the next morning to their destination and drive several hours to their homes. Some knew there had been a foot of snow on the ground for a week and weren't sure they could even get back into their homes. Claude and I would fly through the night and arrive in Los Angeles Monday morning. We had a reservation waiting at a hotel and a tour of LA in our future. Now how to fill the next 4 1/2 hours before boarding our plane. Hawaii knows how to treat a guest who has to wait. This lovely garden with water features and gazebos and benches is open to travelers to wait in for your planes. Claude and I found a nice bench and sat there until it was too dark to read. Then we went inside and found a piece of pizza for Big Guy Clauda. We would read a bit more, play some Sudoku and crossword puzzles, shop in the shops (I got a black Kukui bead lei with purple turtles painted on it). Finally we would board our plane for the flight to LA.

Mahalo (thank you) Hawaii. You treated us well and we would be happy to return to your lovely islands again some day. Aloha!!

Hawaiian Vacation - December 12, 2009

Saturday for cruisers is either an embarkation or disembarkation date. For us this was the day we would disembark the Norwegian Cruise Lines Pride of America. This would happen in the morning. It is such and easy process now compared to our first cruise 15 years ago. And to embark or disembark in an American port of call is a snap. No customs forms to fill out and no long lines to wait in just in case someone wants to rummage through your luggage for security reasons. We had also been careful with souveniers we purchased and had taken along a bag that zips inside itself and packs in a front pocket on the real luggage to assist in carry things home and so as not going over weight limits. We got two of these little carry on size bags while touring Israel and they really come in handy. Many in our tour group were going home with 2 to 4 new pieces of luggage purchased at the Walmarts throughout the islands. We did sign up for the post cruise tour so we wouldn't part ways with most of our tour group yet. We waited for the others to disembark and the bus to arrive. All our luggage and bodies were loaded on the Roberts of Hawaii bus with the same bus driver when had on the pre-cruise tour of Pearl Harbor. His name is Robert. He would drive us to the northeast side of Oahu using the Hawaii Interstates. Yes, they have 3 Interstates on the island of Oahu. That is all the interstate system in Hawaii. They were built because of the military presence on Oahu. They are not long but they are helpful when you want to get across Oahu quickly. We were headed to Laie, Oahu. The landscape between Honolulu and Laie was just beautiful. You see of those green covered mountains with clouds over them that you see in movies. We stopped at a macadamia nut store along the way for a rest stop. The photo on the right below was taken of the view across the highway from the store. Amazing layers of vegetation.

Then we were off to Laie to see the Laie Hawaii Temple. It was under renovation so there is a wooden board over one of the upper windows. Other than that you couldn't tell unless you got up close that it was closed for renovations. As we entered the temple grounds we saw evidence of the Christmas season. I have to say here that there were Christmas decorations out and Christmas musis playing in many locations but we were on vacation and grasping that Christmas spirit was not an easy thing to do. Therefore, I found it particularly moving to visit the House of the Lord and see right by the visitor's center this beautiful white nativity.

The sisters missionaries that serve at the visitor's center came out to greet us. Some were dressed in Hawaiian print dresses. They cheerfully took pictures of each person, couple or group of people in front of the temple. Then we were free to tour the grounds and the visitor's center.

Claude and I quickly peeked inside the visitor's center. When we lived in Washington, DC for 20 years we had a visitor's center on the Washington DC Temple grounds. This one was a little like the DC visitor's center. You enter a large room with a replica the Christus statue created in Denmark as the main focal point. This is a beautiful statue of the Savior with his hands outstretched so that you see the wounds in his hands and feet. It is like he is welcoming you in. The first one of these was built for the Salt Lake City Temple visitor's center. The inside of the visitor's center was decorated with tall Christmas trees like they do in Washington DC. Each tree has a scripture theme from the story in the Gospels in the New Testament. Behind the Christus is a wall for the next room.In this room there was a lovely set of 3 wood and straw huts like you would have found on the islands many years ago. Inside each of these was a display with computers explaining things like Family Home Evening and Family History work. This little buildings were each decorated with lights and tinsel. Then Claude and I wandered back outside to visit the grounds some more. There is a grand entrance to this temple. The very long block leading up to the temple is lined with palm trees with luscious green grass underneath. The land that the temple sits on has a walkway leading up to the gate to the temple grounds. This walkway is lined with yellow hibiscus. This is the state flower of Hawaii, not the red but the yellow hibiscus.

Then there is a pool of water in front of the temple and pools of water from the front of the temple to this pool at the bottom. They are layered so the water flows from the temple to the entrance. Just before you reach the front of the temple there is a wall on one of the final levels over the pool of water for that level. This wall has a white relief titled Maternity. Around the top of the temple are 4 more white reliefs (one on each side of the very top). We walked the this entire path and the sound of the water flowing and the design and vegetation is truly soothing.

We came back down to an enclosed courtyard. The back of this courtyard had 4 reliefs on it. I believe they are replicas of the 4 white reliefs around the 4 sides of the top of the temple proper. They have characters carved into this white stone from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Restoration of the Church through Joseph Smith. These are beautiful to behold. I took pictures of each of them but have chosen not to include them in this post.

Then we walked back to the gate to the temple grounds and I was able to get a picture of the front of the temple with just about no one visible on the grounds.

One of the sister missionaries was using a pole with clippers on the end to clip blossoms of a plumeria tree behind the nativity. She gave me one of the blossoms. These little white flowers have a clean, pleasant fragrance and are a favorite for making some leis you can purchase in Hawaii. I wore it over my ear the rest of our time in Hawaii.

We went back inside the visitor's center to cool off and the senior couple sister missionary gave me a card with a picture of the Laie Hawaii Temple which I will include in our scrapbook.

This was a most pleasant stop for Claude and me. Totally relaxing and spirit filling.

Now we would all board our tour bus and head to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the remainder of our day. This facility was built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to aid the students attend BYU-Hawaii, whose grounds are right by the Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). The students from the Polynesian Islands who attend the school work at the PCC. Their salary is the room and board, books and tuition for college. The money made from running the PCC pays for this and that was the purpose in building it. This amazing facility was created with a waterway running through it. There are walkways around either side and several across the waterway. On one end are what they call 'islands' that represent the different islands in Polynesia. They are Samoa (purple), Aotearoa or New Zealand (green), Fiji (tan), Hawaii (blue), Tahiti (yellow) and Tonga (red). The colors are used to help you distinguish the different islands as you visit them. Their floral print clothing will be in these colors. Each of these islands has a schedule of a cultural presentation about their island and All-day Activities of things to make or do on their island. The other end of the PCC has an IMAX theater, 2 large restaurant areas where lu'au dinners are held - Hale Aloha (the one we would eat in) and Hale Ohana, shops, 2 other restaurants, and employee building and the Pacific Theater (where we would see 'Ha'). the picture is of a turtle with little turtles on its back made out of lava rock. There were large scale models of the different kind of canoes that are built throughout Polynesia.

We all started our visit off with lunch. Claude and I ate at the Banyan Tree Snack Bar. We were eating at the Luau in the evening and didn't want too much food to ruin our Luau experience. Then we were free to visit whichever islands and exhibits we could fit before time to line up for the Luau at 5pm. During lunch we reviewed the brochure and determined how we would attempt to spend our afternoon.

We passed a beautiful waterfall as we entered the park and turned to go the the end with all the islands of different countries.

Claude and I filled our afternoon very well. We started out in Samoa. We were able to catch two of the activities. One was watching people try to get sparks by rubbing two pieces of wood together. At the other we made little fish with the lady dressed in green. She gave us a pineapple leave that was torn in two long pieces and the center ridge was saved. With the two halves of the leaf she showed us how to weaven them together in a diamond shape and tear the ends of the leaf so it looked like the fins of the fish with the diamond woven part being the body of the fish. Then she took the ridge that was between the two leaves and made a loop out of one end and attached it inside the little fish. Then you could shove the fish to the base of this leaf ridge and when you flung it out in front of you but held onto the ridge the fish would slide to the end of the leaf ridge like you were fishing. Could I make another? Not so sure. But we brought them home with us just in case we needed a pattern. This activity actually made me think of our dentist's office. One of her patients made them little mobiles to hang over the patient chairs. Hanging on this mobile are little fish made of satiny craft ribbon just like the ones we made out of pineapple leaves.

As we left Samoa we peeked in one last building and found this HUGE bed.

It was rapidly approaching 2:00pm and we wanted to get good seats to see the Canoe Pageant at 2:30pm. We crossed one of the many bridges over the waterway and saw this interesting building. It is a replica of the Hawaiian Mission Settlement. Inside this particular building were quilts and quilt patterns and ukulele's.

Everyone comes out and stands along the waterway that runs through the park. This begins at about 2:00pm. While people are waiting a canoe poles up and down the stream with ice cream selling it to the tourist to cool off. The kids are in Hawaiian print attire. At 2:30pm the canoes come out. There is one for each of the islands. Kids are dressed in the color of the island and in costumes that fit that islands traditional wear. They play drums and do dances on these big flat topped canoes. It is absolutely delightful to watch. A canoe will come into the area where you are sitting and go down that area and turn around and come back up the other side. You get to see no matter what seats you were able to get. This canoe has the Ali'i or Hawaiian royalty on it. This canoe represents Tonga. This canoe represents Aotearoa or New Zealand. This canoe represents Samoa. This canoe represents Tahiti. After the Canoe Pageant we wandered down toTonga. There we found them doing some drumming on what appeared to be a hallow log. We got there a bit after the show started. We did hear them explain this was a way to send signals long ago. They had two drums and demonstrated the beating of these drums while a young girl did native dances. They had 3 guys participate from the audience. They were a hoot to watch. The one poor fella never got the hang of it. They finally asked his wife to tell him what they wanted and he still didn't get it. It was great fun and he was a very good sport.

We then made it to Tahiti and watched a trio playing native instruments. Then they taught the ladies how to do the Tahitian hula. It is much, much faster than the one done in Hawaii. You stand with your heels kind of together but your toes pointing out a bit. Then you bend one knee and then the other. You don't move your shoulders. When you do this very quickly your hips really can get to going. It is accented by these thick grass skirts worn low on these girls hips. Great fun to try and to watch. Again they had audience participation.

We really wanted to catch an IMAX theater performance if we could. So we left Tahiti and headed back to the the IMAX theater. Along the way I took pictures of the waterway, a shed built over a long canoe and the replica of Easter Island with its huge statues. Everything is so well constructed and maintained that you can really get the feel of being in these islands and some of what they are about.

The IMAX was about the coral reefs and how many are dying. A couple was asked to spend a good deal of time photographing them and studying healthy and dying reefs to learn what might be causing them to die. They did this through the lens of an IMAX camera. The footage was phenominal. It was a delight to watch and learn from. The background music was all Crosby, Stills and Nash music. When we left the theater it was going to be time to get in line for the Luau. I got outside and realized I had no husband. I couldn't see him anywhere. I called him on my cell phone only to find I lost him as he turned to check out the gift shop at the bottom of the escalator as we left the theater. He was looking for a Crosby, Stills and Nash CD. He didn't find one there. But, when we got home he went to Walmart in Georgetown and there in the CD bins totally misfiled was one lone Crosby, Stills and Nash CD. He was one happy guy. They didn't even have a CD divider labeled for them. Claude is sure this is a sign he was supposed to get this CD. But I digress.... I received a cell phone call at the beginning of the IMAX show and turned my cell phone off. It was from Hayden. The Marx family had been on their first cruise on the Disney Magic all week and he was checking in while they drove home from Florida. It was good to hear the little guys voice again. He was sooooo excited about his BIG CRUISE SHIP. After a quick chat with Hayden we headed to the Hale Aloha for our Luau dinner. The seating is stadium seating with a big stage in front. They start the program quickly by letting you watch them take the pig out of the ground. Note the picture below. Then they carry the pig on a litter across the front of the stage and to the buffet area. Then the Hawaiian Royal (Ali'i) come in in costume. All the time you are eating they are singing and performing on this stage. The music is great!! Claude ordered some kind of fruit drink in a real pineapple shell. The tables are called quickly and we headed to the buffet to sample a little of everything. We ate the poi and the raw fish and the pig and the salads and a purple baked yam and rolls made with purple yams and on and on. I was going to pass on the desserts but our server brought plates of dessert so we didn't have to get up and go to the dessert bar. Oh My Goodness was all that food good.

After dinner we strolled through the indoor shops and the outdoor shops until time for the evening performance to begin in the Pacific Theater. You are under a covered roof but there is a lot of openess to the sides of this theater so you feel like to are out in the open. This year they started a new play titled "Ha". Ha means 'breath of life' and is actually the last part of the word aloha. The story is of Mana, who represents each of us. He is born and grows and creates his on Ha as he journeys through the diverse cultures of Polynesia at the different stages of his life. Mana is born on a perilous night and breathes the breath of life. In Tonga the kindly villagers welcome the little one and his parents to their new home. In Hawaii Mana grows, and the village celebrates his early years of life. In Aotearoa (New Zealand) Mana becomes a man and learns the ways of his fathers and sets out to find his place in the world. There is a brief intermission where much multiflavored sherbet is sold to the audience. Then the story resumes in Samoa where Mana discovers a new village and new people and also finds a new love. In Tahiti Mana and Lani make a new life together. In Fiji Mana becomes a father and defends his new family. He bids goodby to the one who gave him life. A new child is born and Mana learns that HA, the breath of life, goes on forever. It was a beautiful story and extremely well done. Lots of great costumes and staging.

When the show was over we found our way out of the Polynesian Cultural Center and to our waiting bus for the ride to Waikiki and the Waikiki Marina Resort at Iliaki where we would spend the night. There is way too much to see at the PCC to do it in one day. But whatever was seen by those in our tour group was totally enjoyed.