Just a silly little TR - Run Away!!

[Kgroo]

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms!!!! Hope you have a great day!!! I have already gotten the most wonderful gift. DD ( who is in speech therapy) came out wi the clearest "Happy Mother's Day" this morning. Music to my ears

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms!!!! Hope you have a great day!!! I have already gotten the most wonderful gift. DD ( who is in speech therapy) came out wi the clearest "Happy Mother's Day" this morning. Music to my ears

That's so special! Brought tears to my eyes! A very Happy Mother's Day to you!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

gaaaaaa why can I not even get a simple ticker to work? I am going to slink back into lurkdom and try to find a 5 year old to fix his for me. When I get that fixed maybe i can get the kid to help me with my cell phone

I just spent half an hour trying to put a little "I'm excited my grandkids are coming soon" ticker on my siggie. I finally gave up and left it blank. Guess I'll go make some cookies!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Just popping in real quick. (Hey you want me to work on the new chapter, don't you? umm.... don't you???) Wanted to wish all the moms out there a...

Well thank you, and tell Ruby the same from us! (I've posted here what, like 5 times and now I feel I can speak for all of us)

 

[Kgroo]

That's so special! Brought tears to my eyes! A very Happy Mother's Day to you!

Thank you

 

[Kgroo]

Just popping in real quick. (Hey you want me to work on the new chapter, don't you? umm.... don't you???) Wanted to wish all the moms out there a...

Thanks !!! . And Happy Mother's Day to Ruby too!!!

 

[dana0801]

Dana, you come over too and bring the Grand Mariner!

Since I'm a left coaster it may take a while but I'll be there with fresh lemon juice for Lemon bars and the Grand Mariner!

 

[dana0801]

I don't think I've ever seen a Heath bar. Suggestions for substitution?


Hey Pkondz, sorry about the Heath Bar! I googled it to see if there was anything similar for you, and hopefully you are able to find Skor Bars. Do you have these? They are almost identical to Heath Bars, both are made by Hershey's, but, in my opinion, the Skor bar has a more buttery toffee flavor. Yum!!

I was going to say Skor too or if worse comes to worst you can substitute English Toffee (although those have nuts on the outside most times so you may have to scrape nuts off)

Also on the whole wit/witless/halfwit thing. I'm always at my wits end so I'm just trying to figure out how much wit I have left before I am truly witless. No insult to the others was ever intended.

 

[pkondz]

Also on the whole wit/witless/halfwit thing. I'm always at my wits end so I'm just trying to figure out how much wit I have left before I am truly witless. No insult to the others was ever intended.

re: wit. I don't think anyone was insulted, to wit: I thought it was more a shot at me. Which I got a kick out of. So no worries.

 

[pkondz]

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms!!!! Hope you have a great day!!! I have already gotten the most wonderful gift. DD ( who is in speech therapy) came out wi the clearest "Happy Mother's Day" this morning. Music to my ears

That's terrific! As a parent, you live and die by your kids. So whenever there's a significant accomplishment... I have no words to describe how it makes you feel.

Very happy for you.

I just spent half an hour trying to put a little "I'm excited my grandkids are coming soon" ticker on my siggie. I finally gave up and left it blank. Guess I'll go make some cookies!

Well... making cookies is pretty much a cure all for everything, so that's okay. Wait. Maybe that should be eating cookies.

Well thank you, and tell Ruby the same from us! (I've posted here what, like 5 times and now I feel I can speak for all of us)

Thanks !!! . And Happy Mother's Day to Ruby too!!!

I'll pass on your wishes!

 

[dana0801]

Happy Mother's Day to all the ladies who are here. And YES that includes Ruby too, because while she may not be posting she is always here in spirit. Also to those Dad's who sometimes have to pull double duty as both parents.

 

[pkondz]

Two pearl or not to pearl... part 1

Okay! It’s our first full day in Hawaii and we’ve got places to go! People to see! Things to do!

Ruby’s going to be doing the conference thing all week so she’s only got today (Sunday) and a partial day on the day we leave (Saturday) to do or see stuff. So no time to waste!

Go! Go! Go!

Our first stop is going to be Pearl Harbor. One of the things I wanted to do the first time we were in Hawaii 15 years and 10 months ago… ahem…was go to Pearl Harbor. Never happened. This time I was determined that it would happen. This was #1 on my list of things to see in Hawaii.

We plan on getting up early since every guide book and internet site on the planet says that it can get really busy there. I figured if we got up around 5am it would give us ample time to get ready, eat and drive over for the 7am opening time.

Sounds like rope drop, no?

Got it all planned out.
1. Get tickets to the Arizona Memorial and then do one of the following:
..........a. Visit the Memorial
..........b. If there’s a wait, go to the visitor center, then the Memorial
..........c. If there’s a really long wait, go do another spot on the list and come back.
2. After the Arizona Memorial, visit the USS Missouri Battleship.
3. If there’s time. Squeeze in the Bowfin Submarine and Pacific Aviation Museum.




...

Were you not paying attention??? We just travelled for 21 straight hours!!! Do you really think we’re going to get up at 5 flipping a.m. ????

No! We did not get up at 5am.
We did not go to Pearl Harbor.

I am still waiting for a chance to get there.

Am I ticked about that?

Nah. Not really. We did other things on this trip that in my books made it a success. Pearl Harbor will still be there the next time we go. Whether that’s in 1 year or 15. It can wait a little longer.

So what did we do? We slept in. It was great. I think I might’ve been the first one up around 8am or so. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but don’t forget that’s 1pm Winnipeg time. Eventually the rest of the family started to stir and we decided to head out for some breakfast. We wandered over to the Rainbow Lanai restaurant which was in the resort complex.

In other words, convenient.

In other words, expensive.

I must admit, I’m not used to paying $100 for breakfast, so that was a nice change. Really lets you know you’re on vacation in Hawaii you know?

Here’s a shot of the rugrats taken while we waited for our mugging… I mean, for our table to be ready.

While I’m at it, so you have an idea of the lay of the land I might as well take this time to show you a bit more of the hotel. Here’s a map, so you can see how big it is.

And I realised that in the first pano view from our Lanai, I pointed out stuff but it was hard to see. Here’s the partial ocean view we had (zoomed in, we weren't that close. Maybe 30 yards from the edge of the beach?)

And I mentioned the flamingos

And penguins

But I didn’t mention the parrots or turtles did I?

You never knew what you were going to see. There was so much going on around every corner. One morning, I was up and around and stumbled on this group doing stretches in preparation for hula lessons.

Right. Back to breakfast. It was a buffet breakfast and was quite good. Sorry no food porn pics for you picky food porn pic preferers. Mostly it was your standard fare: Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. There was a made to order omelette station and guava and pineapple juice in addition to the staple orange juice.

The best part of breakfast was that it was open air, as are much of Hawaiian buildings. Birds were flying in and out looking for scraps and hand outs. I watched this one bird stare down the waiter who was trying to surreptitiously shoo it off an unoccupied chair at a table he’d just delivered food to. The waiter won eventually, but it was a close one. Then again, after the waiter had gotten rid of the bird, he left… and two more birds took up station at the table. So I guess really the birds won that war even though they’d lost the previous battle.

Wars… battles… maybe I am kinda mourning the lost opportunity to go to Pearl Harbor.

After breakfast we headed out. We had an afternoon excursion booked and that one we would not miss.

Besides, it was already paid for.

We were going to head up the Windward (East) coast and I wanted to stop at a couple of places along the way.

The drive up was amazing. What can I say? Oahu is a beautiful place. I tried to get Ruby to take some pictures as we drove… but I’m the one who usually takes the pics. I handed her the camera and would point out something and say, “Wow! That’s beautiful! Take a picture!”

And she would dutifully snap a great picture.

Ummmm.... no. It was more like this:
Me: “Wow! That’s beautiful! Take a picture!”
Ruby: “What? Where? You want a picture? Hang on I don’t have the camera on. Okay. Got it turned on now.”
Me: “That’s okay. It’s a couple of miles behind us now.”
Ruby: “Sorry, I wasn’t ready.”
Me: “That’s okay. Hey! Here’s another great view! Take a picture of this!”
Ruby: “What? Over there? Okay. Oh, wait. I turned the camera off. I have to turn it back on. Okay, oops. Wrong button. Okay, ready!”
Me: “Never mind, we passed it.”
Ruby: “Sorry.”
Me: “Can you take a picture of that?”
Ruby: “I’ll try. Just let me get the camera and turn it on. Hang on. Oh I put it on playback. Okay, I’m ready now.”

I stopped asking Ruby to take pictures from the car. For the rest of the trip I’d see something I wanted a picture of, and… keep my mouth closed.

Probably saved our marriage.


Eventually, we came up to our first stop. It was a small tourist stop that I’d heard good things about from a tripadvisor reviewer. The place is called Tropical Farms and it supposedly is a place that grows and sells macadamia nuts. When we got there, there were two or three tour busses in the parking lot and maybe a handful of cars as well. I can’t say for sure whether they do grow the nuts there or not but they certainly had more of a selection than I saw anywhere else. You can buy the ubiquitous chocolate covered macadamia nuts everywhere. But there were some here that I never saw anywhere else.

They had tasting samples on either side of this room. Nebo, this is where I bought the bag of macadamia nuts. There were a couple other rooms with coffee sampling and knickknacks.

Which brings me to this little story. One of my faves.

A frog hops into a bank and asks to speak to somebody about a loan. He is directed to the desk of Mrs. Patricia Black, loan officer. The frog asks Mrs. Black for a loan of $1 million dollars for swamp improvement and tadpole care. Mrs. Black naturally asks the frog if he has any collateral. The frog pulls out a small statue and carefully places it on the desk. Mrs. Black immediately refuses to provide the funds. The frog, undeterred, demands to speak with the bank manager. Mrs. Black calls over Mr. White who takes one look at the frog and the little statue and immediately approves the loan. Mrs. Black is flabbergasted and demands an explanation. Replies Mr. White….

“It’s a knickknack Patty Black, give the frog a loan.”


Ahhh….. that felt good.


BTW, this is the view from the Tropical Farms parking lot. Not too shabby, eh?

I noticed in the foreground that there were some of Ruby’s favourite flowers. I figured this was as good a time as any to finally reveal myself. I thought, “Well, if I’m going to write a TR, people are going to want to know what I look like. Might as well cast myself in a good light by taking my picture alongside some nice flowers.”

So here you go. The moment you’ve all been waiting for!






wait for it!




Still waiting? You guys are getting desperate! Oh, okay. Here.

What?
Geez you people are not easy to please.

Moving on.

After we munched (and bought) macadamia nuts, we continued up the coast a bit more. There’s an iconic island that is fairly well known even to people who’ve never been. It shows up on touristy type books etc. It’s an island off the windward coast called Mokolii, which means “little lizard”. But it’s more commonly known as Chinaman’s Hat, due to its conical shape.

So here’s Chinaman’s hat.

Here’s Chinaman’s hat on a monkey.

And here’s Chinaman’s hat on a monkey riding a dog.

We stopped here and had our first chance to see what the ocean was like. We wandered down to the beach and…. Nice. Warm. Just begging to be swum in. Swum? Is that even a word? Begging to be swimmed in? Whatever, it was nice. When you live in Canada and your lake temp is usually somewhere around the freezing mark…. It’s a big deal, okay?

After testing the ocean for doneness, we only had a short hop over to our destination, Kualoa Ranch, where I’d booked a two hour horseback tour.

coming up... Godzilla! or, the good the bad and the ugly.

 

[mmeb144]

lol, I hate it when I get a shadow in my pics, but this shadow worked out great! Good job, you handsome devil you!

 

[Mom&RN]

Wow, what an exhausting travel day Glad you all made it safe and sound and SCORE on the great room! Too bad about missing Pearl Harbour but sometimes the body just needs its rest.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Great update! That resort place thingy you stayed at is huge!!! I'm guessing getting your exercise wasn't a problem here was it

The convo between you and Ruby sounds like the one I have when my darling daughter has the camera....like you, I just keep my mouth shut and take the pictures when I have the camera and she takes the pictures of what she wants when she has it

Grat shot of the girls before breakfast....and what a great self portrait...you are very photogenic

 

[buzz1121]

I love the picture of you Pkondz!! Just perfect!!!

I also like macadamia nuts....plain, chocolate covered, or in pancakes with pineapple sauce from Kona Cafe. Yummy!!!

 

[dawnbu40]

Great update! I've only been to Hawaii once, as a teenager, and we stayed at the same resort. It's fun seeing what it looks like now.

Funny you look exactly as I pictured you!

Looking forward to more!

 

[Kgroo]

Great update!!! I only remember a few things about our trip when I was a teenager. One of them was an encounter with a celebrity. At the time that we went, Magnum PI was very popular and was filmed on Oahu. We were told that as we were driving around to look for trucks and or busses along the road at a certain house. If they were there, that meant that they
were filming that day. Well they were and we pulled over to see if we could catch a glimpseof anything. I now ( somewhere) have pics of me and my BFF with Tom
Selleck . He was super nice and came out to greet people who stopped. Great experience.

You are quite the model. Is this trip report going to be like Home Improvement where we never see Wilson???

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Lady Elle]

i got some pictures when we were driving!!!!!!!

 

[nebo]

BTW - I was kind of hoping for another pregnancy... Since you have a Kay and Elle, perhaps the next one would be named Ehm?

Well, since Elle was first and then Kay... How 'bout I call the dog Jay?

Ok, glad we are going forward in the alphabet, if Morty had his way, we were coming up to an EHminEn!