If you ever get an opportunity to go on a cruise there are several things I would suggest insuring your trip to be extra special. 1) Investigate all activities on and off the boat. With this information DO as many things as you possibly can. 2) Pre-pay if you pre-pay before then you have less stress try to keep a tally of your departing total. 3) If you are a soda/pop drinker get a pre-paid card when you arrive. This will save you some time/aggravation as well. Also, be warned that the buffet is full of food so pack either loose clothes or self restraints. Here are some of the stories from the trip the come with a disclosure if you need to go to the potty do it now before you read on.The plan was to drive to Texas; estimated time was 17-19 hours, with another couple Lisa, who I used to sing with in Fermata Nowhere Quartet and Phil, her husband. We decided since this was a long drive that we were going to slip it in two day span
The first thing that happened: Around dinner time we decided to stop at a Cracker Barrel. As you know it is a standard rule, if you are traveling or driving in the US, you have to stop at a Cracker Barrel. I love that place and they always have such great home cooked food and plus you can shop what a concept!
I thought meat loaf sounded pretty good and since we were traveling it was probably mild enough to not upset my stomach. Everyone was eating and having a great time, but when we got back on the road my stomach started making the rumbling noise. Chase had fallen asleep, so she missed this whole thing thank goodness.
I have to stop here and mention that even though I knew Lisa very well I didn't really know her husband that well.
My stomach started cramping making all kinds of noises and then I broke out into a sweat... yes, I know women don't sweat, but trust me on this that is what happened. I had Thomas pull the truck (the truck was their truck) over to the side of the road (can we say embarrassing??) and nothing happened. I tried to, but nothing did. I got back into the truck and we started down the road again, not sure how long it was. I can say it wasn’t that long before my stomach started up again. I was trying to WILL my stomach pain away but NO not this time.
Not sure what happened if my face turned a lovely shade or what but I heard Lisa tell Thomas he better pull over fast. I looked up to see that he was in the left lane, it was raining and there were semis all around us. I was trying to say him to pull over and realize that I was getting sick. I tried to roll the window down, but the door was locked so the window wouldn’t go down. I guess this was a version of child lock protection. When I realized the window wouldn’t go down my stomach rebelled. Thomas was in the middle of changing lanes when my entire dinner came up and ended up all over the passenger’s side door passenger’s side seat/mat and in Guy’s hair.
I was mortified!
I guess this is one way to get to know someone on a level that you normally don't get to. We didn’t drive too much longer when we stopped for the night.
This section is mainly information to anyone planning a trip to Hawaii. Our group went November 2008 no one knew to research or ask prior to going. Since we were there for a singing competition this wrecked havoc on many of our members causing them to become ill. So if you or a member of your traveling party is sensitive to air pollutants you may want to check the location you are visiting on this website: http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/
Very simply, Vog is volcanic air pollution. While it is not as ugly as the urban brown low lining clouds found in many cities, it can have a big impact on people who are sensitive to upper respiratory infections. Visitors to the island(s) may not be aware to research this before their visit or might not notice the haze until they develop symptoms of head cold/chest congestion. My suggestion would be when checking weather conditions for your trip time check the Vog report as well. Also check to see if your hotel has a doctor’s office on site in case someone in your party has a severe reaction.
Here is the list of Vog Levels
Extreme - Very reduced visibility, no visible horizon. Blue/grey tint to objects a mile or less in distance.
Heavy - Reduced visibility, horizon barely visible. Blue/grey tint to objects 3 miles away.
Moderate - Horizon is blurry. Blue/grey tint to objects 5 miles away.
Light - Horizon is almost sharp. Blue/grey tint to objects 10 miles away.
No Vog - Sharp horizon and there is little haze when viewing distant objects
Tapa Bar-The Tapa Bar is a beautiful place located off the elevator from the Tapa Towers. The covered structure and the cool island breeze give a lounge relaxing feeling. During the day, it was a good rendezvous place or to sit on the many couches to read. The bar offers meals and at night offers live entertainment.
And one could tell by how we walked that he drunk more than his share
He fumbled round until he could no longer keep his feet
Then he stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
He stumbled off into the grass to sleep beside the street
About that time two young and lovely girls just happend by
And one says to the other with a twinkle in her eye
See yon sleeping Scotsman so strong and handsome built
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath the kilt
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath the kilt
They crept up on that sleeping Scotsman quiet as could be
Lifted up his kilt about an inch so they could see
And there behold, for them to see, beneath his Scottish skirt
Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth
They marveled for a moment, then one said we must be gone
Let's leave a present for our friend, before we move along
As a gift they left a blue silk ribbon, tied into a bow
Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
Around the bonnie star, the Scots kilt did lift and show
Now the Scotsman woke to nature's call and stumbled towards a tree
Behind a bush, he lift his kilt and gawks at what he sees
And in a startled voice he says to what's before his eyes.
O lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize
Ring ding diddle diddle I de oh ring di diddly I oh
O lad I don't know where you been but I see you won first prize.
As you can imagine we were laughing so hard that we drew quite a bit of attention. We didn’t notice some of us we were still howling, crying or running to the bathroom. Some of the crowd was video/audio taping this. If I am lucky and get a copy of a clip I will put it up here, because when Sandy sings this it is BEYOND hilarious! In the midst of our laughter a YOUNG man thought we were the happening crowd and started making his way through every woman in our group, well minus Sandy. She is like 6'2. I coined him THE PUP (12 year old). His line was: “He hadn’t seen any action below in a long time” which I have to say was disturbing. We are a protective bunch so we were keeping an eye on the PUP!
On our last day on the island my friend Peggy said she HAD to show us some places on the island she accidently found while driving around. We were so excited for the opportunity to go “site seeing” along highway 83.
Blowhole -
A MUST SEE if you are on Ohau. The view is simply break taking!
Halona Blowhole is just a 10-15 minute drive from Waikiki and is a spectacular scenic stroll. Located off the Kalanianole Highway and north of Hanauma Bay, the lookout offers an excellent view of the coastline and outer islands, such as Molokai and Lanai, on clear days. During the winter months, the lookout is a great spot to watch whales at play, where they are in the migration stage to North.
Situated to the right of Blowhole is the Halona Beach Cove, also known at the "Peering Place." This small sandy beach at the cove is great for swimming when the surf is calm.
The site is known for the famous love scene between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the movie, From Here to Eternity (1953) and several scenes in the Adam Sandler movie, 50 First Dates.
Technically it’s named Halona Beach Cove, but to the locals call it “Cockroach” Cove. No real reason why the locals call it this probably to deter the tourists. If you're lucky, you can see the resident honu (endangered Hawaiian green sea turtle)swimming. This description was taken off a couple of sites – I thought I would get the facts straight.
Below Halona is the Ka Iwi channel, one of the most dangerous, unpredictable ocean channels in the world. There are no lifeguards at the Halona sites, so be extremely careful. I wouldn’t suggest swimming here because it is VERY rough but we did see divers and some snorkelers. I would also suggest wearing sturdy shoes not flip flops like I did. This wasn’t really an issue but when hiking down the side of the hill you need to watch your step.
Be cautious of your surroundings when you are near the water. The waves crash against the sides of the rocks, producing very powerful waves. I cannot stress this point enough because this happened to me. Please look at the picture above. (Do you see the black rock platform in the bottom of the shot.) I was sitting on the edge getting my picture taken by Peggy when wave crashed behind me and pushed me forward which threw me off balance and pulled me back. Luckily, I had a good footing and Peggy jumped to grab my hand. The people on the lookout did a Ooo and Ahhhh sigh. It was scarier after the fact.
I am trying to locate some picture for some visual assistance and to help tell the story better and will add this in later.
I don’t know if you all are seeing a pattern in these posts about Hawaii, but as I type up these stories I sure am.
Carole, Katie and I decided to go to Pearl Harbor and being money/green conscientious we took the bus. Unfortunately, for us we took the wrong bus in RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC and it took 1.2 hours to get there. To put this in perspective if you drove from our hotel to the harbor it would take around 20 minutes or so in normal traffic.
I think we left latter than we expected because we had a meeting with the chorus, not sure I remember the true reason was.
I didn’t think we would ever get there the bus kept stopping here and there. When we finally arrived the driver informed us the last shuttle would be back in an hour so whatever were going to it had to be fast. This really didn’t sit too well with us.
* I am going to pause here for a service announcement and say while you are on vacation it would be a GOOD idea to research all activities before you spend 1.5 hours on the bus to get to a location. The other thing you would learn in your research before you go is the RULES. This is a key point to the story*
When we got off the bus everyone walked to the main entrance. At the time we didn’t know there was two sections the park and the museum and the submarine.
As our line approached the guard he told us we were not allowed to have bags in the Museum or on the submarine. He pointed us to the purse/bag checking station across the park. To say we were confused, tired and somewhat irritated would be an understatement.
We walked across to the other section of the park and found a detached trailer of sorts. It wasn’t a big trailer and looked more like an open coat check station. I don’t have a picture of the actual trailer but have seen closets bigger. I walked up to find out what the process was to check our things in and saw their security or lack of.
This was in a split second and the employee rudely pointed to a sign of what was allowed and what wasn’t. I turned to read the “sign” and realized that everything we brought would have to be checked plus there was a charge of $3.00 charge to store our things and pray that we would get them back.
I turned around to my companions and said I didn’t feel comfortable about this set up. I guess the lady heard me. I didn’t think I actually said this that loud, but apparently she did and wasn’t very happy about this.
While talking to my friends I said that I didn’t mind sitting under a tree. I had brought a book and could read while they went in as long as they took pictures. The employee was still listening to me I guess. The group said they would do this so I stepped down and we started on our way. I turned around and saw a rocket and airplane that was about ten feet from where we were standing and thought I would snap a couple of pictures before I found a tree. Remember I thought this was separate so I didn’t think this was part of the museum. The submarine was further down so I didn’t think it was a big deal.
All of a sudden the woman starts yelling - - she really screeching “YOU HAVE TO CKECK YOUR BAGS”. She scared the be jesus out of me. I turned around to her to see who she was screaming at and found she was screaming at me. Needless to say I didn’t get the pictures of the rocket or airplane. We quickly left the area.
We walked back to the museum so Carole and Katie could go in only to be told they had to have a ticket. This was by the same guard that told us we had to check our bags.
One of the reasons we went to Pearl Habor not only because there is so much history but we were told that it was free if you did the tour on your own or you could have the option to purchase head phone and listen to a virtual tour for $5.00.
When we asked where to get the tickets he said it was located where we were suppose to check our bags and looked back at me who was carrying all the bags at this point. So we walked back over to where the trailer was and the bag Nazi. I waited by the front FAR away from her while they went to get a ticket. A few minutes later they came out to say that the tickets were sold out “first come first served” and they didn’t have any more.
I was very upset because no one had told us about the ticket quantity, we didn’t know about the bag situation and there was a charge, miscommunication between departments and the treatment we received.
Please note I did show some level of restraint I could have fired back at the bag Nazi woman about her behavior or the treatment from the guard having us go back and forth wasting our time only to find out that they limit the number of visitors per day and their number had already been meet. Of course, he may have not known this. I didn’t want to display embarrassing behavior to my companions or to the group we were with.
I should have asked for a manager to inform him that his organization needs some improvements and his staff need a 101 class in customer service, but 1) our time was up and 2) we were told that the personnel doesn’t take to kindly of bad behavior from civilians and you could find yourself in the brig.
So you can see why I added the service announcement to research your vacation activities thoroughly.
Here is what the web
site states about their security:Strict security measures prohibit purses, handbags, fanny packs, backpacks, camera bags, diaper bags, luggage and/or other items that offer concealment. Visitors may bring a camera and cam-recorder. A storage facility, operated by a private vendor, is available for visitors coming to the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park, the Battleship Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum. The facility can be found at the entrance to the USS Bowfin Sumarine Park. There is a nominal storage fee. The storage facility is in operation daily 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Visitors may use the same bag storage and parking stall for all three tours
Majho – Blow up @ Dinner with local (please note I wasn’t there) Whole scene approximant 20 minutes
I wasn’t involved in this so I may have to revise this story since I don’t have firsthand knowledge but the story is too funny NOT to tell.
A party of six of our members went to dinner at a local diner that was across the street from the hotel we were staying at. It would remind you of a Denny’s in a way. They had a good / reasonably priced breakfast, but honestly I wouldn’t recommend it for any other meals.
The restaurant was busy that night in question was placed in the back of the restaurant in a large booth. There were a handful of other people in the back in different stages of their dinners. One such group was two women.
In our group the server had taken their orders and brought drinks. They were having a leisurely conversation about the international competition while their food was being prepared. When the two-ladies behind them started arguing, apparently, both had been drinking Mia Tia’s.
One, an elderly woman in a wheelchair was also hard of hearing. The other must have been the caretaker/ Designated Driver, but had drunk a bit too much. Our group didn’t know how much had been consumed at this point, but did notice the slurring from both and due to the lady in the wheelchair’s hearing problem the conversation was LOUD.
Our group thought they must be locals and come into the restaurant often because the hostess knew to put them in the back.
The argument was over how much to tip the waitress. Apparently the wheelchair hard of hearing lady was also paying the bill. One in our party who was facing towards them started giggling. She states she couldn’t help it because it was pretty funny to hear and watch them. The three that had their backs to the scene couldn’t see what was going on only was able to hear the conversation were trying to get the giggler to stop by kicking her under the table and giving her various looks. These attempts didn’t succeed in time.
The caretaker who was quite inebriated saw the laughing and lost it. She jumped up or should I say almost fell out of her chair in her attempt to stomped over to our group’s table to give a tongue lashing. This only made the giggling member laugh harder and some of the other six joined in. She proceeded to yell at everyone at the table.
One in our group had identification tag and her visitor pass on her that she was trying to cover. The first giggler could not stop laughing more kicking and facial expressions was going on.
The irritated woman pointed at the only male at the table and said he called him “GAY MAN” in Hawaiian “Manho” and returned around to get back into her chair. Which she had trouble achieving and made the laughing not only from our table erupt more but now she had caught the whole back of the restaurant’s attention. This didn’t go over very well to the already irritated caretake
r.
She turned around staying safely in her chair this time and called him a Titi boy, which she pronounced (TEE TEE) which was a complete contradiction to her first derogatory comment! You guessed it the room erupted in laughter. By this time the serving staff that was hiding through the first half leaned out to watch the dinner and show act.
She was all worked up by this and got up out of her chair stomped over to do more yelling. I don’t know how many times this patterned happened but know by the time the two ladies (using that word loosely) left everyone in the whole restaurant knew what was going on.
I was surprised that the manager didn’t try to resolve the situation when it first happened or that either of the waitress’ didn’t come out to help calculate the tip to get them out faster. It seemed that everyone KNEW these two and were staying far away.
When the two ladies left the manager appeared our group wasn’t sure if the manager had to be called in or if he was detained another way, but apologized for the disturbance. He told them that this never has happened before with them.
As our group left the restaurant they looked around to see if the irritated care taker woman had dumped the hard of hearing wheel chair lady in the bushes and was waiting for them to leave. I am happy to report they were able to finish their meal, paid the bill and left peacefully.
Before I begin telling some of the stories I have to say I went outside my confort box on this visit! With the YES attitude, I did some daring things well daring to me. I was able to "experience Hawaii (Main Island) with gusto and would suggest to anyone that is going on a vacation either locally or across the pond to have this "I never be able to come back" attitude. Try and squeeze as many activities as you possibly can.
I will have to add the pictures later... I am on a different computer that doesn't have all my pictures.
Fun stories: I have some rather funny stories about our trip.
1) On the way: I was traveling with a big group. The chorus I sing with won amazing accomplishment a chance to compete at the International level in Honolulu Hawaii. There were 12 on my plan that went together. Many of the other members, there are over 100 of us, would see each other at the various airports along the way which was interesting. In the 12, The Dazzling Dozen, I will call us; there were several that were in need of assistance since the eldest member in our chorus was with us.
We left from the Dayton Airport around six in morning and when we landed in Atlanta, they told us that our connecting plane had been changed. As you can imagine this created distress to some of our members, but the attendant assured us they had set up a BUS for us. I guess our big group plus three in wheel chairs scared them a bit! This was an experience! I truly felt while we were on the bus we were going to die! We were on the tarmac trying to make our way around the huge planes/jets and trying to dodge the luggage drivers. I felt we had been shrunk down to ant size and were dropped down in the middle of extermination! Glad to say we did make it from across still alive and to our new terminal only to be told they switched it back to the original spot we started from. You guessed it we had to load everyone + bags back on another bus and do it all over again, like the first time wasn’t enough.
I am going to try omit describing the part where we attempted to sing for them b/c
1) We didn't have a pitch pipe for the songs we wanted to sing,
2) The LEAD that started us thought she was picking the correct pitch., which unfortunately wasn’t.
3) I would say we were still asleep since we had to be at the airport at 4 AM, but after our trek across the tarmac I cannot say we were ASLEEP… maybe still in shock would be more the word. I do know most of us were not feeling well some were having sinus issues. On the way back to the bus I had to apologize because GEEZ it was pretty bad.
2) Trip to Hanauma Bay:
We took a taxi to Hanauma Bay. I don’t have a ton experience with Taxi drivers in fact it seems the only time I use them is when I am on a Sweet Adeline trip. The driver was fantastic! Along the way he pointed out a couple of residents where actors’ live – Keanu Reeves, and his next door neighbor was Tom Selleck. We crained our necks trying to see if we could catch a glimpse of them, but found out that they are rarely there. Also, we saw a place called “Stairway to heaven” and thought it would be great to hike to the top. It has 3000 steps to the top which should take about 60-90 minutes to reach the top of it that is if you are in shape. Since I am camera freak I wanted to get up there I could take some amazing pictures. I didn’t have any takers while we were there, but found out it was CLOSED. When we returned from our trip I was doing some research for these stories and found out that not only was it closed but being patrolled with riffles. Glad we missed that, of course it would have been a STORY!
Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is located on the Southeast side of Oahu and is classified as the 3rd wonder of the island. The bay is home to some of the most spectacular snorkeling and diving in the islands. It is a breathtaking place to visit. If you visit Ohau and can only go to several places, make this one of them. Important fact: Hanauma is closed on Tuesdays’ and under hazardous conditions such as severe weather or Box Jellyfish they will close the park so you will need to call ahead. The jellies typically arrive on the south and west shores of the islands every month 8 to 12 days after the full moon. If you have a calendar that lists moon cycles you might want to check that.
We had four in our group that went and we were all very excited even more excited after seeing the actor’s houses. I bought an underwater camera in preparation of this so I could capture the sea turtles, fish and coral. It was my BIG thing I had planned on doing while visiting.
The day we visited thank goodness we didn’t have to worry about the jellies of course, now that I think about it there were flags on the beach. Maybe because the water was extremely choppy they stayed further out. When we reached the park our driver gave us explicit instructions to be back at the location where he dropped us off. If we were not here at the designated time he would leave us. No pressure.
As we purchased our tickets we were told we had to watch a training video on how to snorkel in the bay – what was allowed and what wasn’t. Not much to say about this other than if you have common sense then you know you are not allowed to touch the coral or it dies. Video is a requirement to enter the park and thankfully it is less than 10 minutes long.
When the video finished we were ushered outside to be told we could grab a trolley down the hill, of course there is a cost of this or you could walk. Which our group slip up 2/2 – two on the trolley and two walking
I will stop here and say that I am an experienced swimmer. I used to coach swimming and was a life guard in my high school years, of course I won’t say how many years ago that was, but this point is KEY to this story.
After we located a spot on the beach where we wanted to setup three of us went into the water dragging our gear with us. I have been snorkeling before and experienced swimmer so I didn’t think this was going to be a big deal. I will say this that no matter how experienced you think you are you can ALWAYS benefit from refreshers.
My main point in going was to take pictures, I will be honest. Once we went out into the water we found out the coral started at mid calf water height in some areas. This is where the experience or lack of. We sat down and tried to put our fins on, but as we were doing this the waves were crashing all around us making the process difficult and that isn’t mentioning the sand that was going places where we won’t discuss.
If you are a snorkeler you will understand this, first it was low tide with choppy waters so there wasn’t much water at the edge of the surf before you reached the coral. The depths differed between 18-36 inches in some place. I have been snorkeling before but not in these conditions and was having some comedic issues getting my gear on.
We waded out into the surf a bit and found the coral almost immediately when we walked in. Remembering our video we just watched we had to wade out backwards and since the coral was in such shallow water, it wasn’t an easy task. They told us not to touch the coral but this was impossible almost every part of your body touched it due to the choppy waves. You had to do the dodge I have to say my rear end caught it more than once. I guess there is an upside; I wasn’t alone on this because the coral wasn’t sharp if it had been I would have lost the bottom of my bathing suit.
We finally reached a place in the water was deep enough to assemble the gear; really it was only mask, mouth piece and fins. You would not have thought it was a big deal getting these on but due to the waves tossing us around it proved difficult.
You would have thought once I got my gear on, and my body acclimated with the cycle of waves I would have been okay, right but unfortunately this wasn’t the case. I was in the process of following some fish, taking their picture or at least attempting to when my mask fogged up and my mouth piece started taking in water. I went to the surface and flipped over pulling my mouth piece out choking up salt water pulling off my mask and trying to see what the heck was going on. I have to say this process went on longer than I care to admit. Finally I found out my mouth piece had a hole in it. Since patience isn’t necessarily one of my stronger suits I took it out of my mouth after third or fourth attempt. This is when I was able to get some of the pictures, but they didn’t turn out as well as I had liked. My cohorts who were swimming off in a distance would periodically look over to check on me and see me flipping around and around in the ocean.
On the way home the girls told what happened to everyone in the van and had a big laugh!
First I probably should explain the purpose of this blog in my first post and to clarify the title, "GET REAL Chronicles". This isn't necessarily going to be an Andy Rooney spot where he could make up a story about the importance of his rubber bands or ranting about what some of his fans sent him. Eventhough I could probably do this.
I am logging some funny stories that seem to happen all the time. It seems I am a magnet to