The Reader’s Digest version is some weekdays and weekends are taken up with our grandson and have superseded our weekend jaunts to far flung points of interest and cool places to eat (we’re all about the people and the food).
So we decided back in April to book a cool cruise to Hawaii by way of Vancouver, British Columbia. Yes….strange as it seems, that was the only port serving Hawaii during the month of September when it was scheduled. Which led us to a really convoluted (but cheap) air route to B.C. From DFW to Seattle, to Vancouver by way of Alaska Air. After we get off the ship we’re going back from Honolulu to Portland to DFW. Crazy.
So our first day was mostly on airplanes and a not too pleasant Immigration entry into Canada. Vancouver International Airport (VCY) is a very nice airport but the exit through Customs really sucked. After exiting the aircraft you have to log in to an automated processing of your Declaration of Goods and show passports to a kiosk. Then present same to an Immigration Officer. You then get to collect your bags and stand in line for the exit which also has Immigration Officers who stop and collect the Declaration you already submitted to the machine and the first Immigration guy. This led to quite a bottleneck in that they only had one officer collecting Declarations from everyone on the way out in a line that snaked all the way back to the Immigration Checkpoint. It was nuts until somebody thought to add another two officers to collect Declarations. Oh well, the price of freedom I guess.
We hailed a cab who’s Indonesian driver was wayyyyy too light weight to manhandle Dianna’s luggage. I had to lift and shove our load of three bags into the back of this guys’ Toyota Prius (preferred cab of Vancouver…they were everywhere…with free wi-fi in each car) and made our way into downtown to our hotel, the Victorian Hotel on Homer Street.
It was built in 1898 when the Gold Rush was rolling through the Northwest to house the many prospectors working their way to the Klondike. A guest of note was Klondike Kate Rockwell a Vaudevillian of Klondike Gold Rush fame in Dawson City.
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| Very Creative Canadians |
Their burgers are epic and Dianna had the Rogue Burger while I had the Quinoa Veggie Burger. Really cool spot to people watch right on W. Cordova Street. Including the homeless who come right up to the glass and ask for contributions. It was around 6 p.m and workers from all over were heading for the train depot probably heading home. We then headed back to the hotel for a good nights rest to the sounds of the city winding down.
Dianna had the Classic Benedict (that she rates all restaurants with) and I had the Spinach, Portobello and Feta Omelette. Each came with “smash brown” potatoes. Rick, our server, explained they took baked potatoes, cut them into bit-sized sections, pressed them and then deep fried the pieces. Really tasty replacement for standard fries or hash browns.Rick asked us about our travels and we asked him about living in Vancouver. Rick told us the real estate market had gone crazy making it impossible for common folk to live within the city limits. He credited it to a large influx of Asian investors who were buying up land and were building high-rise apartments and condos everywhere (there were high-rise cranes all around us). He said the average home in the city goes for about 1.7 million and they have a very large wealthy population of students who's parents have sent them to college in Canada which has dried up all the available housing.
We then moved on to Dianna’s favorite pastime in foreign countries….pharmacy shopping. We found one just down the street where she found several items she would normally need a prescription for. Looking around at their various “over-the-counter” remedies and you could spot lots of pain relievers and cold remedies at prescription strength that lined the shelves. It’s amazing what you can find.
We had gotten there early enough to deposit our luggage and did the check-in without incident so we wandered around so Dianna could use her phone app at the Starbucks right around the corner from the terminal. Life is good when your dollar is worth more than the local currency. Soon we were aboard and watching as the Lions Gate Bridge passed overhead. |
| Repositioning Cruise primping |
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| Dessert Bar at the Buffet |
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| Cheesecake at the Steakhouse |
Hilo is on the northeastern shore of the Big Island and is the government center for the County of Hawaii (that must make it easy to remember). Hilo is also home to five volcanos, two of which are the most active Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. The two are considered the tallest mountains in the world. Although Everest is 29,029 feet above sea level, Mauna Loa is 13,678 above sea level but is another 16,405 feet to the sea floor (remember the visible island is the volcano), a total of 30,085 feet. Mauna Loa has a satellite volcano, Kilauea providing a continuous flow of eruptions and lava flows since 1823. Volcanoes National Park was the 15th National Park established by Woodrow Wilson in 1916 making it 100 years old this year. It is the island where British explorer Captain James Cook met his demise. It also sprouts the largest number of astronomical observatories in the world.
Thus we found ourselves on the “Chain of Craters” Tour with Captain Rob. Captain Rob provided a running commentary and historical record of the island based on his 25 years of being a tour guide on the island. On the way to the Volcano, we took a side trip to the Nani Mau Botanical Garden for a great lunch and walk around some of the most beautiful Japanese style gardens around.
HIT PLAY TO CYCLE THROUGH THE PHOTOS
The Volcano tour got us a stop at the Kilauea caldera as well as the famous Lava Tube. Captain Rob pointed out that that part of the Island of Hawaii is a rain forest with about 140-150 inches of rain a year (12 feet…wow). As we traveled up the lush green Highway 11, Rob pointed out the Kilauea Military Camp. It was established as an Army training camp in 1916 but became an Internment Camp for Japanese residents after Pearl Harbor and a Prisoner-of-War camp later in the war. It is still used today as an Armed Forces Recreation Center. But as we arrived at the Kilauea caldera, the thick trees retreated and we found ourselves in an almost barren landscape. Rob said it was due to the high temperatures. The ground was so warm, it can’t sustain trees and only low brush survives.
The following day, we anchored off the city of Kona. Still on the island of Hawaii, it is coffee central for most of the civilized world. Our guide was David, a native Hawaiian. He explained a long running disagreement over the “native Hawaiian” designation. David pointed out that there are no “native” Hawaiians. The islands have no indigenous people. They were discovered and populated by early Polynesian and Tahitians in the 4th century. Things were further complicated by the sugar industry. The sugar plantations became so big that they didn't have enough Hawaiians to do the work so many people were recruited to come to Hawaii to work the plantations. Thus people from many different lands came to Hawaii to work really mixing things up with intermarriage of the different races.
David pointed out that this year, Hawaii was no longer in the sugar business. He said the sugar industry had been shrinking for some time and the last island with plantations, Maui, were doing their last harvests. He said the high cost of labor was to blame and stiff competition from South America and the Caribbean were driving them out of business.
Our first stop was Royal Kona Coffee. Everybody made a beeline for the free samples and store to buy up 100% Kona Coffee. Our guide told us you need three things to qualify to use the term 100% Kona Coffee. You had to grow it in a small region on the western slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa. It has to be an Arabica bean (subspecies Typica) processed and packaged in Kona. The coffee plant is not native to the islands (neither was sugar..came in with the Polynesians) and was brought to the Kona district in 1828 by Samuel Reverend Ruggles from Brazilian cuttings. Little known fact, Kona coffee and other Hawaiian coffees are the only coffees commercially grown in the United States. All coffee beans in Hawaii are hand picked mostly due to the rough volcanic hillsides, machines can't handle the terrain. The beans are originally green and are red when ripe (referred to as “cherries”). The beans typically have two beans within a pod, the best (and most expensive) have a single large bean. These are called peaberries. The processed coffee will run about $25 dollars a bag and $10-$15 more per bag for the peaberry beans.
Next stop was St. Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church also known as the “painted church”. The church was originally on the coast of Honaunau Bay (the place Captain Cook was killed by natives when he disrespected the Chief by pushing him while trying to take him hostage). When Father Aloys Lorteau passed away in 1898, it came under the care of Father John Berchmans Velge a native of Belgium. By the mid-1880s, the people of that area had decided to move farther up the mountain to more fertile land. When Father John took over, he decided to move the church up to what is now the town of Captain Cook. One piece at a time, he loaded mules with pieces of the church and rebuilt it where it sits today. Father John, a self-taught artist, decided to paint the interior to help the Hawaiian parishioners learn about the religion.
In the 1800s, most Hawaiians could not read or write English and so Father John painted the walls and ceiling with religious messages to help them understand the teachings of the church. Inside there are very colorful renderings of scenes from the Bible with hidden messages which conveyed the things Father John wanted the natives to learn. An example are the palm fronds painted on the ceiling. Each frond has both brown and green leaves. The leaves pointed toward the back of the church were brown and the ones facing the altar were green meaning that following the church and its teachings helped one grow but turning away from the church meant a poor life and a bad death. Very cool and a moving sight to see.
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| Feral Pigs and Chickens...Huge problem |
Back to the ship for a run to Kauai. There we met up with Leonora, a cab driver/guide we snapped up in town. She took us around to Wailua Falls and rode us through the valley which was the backdrop to both Jurassic Parks and the King Kong remake. Beautiful countryside with lots of lush green in what most would think of when they visualize a tropical paradise. Most of the valley is privately owned and Leonora remarked that the rumors were that the owners were selling off portions for future development. Not surprising….the islands have been going through a definite growing spurt of new high-end housing and commercial development as well. She drove us to one of her personal favorite city parks at Lyncate Park and a really cool driftwood strewn beach. There was wind kicking up and it was pretty choppy but very scenic. On the way back, she took us to the Old Lihue Harbor where early shipping came to dock. Right behind the Lihue Airport, we had to cross behind huge lots of stockpiled rental cars waiting for use. Hundreds of new Mustangs, Cameros and fields of high-end SUVs sitting in waist-high grass behind chain-link fences.
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| Mike is Skinny |
We left and arrived in Honolulu the next morning for the big departure. We’ve gotten real good at packing and getting off the boat. We now pack an empty bag for souvenirs so we don't have to stuff the bags we bring. We have sets of matching luggage which fit inside each other. I therefore pack a medium bag inside the largest bag and don't pay the extra bag until the return flight. Works real well and keeps the bag weight down as well and saves some bucks there.
The downside is the flight back. Saving on airfare results in no direct flights and stopovers in Seattle and Portland before an equally long flight back to Dallas. But it was good to get back until we learned from our son that we suffered a leaking garbage disposal which ran for an entire cycle of the dishwasher. So,
first thing on returning home was a trip to Home Depot for replacements and cleanup. No rest for the weary. End of vacation.
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