Hawaii Trip: July 8

Aloha... (not alooooooha, which is apparently overly touristy).

We're finally in a healthy enough state to be able to type out a quick memoir of our trip. The trip was amazing. I told Geneva that of all the places I've been to in the world, Hawaii is the most beautiful and breath-taking place I've ever been. When you take out the sentimental value of places, the ultramarine blue water, lush vegetation, and hot but not unbearable sun was like taking the best of every tropical place we've been to and putting it all in one place. We can't wait to go back with family and friends (but Italy and China are first on the next to list).

(Note: if you don't want to read about the trip, just scroll for the pictures).
We started our journey with a two night stay on the main island of Oahu in the tourist centre of Honolulu. We stayed right on Waikiki Beach at the heritage signature Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Everything was pink! The exterior, the bed sheets, the wallpaper design, the towels, the soap... vintage Hawaii circa early 1900s. The first night we got in, we settled into our hotel around 9:00 p.m. and Sydney crashed. So mom and dad enjoyed a luxurious dinner of salad and appetizer room service (finished off with a coconut cream pie). It was the smallest but most expensive meal of the trip!

On our first full day, we were adventurous and decided to take the public bus to Hanuama Bay. After finding a pastry place recommended in Lonely Planet (LP always gets tourist sites right, but food recommendations horribly wrong), we grabbed some chocolat au pain and a large fruit smoothie and we were on the bus for nearly AN HOUR on the way to the bay. We arrive around 10:00 a.m.. It was a gorgeous day, and daddy and mommy took turns snorkelling with a variety of tropical fish. Sydney was happy by the beach, enjoying the scene and the shade. She had her dri-fit suit on, and she strolled through the water a few times. However, the salt water didn't agree with the excema on her ankles, so we didn't "dip" for too long. We planned to stay 1/2 a day, but with sydney/ mommy/daddy nap times, we stayed until 3pm and didn't get back until almost dinner. Hanuama Bay was amazing, as fun as it was for daddy when he was there with chris, and ong ba noi. One of daddy's favourite spots in the world as it's so easy to find schools of tropical fish to swim for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, regardless of your swimming level. After venturing back and washing up at the Pink Palace of the Pacific, it was off to a late dinner at the Outrigger Hotel. We found a 50% coupon in the paper (sweet!) and dined on the first of three filet mignons dinners on the trip (mmm... meat).

Saturday started with an early morning walk along Waikiki beach. We had breakfast next-door at Duke's. It's a famous diner/ restaurant named in honour of the first and biggest international athlete to come from Hawaii, the Olympian and King of surf innovation from the early 1900s, Duke. The breakfast buffet was standard American fare (bacon, omelet station, and tropical fruit but also southern biscuits and gravy and waffles/ pancakes with super fattening toppings). After that, it was a short stroll to Honolulu Farmer's Market to pick up sunburn lotion (yes, dad pulled an ong noi and FRIED his entire upper back at Hanuama taking a nap on the beach... idiot). Hawaii Tropic Cool Breeze Blue... daddy's best friend on the trip. Mommy, of course, afraid of missing another opportunity to score some hawaiian goodies picked up a box of Hawaiian macademian nuts... yummy! from there it was a late checkout from the hotel, and off to the waiting area where Sydney and Mommy gave daddy his first Father's day card (yeah, it was a day early but we were on hawaii time, so who knew the difference). Then it was on to the cruise ship! Our ship wasn't as big as some of the ones that we see in the Port of Vancouver, but it was still HUGE... a hotel on a boat essentially. The check in process with NCL was fairly seamless, but of course (as we would learn) when you travel with smiley-baby Sydney it's like you are traveling with a celebrity and you get front-of-the-line/ first-class service all the way.

We missed the bon voyage send off as it was Sydney's nap time. The first few nights we didn't want to leave her alone, but as she got comfortable with the room and crib, we were able to sneak out for walks and eats. The first port the next day was on the east side of the Big Island (the most southern and eastern of the islands) at Hilo. The Hilo area is famous for it's abundant volcano activity and underwater earthquakes. The night before, we sensed that the boat was rocking a LOT. In fact, mom got a little sea sick and the morning after, we heard a number of people complain about motion-sickness. After breakfast, we headed to the meeting auditorium where the excursion people gather. The tour guide then proclaimed that some of the tours of the Volcano National Park (the most active volcano site in the world, and where we were going this day) were going to be closed off. Cool things like an underground lava tube, essentially an old tube that lava use to flow through that cooled and hardened creating a tunnel, would be closed off. Why? The night before there had been a series of over 80 "small" earthquakes. Geve joked "natural disasters seem to follow us, first the "almost-hurricane" on our wedding day in Mexico, and now this. Some people canceled out, but we decided to go anyways. The highlight was a lookout point inside the Volcano National Park of Mount Kilauea, Hawaii's largest active volcano and a huge volcanic crater. However, truthfully we didn't see much and if not for the tour of the Mauna Loa macademian nut factory where mommy scored some killer deals on choco-covered nuts, and a glimpse at a $20,000 orchid (yup, serious) it would have been a disappointment. Oh well, bad luck.

Now, on the ship itself, there are a variety of things to do. Numerous events are planned out, food is generally free or at some specialty restaurants there is a small fee to pay. Pools, bars, and restaurants are open most of the time. We had our first breakfast and dinner at the same place, a restaurant called Skyline. It turned out that two of the restaurants were serviced by the same kitchen with the same menu, but the service at Skyline was great and the service at Liberty was...very New York. :) Later that night, we toured the ship and the cruised pulled past a lava flow on the shoreline that was fully active after the earthquakes from the night before. It was magnificent, being under the stars in the middle of the ocean and watching the molten lava slowly making it's way down the volcano side only to sizzle and fizz in the water. Humbling in terms of making you realize how large and complex the nature of the earth is, and how we are all just a small part of everything that is happening.

Second port was Maui at a place named Kahului. We were there for two days. On the first day, the three of us took another bus tour to a place named Haleakela Crater. It's 10,000 ft above sea level (so quite the ride) and one of the oldest volcanic sites in Hawaii. It was truly amazing. The surface of the crater looked like something from the moon or mars. in fact, in the 1960s rumour had it that the footage of Apollo 11 was actually filmed at Haleakela. Many people venture to Haleakela to watch the sunrise. Apparently, before the sunrises you feel like you can reach up and touch the stars. And then, as the sun comes over the clouds in the east, the colours of the sky are suppose to be breaktaking. Can't wait to try that with Sydney.

After our second bus tour, Geve and I started to notice a trend. By our third day, we would be walking through the cruise ship and people would be waving "hi" to Sydney and calling her by her name. The third morning, we were heading to the breakfast buffet. We had two staff great Sydney by name (we ate in the kiddy-buffet area... so we were easy to remember... and the chicken tenders were SOOOOO good). The funniest thing was after breakfast, we walked past a table of six people and the all said "HEY, It's Sydney. Good morning Sydney." It was a riot. She was the princess of the ship, and everytime she heard her name she's started laughing, speaking gibberish, and kicking her legs. What a ham... I wonder where she gets it from... :) MOM!


Anyhow, second Maui day was our first beach day of the cruise. We went to Wailea Beach on the southwest of Maui. It was close to Molokini Crater, an underwater crater where there is amazing snorkelling. We pitched a tent by the water, and set up camp for the day. The sand at Wailea was the finest sand that we were on the whole trip. It was almost like walking on sugar. The weather was gorgeous but windy(it was great the whole trip... we got lucky because apparently the week before it was raining). Daddy swam a little, but the undercurrent was pretty strong and there wasn't as many fish as their were at Hanuama (cougars from the Fours Seasons... lots more, but tropical fish... much less). But we just had a blast feeding Sydney on the beach and watching her nap, the three of us walking up and down the shoreline and watching Syd watch the water, and just hanging out. It was a beautiful day, one of my favourites. Back at the ship, we went to our first (and only) restaurant that we paid to eat at. It was called Lazy Jay's Steakhouse... and guess what we had for dinner? You bet, shrimp-cocktail, salmon-cakes, a "wedge" cobb salad, and of course two delicious filet mignon finished off with a glass of a robust cab-savignon St. Francis and St. Michel (oh... and bananas flambe to boot). Sydney LOVED the staff there, and feelings were mutual. They were so kid friendly. Our waiter was great, but Sydney had three other waiters/ waitresses come by all the time (to and from the bar) continuously making funny faces to get her to laugh. Even the maitre'd cut up a banana like a puppet (yes, it was weird) and put on a show for her. Great food and great people... it was awesome.

Off then to our favourite port of the trip, Kona on the west of the Big Island. Unlike Hilo that faces east to the trade winds, Kona is protected and more tranquil. In fact, one of the greatest if not the greatest King of Hawaii, Kamehameha who united all the islands, made his home here. Moreover, Captain Cook's (the western discoverer of Hawaii) monument is there too. It's easy to see why. We had never seen as beautiful a colour of blue water as we had seen in Kona. And while all of Hawaii has a natural harmony of earth-man-and-wildlife, Kona was the most representative of that. The shores of Kona are too shallow for a port, so we had to tender in. Literally as we got off, Geneva and I walked down the main shore for two minutes when Geneva spotted a turtle. Feeding off of Geneva's enthusiasm and support, I threw down all my gear, grabbed the snorkel stuff, and jumped in to swim with the turtle. It ended up starting off as comical. Because the sand was kicking up underwater, I literally couldn't see two feet in front on me. I had to keep looking up at Geneva who was half laughing and half coaching me to where the turtle was (as I kept swimming past him and he kept dodging me and making me look like a tourist-fool). :) When i finally saw him and got a chance to swim with him, it was awesome. it was short, but just to be in the water with something that cool that had such a natural presence and ease in the water... amazing. Later on in the day, we watched some locals feed some fish (and eels... yuck) and even spotted a family of spinner dolphins from a distance. Daddy of course pushed his luck snorkelling in a smaller bay. So while he was surrounded by a school of over 50 yellow fish (so cool) he also fell on some short wet rocks and cut open his elbow.

In Kona, mommy also got a chance to do some much needed SHOPPING! We ventured into a Crocs store and after some browsing walked out with a father's day gift (dad's aquamarine crocs that are aqua and orange) a new golden bronze pair for mom, and Sydney's first pair of PINK crocs too... all with signature turtle jibbitz fromHhawaii. As well, we found a spectacular shaved ice place. Shaved ice is kind of a glorified slushee ice cream mix. We entered the place and there were over 50 flavour bottles hanging from the ceiling. You select your size (the small is massive) and you can get an ice cream centre! With mommy, it was an ice cream centre for sure, and daddy convinced her to up it to a medium. Our three flavours were red raspberry, pina colada, and blue hawaii (it looked like a big rainbow). it was sooooo good after walking and swimming on a hot day. We lucked out too. We met two really nice guys on the transport in the morning and they tipped us off that one of the free restaurants was doing lobster dinners that night. So it was a late night lobster dinner for mom and dad after Sydney went to bed, though it was really 1.5 lobsters for dad and 0.5 lobster for mom as the boat was rocky again and we called it an early night.

Our last port was Kauai, our favourite island. If Oahu is the tourist and economic hub, Maui is a the luxurious up-and-coming resort getaway, the Big Island the laid back-local-adventurous site... then Kauai was the picturesque paradise people think of when they think of a raw Hawaii. Our first day was a " Sydney day". She was such a champ the entire trip, napping in her MEC back-pack carrier, eating in restaurants/ on the beach/ etc., and being so friendly and good spirited that we knew she was in for a rest day after three beach outings and two bus tour days. So the first day was lots of naps and eating in at the ship. At sunset, we took a quick walk out to Kalapaki beach. She was and is always happy to get out and see new things. Daddy snapped a couple of good pictures of mom and Sydney. It was such a relaxing day, but that little time at Kalapaki sitting on the beach was one of the happiest moments of the trip for daddy. I just love hanging out with those two.

Our last cruise day at Kauai was (of course) a BEACH DAY! We went out to Poipu Beach. This time we rented a floatation device for mom (the pictures have been permanently deleted but may resurface at a 10th anniversary or 50th bday party in the future). What a huge difference. Mom really enjoyed her snorkelling. There were lots of fish to see, and actually quite a drop off as well so the water was deep. Lots of surfers to the east side of the beach, so we were sure to stay away from them. But a gorgeous day of swimming and shorewalking.

In the afternoon, the cruise ship sailed past the Na Pali Coast line. It was a truly breath-taking experience, and one of those "must see" places in one's life time. The entire coastline is inaccessible by road or ground transportation, so the only way to see the coastline is by air or sea. The coastline stretches for miles and is basically a collection of old volcanos that have been chilsed out and sculpted by centuries of historic lavaflow. The magnitude of the coastline is breathtaking... awesome. I snapped a bunch of pictures with my SLR, and I hope they turn out. A magnificent way to end off the cruise. BTW, we watched the shoreline from the balcony of our cabin, and then watched it returning the other way from Lazy Jay... enjoying our third filet mignon of the trip... mmm,mmm.

That afternoon, Geneva and I also entered into our first Art Auction. It was on the cruise as an activity. We nearly bid on the Romero Britto "My Best Friend" litho until we found out it was $1,000! For a a litho. Yikes.

I wish I could stop writing here. Even writing about this brings me back in time and I loved the trip. My favourite place that I've ever travelled to, and with my two special people. But, as they say... for every ying there a yang. That yang for us was our last day. We docked in Oahu and thanks to daddy's ingenuity (listening to Bridget's advice about seeing the north shore of Oahu) we did a bus tour of the Grand Circle Island Bus Tour. Stupid bus tours. Between the hot outside/ cold inside with AC, someone on the stupid bus probably being sick, and being bus-trapped for a day...dad got chills/ fatigue/ etc. Then the 8pm departure, arriving 445 am flight didn't help. So daddy got deathly ill, and passed the cold to mommy who then passed it to Sydney :( Syd's ok, the antibodies from the breastmilk have kept her pretty good. Daddy and mommy have been hacking up a lung, and daddy loses hearing in his left ear for about 90% of the day (not to mention he was enough phlegm to use up 10 tissues a day). STUPID BUS TOUR!!!

Things to remember for our next trip:
1. Go with one cute, friendly, ham-it-up baby and you'll great great service and meet lots of people. Sydney, our cruise ship celebrity.
2. Easy on the bus tours. Bus tours are for old, sick people.
3. Buy snorkel gear (in our case, need to buy a floaty and fins). Easier to get around, and with the floaty snorkeling (while from a fashion standpoint embarassing) is effortless.
4. Sunscreen and reapply on the first day so you're not burnt the rest of the trip (though that really wasn't a deterrent).
5. If you are travelling with an infant, have a great a carrier that is comfortable for you and your kid so the kid can sleep in it (because it's hard sticking to a schedule). Plus a wide brim hat too! and a long-sleeve dri-fit shirt that's cool but protects from sunburn (there's nothing you can do about tanning freckles though). Linen is good.
6. Balcony on a cruise is almost a must. The rooms get moist and the air gets stale. It's nice to have the breeze, and in our case a place we can escape to, still hear Sydney but be able to eat and chat.
7. Get crocs. Love crocs. Daddy use to hate the fad, but they are so versatile and comfortable. A fashion beast, but who cares.
8. travel before your kids are 2. We had a lot of friends recommend this. If you find the right family pace, it's a blast. Remember after they turn 2, it's full airfare!

Enjoy!