The following is a day to day account of our trip to Singapore and Hawaii. I will try to update it as often as possible but I am on vacation after all. Many of the events listed have been remembered and written down one or two days after the fact so there may be some missing information that I may fill in later. There may also be some historical inaccuracies due to the fact that I am learning about Singapore, mostly from tour guides, but not necessarily taking notes. I plan to fill in most of that information when I get home, but you know how that goes. It may never happen. With that in mind, please read along and I hope you enjoy.
Sincerely,
Randy
McHenry, IL. Saturday 915 am CST 11/20/04
The limo arrived with Tim & Danny excitedly chasing it down the street as it
passed by our house. They directed him to the proper location and after the
driver nearly suffered death by luggage handling (one bag may have been over
packed) we were off. The boys, yes, myself included, spent the first half of the
trip switching seats and playing with the lights and buttons and after several
threats from mom, we all settled down.
We arrived at the airport for the drivers’ second punishment, getting the heavy suitcase out of the deep trunk. We entered the airport to find a long line of solemn travelers waiting at the United International check-in and had just settled in to join them at the end of the line when our newest favorite friend, a sweet little old Asian lady, asked us to follow her out of the line to an open counter hidden behind the regular check-in. They checked our passports and tickets and we were given our boarding passes and sent through security within five minutes, saving us at least an hour and a half of yelling at the kids to stop touching each other.
The flight was uneventful, just long. The in flight
entertainment was geared toward kids aged 9-12 which we happened to bring along
with us, however nobody else on the plane did. There was about two hours of
Disney Channel followed by The Terminal, I-robot and Spiderman 2. There were
still a few hours left so they added on some useless romantic comedy and Harry
Potter, both of which I could do without and did by sleeping or reading. Even
with the entertainment, were all were pretty tired of flying after the first 6
or 7 hours but the end result would prove to be worth it.
We were a bit surprised to find that we were flying almost directly over
the North Pole. The kids had the window seat so they got to see a lot if
Icebergs, mountains and some of what I was told was the Gobi desert. There was entirely too much food service, I
had to stop eating after a wile because I was just eating out of boredom more than
anything but Tim didn’t have a problem completing his meal service.
After our first 15 hours of flight, we landed in Hong Kong for a short two hour layover.
Just enough time to stretch our legs and have a coke. The kids finally got a little sleep and we were soon back on
the plane for our last three hours in the air. Tim managed to consume another
meal and a movie while the rest of us got a little more sleep before we landed
in Singapore.
Upon our arrival in Singapore we cleared customs and retrieved our
luggage. DeAnn pointed out the large glass wall between us and Singapore that 
she
remembered from her last trip. It reminded her of an
aquarium, although I'm not sure which side of the glass was the exhibit. I
suppose we were the fish, lazily moving around after the long flight seeing the
excited faces of the loved ones on the other side waiting for their gusts or
returning friends and family. Behind the glass waiting for us were Glenn and Linda. The were dressed in full
Chinese welcome wear, Glenn with a nice beanie trailing a long pony tail and
Linda with her hair in a bun, chopsticks poking out the top. They were our happy
welcome wagon, waving excitedly and holding up a sign with our name on it. It was a very
welcome sight, especially since the cab line was very long and they brought one
with so we wouldn’t need to wait. They also brought along some libations
for the whole family. There was some pop for the kids and a Tiger beer for mom,
one of her favorites, and a few other odd items. Admittedly, we didn’t follow the directions on the can
and the flavor of the “Jelly Bubble Drink” wasn’t too bad, but it was the chunks
that ruined it. It was like drinking chunky blended Jell-o. I was so happy that there was more in the
goodie bag. If you have an idea for a weird food product, it seems that Asia is
the place to sell it. You would be amazed at what they will put in a can.
The cab dropped us off at the hotel and after making sure we were checked
in, Glenn and Linda bid us farewell and walked home. At check-in, we remembered
that Glenn's parents, Don and Lois were staying at the same hotel but flying out
early in the morning. We discussed leaving them a nice note but in our sleep
deprived stupor we forgot just as quickly. We went up to our room and
unpacked and fell asleep at about 3 am watching “Mars Attacks” with Chinese
subtitles. I think that was about eight movie of the day and it was just what we
all needed to knock us out. We awoke early the next day with about six hours of sleep in the last
36 hours. There was a newspaper outside the door and a nice little note from Don
and Lois wishing us well on our trip, they are so sweet. We got cleaned up and ready for day one in Singapore.
Singapore, Monday 10:00 am 11/22/04
(we missed my birthday!)
My very first impression of Singapore as we drove to the hotel the night
before was that the roads were well
maintained and clean. After all, we have been hearing for years how clean
everything is and if you mess it up you’ll end up caned. That doesn’t seem
to be the case. Although the city is well maintained, it has it’s fair share
of people dropping paper cups and cigarette butts on the sidewalk. That’s not
to say that it isn’t one of the cleanest cities I've been to. There are plenty
of sidewalks since most people seem to walk just about everywhere they go and well-lit crossings
where almost all of the people wait for the
little green man before crossing the street. There is also a lot of
building construction (though we've been told it has slowed down quite a bit in
recent years) and many of the sites seem to have an area set up that the
workers live in, with many of them coming in from Malaysia.
For our first experience we opted
for a touristy ride around the city on the Hippo bus, a double-decker open
topped tour bus that takes you around the city with a 
guide pointing out
different places to see and historical information. You can get on and off the bus a
various points but we chose to take the yellow bus all the way around the
shopping district to get the lay of the land. The first major stop (and the
actual starting point for the tour) was at the
Fountain of Wealth in Suntec City. Suntec City, like many other places in
Singapore
is not so much a city but a group or area of buildings given a name
by the developer. These group is made up of five
buildings set up in the form of a hand placed palm up with the buildings
representing the fingers and thumb sticking up into the air. The fountain sits in the
middle of the “palm.” You can
go down into the fountain to make a wish, and for it to come true you must walk
around the center of the fountain three times with your right hand in the water
bubbling up from the center. Tim, Danny and I decided to give it a try, DeAnn
sacrificed her turn in the water to stay dry and take the picture.
After a short break, the bus took us around the city, passed some of the private
houses and by the Singapore river. We saw many of the foreign embassies, (Saudi Arabia seemed
deserted, and the American Embassy was a fortress) and the shopping district. We worked our way around the route and
finished the circle at the Hippo booth just down the road from our hotel. Along
Orchard Road where our hotel is located, they have decorated the entire street
with millions of Christmas lights, the store windows are covered with holiday
messages and there are four 30 foot tall dancing Christmas trees on the corner
by our hotel. I can' wait to see what it looks like at night. We walked down Orchard
Road and did a little 
window
shopping before going back to the hotel and cleaning up for our dinner with the
Starkey family. They took us to a nice little Chinese restaurant near their
apartment (although, everything is near their apartment) and Glenn ordered us
big plates full of all their favorites. The table was set up with a lazy susan
and we enjoyed a family style meal, spinning the tray in the center to
share all that was on the table. The food
was excellent and everybody tried something new, Tim even tried the frog legs and soon we were all
stuffed and ready to move on.
The boys were starting to get
restless having finished eating and the magic of taunting the prawns and fish in the tanks behind them
wearing off, we sent them
to the video store and then home. Glenn followed to get them settled in and Linda,
DeAnn and I took a bus across town and walked to the river where we found a nice little beach
bar with no beach but very comfortable chairs. Glenn
soon rejoined us and (after having approved of the Margaritas) we started
ordering by the pitcher. The chairs were just
too comfortable to get up so we sat there catching up in the still warm late
night air until they started folding everything
up and took that as our sign to leave. From there we hopped in a cab and went
back to their place to fetch our children and walked back to our hotel. The
streets in Singapore are all well lit and whatever time of night you walk
through them, you never feel unsafe, at least in the are we were. Crime in
Singapore is almost nonexistent.
Singapore, Tuesday 7:00 am 11/23/ 2004
Since we had a 24 hour pass, we planned on taking the red Hippo
bus route today and it left from Suntec City at 10:00 am. That meant getting up and
ready and into a cab by 9:15, so that's what we did. After one other lady got
off at the first stop, we were the only people on the 
morning
ride. Or host, Leonard gave us
a very personal and informative tour through many of the historic parts of Singapore
including Little
India before dropping us off in Chinatown for some shopping. He gave us
recommendations on some good food and shopping and we jumped off the bus. Most of the
stores in Singapore don’t open until after 11 am and one of the first shops we
passed that was, sold hand made clothes. There are many shops like these all
over Singapore where the people waiting outside the door try o call you in with
the offer of a freshly tailored suit. The couple here was no different but they
were very nice and
Barbara, the seamstress was very attentive to the children, picking out nice
shirts and kimonos while the older Asian man and I discussed the hurricanes from
the previous season in
Florida, where he came from a few years earlier. They were so nice we ended up
leaving a good amount of cash behind with some neat items to show for it. They
gave the kids some little porcelain animals and, upon discovering that DeAnn was
not the seamstress in our house) I got a small treasure box with
a thimble inside.
We moved on to an open air mall where people set up booths like a flea market selling just about anything you can imagine. We made a few purchases there but realized we were going to need more time than we had that day so we headed for the Hippo bus stop so we could get back. It was starting to get hot and would soon be raining, the standard weather pattern for Singapore.
We dropped off our goods at the
hotel and grabbed a cab to the Progressive Components office. It is a very nice place, set up for
future expansion with a nice office and warehouse space. The kids and I left DeAnn
there for her working part of the vacation and took a cab to the apartment to meet up with Linda and
for the kids to spend some time with Jack and David. They were going to swim but,
as expected, it started pouring rain so
the played a little ping pong until the rain slowed down and then they went swimming
for a little while as we waited for DeAnn and Glenn to get home from work. When
they arrived, Glenn had to meet with clients for dinner so the rest of us, minus
Tina went to Jacks. We wanted to feed the kids some American type food (since
they didn't eat too much the night before) and Jacks
is a steak house, in a mall, next to an arcade. Perfect for the kids.
After dinner we dropped the
Starkey kids off at their home and left our kids at the hotel, they all have school next
day and need their rest. Then the four of us headed out for a few drinks. We
stopped at (for lack of a better description) a San Francisco themed bar for a drink.
They had pictures of bridges and trains on the walls. After a could of the house
special Brandy/Gin martini things we went upstairs to a
jazz bar for a little live entertainment. Glenn and his brother Don had been
there before so Glenn knew the piano player and he came by the table for
introductions. Singapore doesn't get revved up until early in the morning so the
night there was just getting started. Glenn asked who was playing that night and
the piano player looked around the bar and said "it depends on who shows
up!". A female singer that reminded me a lot of Kathleen Turner in her
looks and voice came on ad we enjoyed a few songs from her before we were
started getting a little tired so
we called it an early night. DeAnn and Glenn are flying to Thailand early in the
morning to meet with vendors, amd Linda and I need to get the kids off to
school.
Singapore Wednesday 5:00 am 11/24/2004
DeAnn got up to leave for Thailand
and after she left at 6:15, I got up to get the kids ready for their first day
of school in Singapore. They are going to hang out with Jack and David for the
day. We got dressed and ready, stopped by Swensen’s across from our hotel for a quick breakfast and
went to meet the Starkey's for school. The Overseas Family School is where all
of the Starkey children go fir their education. It covers all grades of school
from kindergarten to high school. It is a nice, save environment and all of the
teachers that we met were very friendly. We registered the boys in the office and off they went, Linda
and I were free for the day.
We walked over to the Marriott for
the breakfast buffet and after filling ourselves with food there did something neither of us really enjoys, shopping.
That was done mainly just to look around and to kill time before the massages that
Linda had so nicely
scheduled for us. On the way to the Massage parlor, we notice on of the many
heavily armed guards that protect different buildings around Singapore and we
stopped in a Hindu temple, removing our shoes before entering. We had a brief
look around at all of the multi-armed statues before continuing on.
We arrived at the Massage parlor
at about 11:30 and after a short wait, our masseuses arrived. I have only had
one other massage in my live but after this, I may make it a more frequent
event. I don't know if this is typical of all massage places and it may jut be
my naiveté showing through, but the disposable underwear were a little odd. They were
very much like ladies
panties (not that know anything about that) and I wasn’t quite sure which side
was the front. The thin section didn’t really cover anything up front and I
didn’t really want it riding up in the back either but I managed to figure it
out. I suppose it didn’t much matter anyway with the towels covering anything
important. The massage was terrific and at one point she sat me up,
climbed on the table and put my hands behind my head as if I was being arrested
(not that I know anything about that either.) I started to get a little
concerned when she put her arms through mine and pulled me up onto her knees
until just about everything in my back cracked. That was pretty cool.
Refreshed and ready, Linda and I
parted ways. She had to pack for her trip to Hong Kong with Jack for his hockey
tournament and I went off to relax in the peace and quiet while the kids were at
school. We were scheduled to meet in front of the school at 3:15 to pick up the
kids but when I got back to the room, the phone rang. Tim was done with it and
wanted out so Linda picked him up. He went with her to the Starkey home instead of here
with me, after all they have an Xbox. So I still got a little time to relax and
work on my journal.
I met back up with Linda and we
went to pick up the rest of the kids from school. Danny was very excited about all
the things he did. He got to write a story about his trip and read it in front
of the class, play with the other kids, help David with math. He had a great
time. We said goodbye for now to the Starkey's, Jack and Linda were off to Hong Kong and
Tina was staying at the school to wait for David to finish his swim team
practice.
Tim, Danny and I went to the hotel
pool for a little swim in the rain and then went out for dinner. We checked out an
open-air market but the kids didn’t want to eat any of the food there, though
it all smelled so good. We found a flea market similar to what we saw in
Chinatown and did a little shopping and then settled on McDonalds for dinner.
The food at a Singapore McDonalds is a bit different than back home (they are
happy to use dark meat in the chicken sandwiches and there really is a big
difference) but it was
what the kids were looking for. After that we strolled down Orchard road, now
crowded with people and fully lit up for Christmas, we stopped for some ice cream at Dairy Queen and turned in early. All
in all, a very domestic night. I called housekeeping for the right adapter to
plug in my computer and we fell asleep watching Elf.
Singapore Thursday 7:00 am 11/25/2004
With DeAnn coming back from
Thailand late last night, the plan for
today was to take the bumboats on a river tour and then head out to Sentosa
Island. The bumboats were used to transport goods and people along the river and
now are used for tours and taxis. They all have eyes painted on the front as a
way to calm the seas during a journey. The tour takes you up the river and back
down into the harbor right out in front of one of the many Merlions. The Merlion is a
creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The lion was the first
creature encountered by early settlers and the island was named Singapore or Lion
City. Over time, the Singaporeans wanted a new symbol to represent the island so
the combined the lions head for Singapore with the fish’s body for
prosperity. Thus was born the Merlion.
So
far today was the sunniest and hottest on the island. After the river tour we
took our own walk up river to the Hooters that we saw on the tour. We ken it was
in Singapore but just weren't sure where. Again, since nothing
in Singapore really gets started until after 11 am, we waited around for it to
open in an arcade that the kids found. We figured that hot wings are pretty
close to turkey so this became our thanksgiving feast. I think the boys had a
good time as well.
Now, full with lunch we decided to
skip the taxi and take the MRT to Sentosa Island. The MRT is the subway system
in Singapore and it is the cleanest that I have ever seen. They don’t allow
food, drinking or smoking in the station or on the trains, something we in America could probably learn from.
Everything was pretty easy to figure out, you pay your fare at an ATM type
machine where you press your destination and it tells you how much to pay and
spits out a card for your fare. They charge $1 for the card but at the end of
your trip you turn the card back in and get your dollar back. It was a very nice
way to get around and we decided we would also take it back from Sentosa Island to the
hotel.
You can get to Sentosa Island by
bus or cable car but I am not sure if you can drive there since I didn’t see any
parking except for at the golf
resort and I doubt they would let you in anyway. I imagine staying there would
be pretty expensive since they have one of the only two golf courses in Singapore.
The president has the other. On the island are different shows and parks, some
free, others not with buses and a monorail that take you where you want to go.
We took the cable car, which takes
you high above the harbor with a beautiful view of the sea and expansive shipping areas.
The cable car ride was part of a package of tours that we bought before we went in. You
don’t really need to buy the tours since you can buy admission to whatever you
want inside and the buses and monorail are free, but as it turned out, one of
the good things about the tour is it guarantees you a seat on a bus after
stopping at each exhibit.
The
first part of our tour took us to the butterfly garden, which is pretty much
what the name says. We saw plenty of very pretty butterflies and some amazing
display filled with pinned butterflies and other insects from all over the
world. I was the only one to experience an actual butterfly landing. As you can
see, it was very
exciting.
Our tour guide picked us up at the
gift shop, which we found is how you exit every exhibit on the tour, and led us
to our bus. By then it had started raining, being after 2:00 in the afternoon. On the way to Underwater World he gave us some interesting facts
bout the island and exhibits. Underwater World is an aquarium with
the main feature being a tank that you go under on a conveyor belt with the fish
swimming above you. We have seen this before in other aquariums and it is one of
my favorite ways to see the fish, very cool. They also have the usual displays with many
different types of fish. While in the underwater tube, we got to see the fish being fed and the boys managed
to get a picture with the diver afterward.
We rejoined the bus and it was
still raining. I think I can tell when it’s going to rain because the humidity
seems to soar just before it starts, like the air is being saturated with
humidity until it just can't hold any more. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so
much in my life. We were scheduled to go to the Pink Dolphin show and our tour
guide pointed out that since it was raining, one of the two types of weather in
Singapore, hot or wet, that they may cancel the show. We decided to stick it out
and hope for the bus so after a vote, the bus headed to the show.
The dolphin show is set up along a
large lagoon
and they do the typical dolphin show tricks except that the dolphins are pink.
These dolphins still had a lot of gray on them but as they get older 
they
turn completely pink. After the show we wanted to ride the monorail se we zipped
out of there ahead of the large crowd and got to the monorail station just as
one pulled in, but since the next dolphin show was not for two hours and there was
no other reason to get off at that stop, nobody got
off so nobody could get on. It was not a very big monorail,
that’s probably why they are building another one. We left the
station and ran across the street just in time to cram into a bus that would take us to Cinemania.
I’m not a big fan of motion
simulator rides, I don’t really feel that they simulate motion all that well
but the kids like them and sometimes the movies that go along with them are ok.
Not so much this time. This was by far the worst ride of it’s kind that we
have ever been on and even the kids agreed. I think the announcer summed it up
after she told us to buckle up because “You are experience...a ride.”
The centerpiece of Sentosa Island
is a giant statue of the Merlion that you can go in for a panoramic view of the
island. As we were headed toward the Merlion, we walked through the arena for
the Musical Fountain. This is part of the big
show that goes on every night with lights and lasers and the lighting of the
Merlion. They do shows without the lights throughout the day and since we had
plans for dinner we decided to watch the unlit version before riding to the top
of the Merlion. It was a nice water show but I’m sure it would be much more
impressive with the lights on.
After
the water show and our trip to the top of the Merlion we decided to call it a
day and headed back through another gift shop to catch our cable car back to the MRT.
It was the beginning of rush hour when we got there and the people were filing
in very quickly. We squeezed into our car and made sure when we were switching
trains that the kids didn’t slow down. Danny likes to change pace and with the
crowd moving along, you could easily be trampled, especially when it gets
busier. The MRT dropped us a few blocks from our hotel and, as with almost all subway
stops in Singapore, lets you out into a shopping mall. I'm sure the locals know
the route but it took us a while before we found our way out and
went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Jessie, who runs the Progressive
Components office in Singapore, was taking us out to dinner her husband and
their daughter Charlene. They all picked us up at the hotel and took us to
Newton Circus, an open-air food court like the one Tim, Danny and I went to the
night before only much bigger. We walked around to see what all the
vendors had and many of them come out to meet you to try to get you to buy their
food. The boys are getting tired of all the Asian food but we managed to find
some things they liked and get them to try some new things. They are doing very
well with trying new foods, they have to, otherwise they might starve. We found a table and Jessie went to
work ordering food. They went around to the vendors placing orders and gave
them our table number. As the food arrives, you pay the vendor that brings it to
you. As usual, everything was excellent, the kids did their best to eat a little
of everything. Danny mostly ate the plain rice packed in little bamboo baskets
and steamed. I forgot the real name but we called them rice cubes. The rice was
packed tight in the baskets and somehow cut before they were steamed and when
you pulled them apart,
they stayed in little cubes.
When getting the kids to try new things, just like at home, I leave out a few of the details about the ingredients. There was a dish that was like a chicken omelet wrapped in a pancake. It was very good but I left out the fact that is has onions and other stuff in it so they'll try it. I know it's like lying to the children but for a good reason. Usually, if you can get them to just take a bite, they like it. They may not have more but at least they try (which is more than what I did as a kid.) Now however, I will usually try anything at least once, except for the stuff that was lining the inside of the crab shell, Tim tried it but I left out the fact that it’s pretty much just cooked brains and guts and until he reads this he won’t know either.
After dinner, we took a nice little drive around town to see the Christmas lights and went back to the hotel. This was by far the busiest day yet and it was time to rest up for Friday, our last day in Singapore.
Singapore Friday 11:00 am 11/26/2004
Today we were a little late getting started and I used the
morning to get the website
updated. We were just kind of playing it by ear today. We left the hotel and since we
hadn't done it before, turned right. We were looking for something for lunch,
trying to find something new while getting something that the kids would like as
well. We walked quite a way down Orchard Road and realized we were getting close
to the Raffles Hotel. Thomas Stamford Raffles is the man who (except for the
people already living here) first discovered Singapore and
decided it would make a great trading port. The Raffles Hotel was originally
built in the 1800's as a British meeting place. It had many different uses as
soldiers barracks and a hospital among other things, throughout it's existence as the island changed leadership. In 1991 it was
restored to one of the highest priced hotels in Singapore. The Long Bar in the
original hotel was where the Singapore Sling was first created and in honor of the
island's founder we decided to have a few. It is also the only place in Singapore
where you can eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor.
After enjoying our beverages, we crossed the street to
Chimes, originally an orphanage and girls school, it is now home to
shops, restaurants and night clubs. We found a barbecue place and sat down for
lunch. The kids had cheeseburgers about the size of their heads and when both boys
were about halfway through their burgers, one of which could have fed the four
of us, and it looked like they wouldn't finish, I offered each of them $5 if they
did. Tim got his down with a little difficulty but Danny pretty much
had to pack it in. It was a long walk to Chimes so we took the MRT back up to
the hotel while the boys complained about how full they were.
We took the kids down to the pool for a little while to pass some time before the Night Safari, a nighttime zoo that opens at 7:30 pm. After the kids showered and dressed, we took a cab across the island to the safari. This is a very cool concept for a zoo. They have tram rides that take you around the zoo with guides telling you about all the nocturnal animals. The animals were all fairly active, although it was just as hot at night as during the day and after the tram ride, we walked around all the trails to try to get some pictures. There is no flash photography so picture taking is very difficult, especially for those of us with digital cameras without all of the fancy settings. There were no bugs on the trails so other than the heat, humidity and hills, it was very comfortable walking the trails. We went in the flying squirrel cage and watched a large squirrel eat nuts and then drop the shells on us. In the bat house there were large fruit bats hanging from the trees. DeAnn, used to the displays of little bats behind glass had enough when the fruit bat with a three foot wingspan flew right over her head. I really joyed that par, just because I like bats, not because they torment my lovely bride.
After sweating through all the trails we took a cab back to the Starkey's home to say goodbye to Glenn and David, the only two Starkeys currently at home. We were going to let the kids play while the adults went out but after the safari we were all pretty tired and we still had to pack for our trip to Hawaii. We said our goodbyes and went back to the hotel to pack and sleep.
Singapore Saturday 4:30 am 11/27/2004
All packed and ready, we took showers and left for the airport, got lucky again with a friendly attendant moving us to the front of the line and boarded our plane. Our flight left at 7:30 Saturday morning. This leg of our journey was on a 777, the newest of the big planes. The kids were happy to have TV screens on the back of each of their seats and a choice of many different movies. They pointed out that first class had more choices but I'm fine with saving the $1000 per seat difference and staying in coach, it's not that bad. We were flying pretty high over the Pacific ocean at 37,000 feet and you could see the earth curve away as a bright blue ball over the horizon. Probably as close as we'll ever get to space travel. On approach to Narita, Japan where we had a four hour layover, we had a nice view of the snow capped Mount Fuji rising quietly above Japan. I really need to have the camera near me on the plane.
While waiting for our next flight we found a little bar and grill in the airport and watched the sun set over the departing planes. After dinner we found seats in our terminal waiting area where I updated the website, DeAnn put the final touches on her work for the week and the kids got closer to completing their homework. We got to watch a little Sumo wrestling and then I beat the kids in a game or War. We boarded our flight and took off for Hawaii.
We arrived in Hawaii at about 6:30 am, Saturday morning,
somehow before we left Singapore. I should have called back there to see if I
could talk to myself.
We went through customs and arrived neatly back in the United States. Whether
our luggage was transferred in Narita or just flew on from Singapore, it must
have been moved to the font of the line because when we got to the belt to
retrieve it, it was there waiting for us. Before most of the other passengers
even got to the baggage carousel, we had our luggage and went out and got a cab (limo sized)
to take us to the condo. Check in time wasn't until 1:00 pm and they had no
rooms ready for us when we arrived at
8:00 am so they held out luggage and we went for a little walk. Everybody was
still a little travel worn so we went back to the condo, grabbed the swimsuits
out of the luggage and hung out by the pool. The kids were swimming, DeAnn was
reading and I (now having become that guy) was snoring. It was about 11 am and the room still wasn't ready so
we went out for lunch. By the time we got back we had a room and I started what
would be a dozen loads of laundry in a really small washing machine. The people
at the reception desk got a kick out of the amount of laundry I was doing after
the third time I came down for detergent.
We decided on dinner at the Kobe Japanese Steak House so
we made reservations
and the kids went down to the pool for more swimming. DeAnn and I went down with
them to watch the sun set for the second time that day. I still don't know how
all that works. We went grocery shopping so we could stock up on some food, the
plan is to have at least breakfast and lunch in the condo so we can offset the
extra cost of not staying in a hotel. We'll need to make several trips since we
don't yet have a car and there's only so much we can carry The sight of us four
walking back to the hotel laden with plastic bags must have been something to
see. I took the heaviest bags, not so much to be chivalrous but because I want to be sure that the liquor arrived safely.
We had dinner reservations at 8:00 so we started walking a little early since it
was about a mile away. Danny took the map and navigated us to the restaurant. We
got there about an hour early but we went in anyway and they managed to find us a
spot, it wasn't that crowded yet. The kids really enjoyed the watching the food
being made right in front of us, the little onion volcano and they enjoyed the food as
well. Tim is now hooked on Filet Mignon thanks to Jack Starkey. We walked back to the hotel and tried to watch "Christmas
Vacation", our traditional Thanksgiving movie but everybody fell asleep
about five minutes after it started.
Hawaii Sunday 9:00 am 11/28/2004
The kids woke up first and the sound of them rummaging through the kitchen trying to figure out where I put the food woke me up. We all had breakfast (so far, so good) and headed down to the pool, mom was still sleeping so I gave her a shake before we left. When she was up and ready I made some sandwiches (plan still working) and we went across the street to the beach. The sand is very deep and soft, and the water is warm and many beautiful shades of blue. The beach was a bit shorter than we remembered from our honeymoon more than 16 years ago so there wasn't a lot of room, but we staked our claim in the sand and set up camp. On the way to the beach we stopped at an ABC store, which is just like a mini K-mart and can be found in just about every building in Hawaii (three in the Hyatt down the road.) I think that the larger ABC stores may have smaller ABC stores inside them. We picked up some beach mats, rafts and a cooler for our food. The condo has chairs, umbrellas and other goodies that you can borrow. We spent the day at the beach, floating on the rafts, boogie boarding and otherwise relaxing in the sun.
We had planned to go to Duke's a the Outrigger Reef Hotel to see one of my favorite local musicians, Henry Kapono. I knew he played there every Sunday night but he was out of town the week before (according to his website which I checked before we left for vacation) but when I called for reservations they old me he would be there. Instead a band called Kapono Beamer was there singing cover tunes and a including what seemed like a twenty minute version of Mustang Sally. They were good but not what I wanted. It was raining so we didn't get to see the sunset but dinner was very good. Afterward, we walked back to the hotel along the beach and the boys and I went for a swim in the pool.
Hawaii Monday 7:30 am 11/29/2004
We got up early today because we had arranged a for a ride to Hanauma Bay for
snorkeling. After having breakfast on the lanai and making sandwiches for lunch,
we went down to the lobby to wait for our ride. Hanauma bay is in an old volcano
crater that filled in with water. The deep blue waves crash into the entrance of
the bay sending a white spray a hundred feet in the air. The coral reef
running the length of the bay stops the waves protecting the swimming area for
some excellent snorkeling. The boys did a great job
swimming around and we saw lots of beautiful fish and a large sea turtle. We
brought along an underwater camera, hopefully we'll get some good pictures from
it. We laid out on the beach and played some football in the water. DeAnn
enjoyed her view for the day under the palm trees.
Mr. K, a possibly semi-senile old Japanese man came by in the van to pick us up at 2:30, he found Danny to be a most handsome young man and wants him to stay and work for a year, I don't quite know what to make of that. We went back to the hotel for some more time in the pool, Danny is doing very well at swimming underwater. He's almost made it the entire length of the pool.
DeAnn and I went back to the Food Pantry for some more supplies, the plan is still working and along the way found a sports bar that the bellman told us about that was showing the Packers/Rams game. When we walked by on the way back to the hotel it was half time so we grabbed the kids and went back for pizza and football. We enjoyed some very good pizza and the best service on our trip so far, and a good walloping of the Rams by the Pack. After the game we meandered through the stores on the way back to the hotel. DeAnn and I fell in love with a painting at the Wyland Gallery. We're used to getting all of our "paintings" at Picture Us in the local mall so seeing what a real painting costs, we'll have to think about it for a while.
Hawaii Tuesday 11/30/2004
This morning was to be a bit of a blow off day. We had an Off-Road Hummer tour scheduled for 1:00 pm so we were just going to hang around the pool and relax for a while. During the night the wind was blowing pretty hard, you could hear it whistling through the windows. We woke up late and after breakfast went down to the pool but it still proved to be too windy to enjoy ourselves. DeAnn and I tried sitting on the lounge chairs but the wind kept blowing all of our stuff toward the pool and the kids had a hard time swimming with the whitecaps sweeping across the pool. When I started the whirlpool, the foam kept blowing off the top of the water and it looked like it was snowing. After about half an hour of that, we decided to call it quits. It was getting close to lunchtime and the kids wanted Chili's so that was where we went.
Lunch took a little longer than expected and as we were hurrying back so we wouldn't miss our tour guide, we saw him drive by as we were reaching the street that our hotel is on. The driver was looking for us and we were looking for him, DeAnn went up to the room to get our stuff when Tim and I eventually found our guide.
Ed Kos is the owner, operator and currently the only driver for KOS Hummer Tours. While we were waiting for DeAnn and Danny to come back down, we met one of the local beach dwellers. For lack of remembering his name, I'll call him Steve. Steve stopped to comment on the state of the Hummer, sitting on the side of a tourist packed street spattered with reddish-brown mud, and how that is what a Hummer should look like. Steve was smoking a hand rolled cigarette that he claimed was only hemp papers with plain tobacco, but we'll never know for sure. He was very clean for a man who has been living on the beach for (after looking at his watch) 3 years, 6 months and 27 days. He has been taking good care of himself and is able to sleep through the kicks from the police that would like him to move off the beach. He gave us his view of the Hummer that he will get when he gets his million dollars, the main feature being a 50 mm cannon mounted on top. He is apparently mad at somebody. With a congenial handshake we parted ways, Steve heading back to his chosen life on the beach and us ready for some off road fun.
Our transportation for the day is a 2003 Hummer H2 chauffeured
by it's owner Ed. We are scheduled for a five hour tour 
around
the island of Oahu with 2 1/2 hours of off road travel through some of the
areas used as background for movies and television shows. On our way to the
Kualoa Ranch, where the off road portion will begin, Ed passed along some facts
about the formation of the island, all created by two volcanoes, and the wars
between the various inhabitants of the different islands. We learned about King
Kamehameha and the different rulers all the way up until Hawaii became a state
in 1950.
As we approached the ranch, Ed pointed out a park that was
one of the landing strips made after the attack on Pearl
Harbor to help protect the island. We also saw many of the bunkers and gun
batteries that were built but, by the time they were finished the war was nearly
over so they weren't really needed. The park was originally part of the ranch
which basically covers 4000 acres including two mountain ridges and the valley
between them. When the State of Hawaii wanted the land for a park they refused
to sell so after a long court battle the state just took it from them. I guess
they should have sold.
Heading up the hill into the ranch, we were behind one of
the ranch tour buses so Ed 
passed
them at the bunkers and went on to the movie sets. We were bouncing
through the trails and stopped at a mock native home set up by the ranch when
the owners were pressured by the state to add some culturally oriented exhibits
or turn over more land. We returned to the Hummer and wound over more trails,
coming down the hill Ed pointed out some large craters at the bottom. These were
the footprints used in the filming of the Matthew Broderick version of Godzilla.
Going back up the other side of the hill we saw the
mountain range that was used in such films as Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers and
Jurassic Park, plus the current TV show Lost. Ed showed us pictures from the
movies
while we were standing in the areas of the camera location giving the
perspective of the film. Is was neat to see the places that were in the movies
and the kids were very excited, especially when we came up to the log used in
Jurassic park where the characters were hiding from the T-Rex.
We went back up the hill and around to the gun batteries
built for WWII where they had pictures of the different movies that were filmed
on the ranch. We went back down to the ranch entrance and parked near a trail
that we walked up to look over the bay where there is an island formation called
Chinaman's hat because it looks like, well, a chinaman's hat. Ed took a few
pictures of the kids with the hat. We walked back down the trail and took the
Hummer back out on the road and drove up to the Pali lookout. One of the highest
parts of the Island and the and possibly the most windy. Before 
they
dug tunnels through the mountain, the lookout was part of the roadway that was
cut into the side of the mountain. From there it was into rush hour traffic and
back to the condo. All in all it was a great time and I highly recommend it to
anybody traveling to Oahu.
We completed our restaurant chain tour with dinner at Planet Hollywood and then back to the condo for a pitcher of pink cheeseburgers. Tomorrow we are picking up a car and doing some touring of our own.
Hawaii Wednesday 12/1/2004
We got out as early as the kids would let us, they had a
little trouble getting up this morning. Ed, the Hummer driver, gave us a few
tips on things to do like get to the the Arizona Memorial early. Unfortunately,
we didn't get there until 8:30, which seems early but our tour wouldn't start
for another 1 1/2 hours. Since the kids were generally uninterested in many of
the displays, especially the ones they had to read, we decided to kill some time
at the USS Bowfin submarine exhibit. We
discovered after we entered the sub that Tim's audio tour didn't have any
batteries so I gave him mine and I just wandered aimlessly through the tour. The
sub is well maintained and all the brass was highly polished and clean. It is
pretty amazing how many people they cram into a small sub. I didn't count the bunks
but they were in every room of the sub except the galley. There were 
even
bunks directly over the torpedoes. Since it was raining on and off al day there
was a perpetual rainbow over the island, at one point it was complete with both
ends landing in Pearl Harbor.
When we were done with the submarine, it was time for the
Pear Harbor tour. We went into the theater first to watch the movie. Whenever I
see the Pearl Harbor footage mixed in with the film of the Japanese fighters
loading the planes for the attack, the impact of the event seems that much more
powerful. Knowing what will be coming next you wish you could somehow stop it.
We took the boat over to the memorial and weaved our way through the throngs of
Japanese picture takers 
to
show the children the results of what happened on December 7th, 1941. It was
very helpful to have the USS Missouri parked in the harbor to illustrate what we
were standing over.
We left the Arizona Memorial and crossed the street to the
Aloha Stadium, location of the NFL Pro Bowl and also the Aloha swap meet for
some Christmas Shopping. The entire stadium was surrounded by vendors selling
just about anything you could imagine. I'd tell you what they were selling but I
wouldn't want to ruin any surprises. Fortunately, we only had to walk around
about 1/4 of the lot since the products sold started repeating. 
On the recommendation of Ed, we went to the town of Hale'iwa and a restaurant called Kono's. It was a little surfer hangout sandwich place that had the best chicken sandwiches and garlic fries. The people at Kono's, including the staff and customers were all very friendly. It was a great lunch stop.
Also on the recommendation of Ed, we went to the north shore to look for the crashed airplane that they used in the show Lost but we drove up and down the beach road and couldn't find it. There was an off road trail at the end of the road that the book budget gave us said we shouldn't drive down because it would void our rental agreement, that it may have been down. We saw a jeep drive down there as we were leaving but I chose not to follow. We went back to a beach where earlier we saw a bunch of parasurfers, people with surfboards that hang from giant kites riding the waves, but by the time we got back, they were all putting away they're stuff. There was a nice little homeless town set up along the side of the road under the signs that said "No Camping", but I guess they weren't camping, they were living there. One lady was showering her entire family in the outdoor showers that you would normally use to rinse the sand of your feet.
The kids were starting to fall asleep with all the driving
so we turned the car towards Waikiki so we could get back in time to watch Lost.
I know, we're in Hawaii, why are we inside watching TV? Because we wanted to see
the places we had 
driven
through yesterday. We had some time before the show came on so we went to the
beach in front of the condo where they put on a Hawaiian show every night,
tonight there were musicians and Hula dancers, although I think that's the same
theme every night. DeAnn liked the men blowing the conch hornsw to alert others
of an impending celebration. The kids played in the sand and the clouds almost
parted enough to see the sunset. We left the show to be losers and watch Lost,
but it was fun to see the places we drove through the day before. Now I'll be
going out on the deck for some pink cheeseburgers to make up for the TV
watching.
Hawaii Thursday 12/2/2004
Today was spent at the beach, the wind was still
blowing pretty hard so the waves were coming in big. The beach was
very short today, almost completely gone in some places due to the high tide and
big waves. We set up our spot on the edge of the patio in back of the Surfrider
Hotel and went in the water. We spent a lot of time floating on the rafts and
body surfing. The kids were using one of the raft to ride the waves until, after
repeated crashes into the beach, it started losing air. The tide was going out
so after about an hour of swimming we had room on the sand to lay out our
towels. The kids stayed in the water the whole time 
except
to come out for lunch at Jack In The Box, which I would have rather avoided but
DeAnn wanted the Reindeer Jack antenna ball. After lunch, we returned to our
spot for some more wave riding and sun tanning.
We did get to see a real live rescue on the beach. A Japanese lady was trying to get closer to the surfers for some pictures but she underestimated the power of the waves and the depth of the water. I heard her shouting for help and before I could spot her in the water the lifeguard had already jumped down from the tower, grabbed his surfboard and started paddling her way. Before he arrived, a nearby surfer paddled over to to her and offered his surfboard for support. When the lifeguard got out to her, he helped her up onto his board and gave her a ride back to shore safe and sound.
We left the beach and cleaned up in hopes of driving over to Diamond Head before they closed at 6 pm but when we got there at 4:45 we discovered that, although the close at six they don't recommend starting your hike after 4:30 since it takes about 1 1/2 hours to go up and down unless you hurry. We decided to go back tomorrow and insted, head over to Hilo Hattie's in the Ala Moana shopping center to look for more Christmas stuff. We did some shopping in the mall and after a lengthy search of the lower level to figure out where we parked we found the car and left for dinner. Upon learning that there was a Hooters in town we pointed the car in the right direction and proceeded to add another menu to our collection.
The Hooters is located in an outdoor mall on the Honolulu
Harbor where the cruise ships stop. There was a Royal
Caribbean ship docked in the harbor towering over the mall in front of it. While
we were eating, one of the larger dinner cruise ships pulled in just outside the
restaurant, the crowd inside enjoying themselves dancing the Macarena. After
they lowered the gang plank, the people flowed out of the boat for the next
fifteen minutes. There must have been at least a thousand people on that ship.
We took the kids back to the condo and DeAnn and I went out to have another look at the picture we liked at the Wyland Studio and then on over to Duke's for a few drinks. There was a two man band playing some fine lounge versions tropical bar type songs. Jake, our bartender was fun to watch, not so much in a Cocktail sort of way, but he kept that bar humming all night long and somehow managed to remember the names of everybody he was serving. We met a man going by the name JT. He was in for some Air Force training and some R&R. Duke's had made last call at about 12:30 and JT wanted to find some local establishments to visit. Jake recommended a few, one right across the street so we went along for one more to see what was out there.
The place we went to next was a hole in the ground type of place. After checking ID's we went down the stairs into what looked like a five year high school reunion crowd. We all felt a little old. We hung out there for one drink, we didn't want to overdo it too much since we are scheduled to go parasailing first thing in the morning.
Hawaii Friday 12/3/2004
I pulled myself out of bed at about 7:30 am and started waking the kids for our parasailing trip. DeAnn decided not to go, choosing a little more horizontal quiet time instead. The boys and I went downstairs to wait for our ride at 8:45 but when they didn't show up by 9:15 (for some reason the tours and taxis can't find our hotel) we went to the bell desk and he called the tour guide. They called off parasailing because of the wind and he said they didn't call because they had us scheduled for tomorrow. I would rather they just tell me they forgot, but what are you gonna do.
Since DeAnn was still sleeping, we went to the pool but it was so windy there that the hot tub was cold again and the chairs were flipping over so we came back to the room. Now it's time to wake up mom and go about our day. We were still moving a little slow, DeAnn was relaxing up in the room while the boys and I played some pool. We had some lunch and grabbed the car for a ride over to Diamond Head.
Diamond Head is a crater formed by a volcanic eruption about 300,000 years ago and covers an area of 350 acres. The trail is only .8 miles long but it climbs 560 feet over that length. Portions of the trail involve steep stairways, uneven terrain and narrow tunnels. At the top of the trail is Fire Control Station Diamond Head built between 1908 and 1910 which housed instruments and plotting rooms to direct artillery fire from several batteries built to defend Oahu from attacks. The kids didn't really want to do something that involved physical effort and after last night, neither did DeAnn or I, but since we didn't do it on our honeymoon I didn't want to pass it up this time.
The hike up wasn't that bad, the stairs were a little tough but the view was well worth it. You could see all around the island and across the crater. I found the walk down worse than going up, of course this may have something to do with the sedentary lifestyle that I have chosen.
While up on the summit we saw a lighthouse down by the shore and when we left the crater, tried to find it. I plugged it into the GPS and followed the directions around the crater to the location. Unfortunately is was a closed lighthouse so we couldn't visit it. We took a drive around the island to find an Office Depot to get some boxes to bring hole all the new stuff that we can't fit in our suitcases. With that done, we dropped off the rental car and went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. It's not one of the new Jimmy Buffett restaurants but a chain created by to women from California who were inspired by a Buffett song. The burgers were great and the Mai Tais were the best I had on the island.
We dropped the kids off at the hotel and DeAnn and I went over to the Wyland studio to buy Diamond Head Dream, the Steven Power painting that we liked. It will be ready in about six weeks since it has to be printed, framed and signed by the artist. After we left with our receipt for our purchase, we went back to the condo to pack for tomorrows departure.
Hawaii Saturday 12/4/2004
We spent our last day in Hawaii on the beach having packed most everything last night. When our time in the sun was done, we walked back to the hotel to finalize our packing and ready ourselves to depart paradise. We called down to the desk to have them bring our luggage and call a taxi, the came much to quickly. Before we knew it everything was loaded in the cab and we were on our way back to the airport.
In our short journey around the pacific rim, I've noticed that international travel is a much smoother process than domestic. The international terminals we well staffed with happy people to deal with, people who seemed to like their jobs. When we got to the airport in Hawaii, we found a cart for our luggage and unloaded it from the cab onto the cart. Had I known that we would need to run it through an x-ray machine fifteen feet from the entrance I wouldn't have bothered. We again loaded the luggage back on the cart, now increased with the two extra boxes stuff we bought, and rolled over to check-in. There were two surly employees covering a dozen self check-in stations. The part that made no sense was you had to check in with a credit card to prove who you are, then wait for an attendant to come by and tag your luggage. One lady thought we were part of the group ahead of us be after saying that we weren't and heading over her way, we discovered that our luggage tags were printed at the original spot we were at. Instead of getting them from twenty feet away from her, she voided and recreated new tags.
I was becoming frustrated about the same time the service rep discovered that one of our bags was over 50 pounds and was about to charge me $25 because of it. I can't imagine any decent sized piece of luggage coming in under 50 lbs. She suggested I take 10 pounds out and put it somewhere else and I asked her "Where should I stick it?" She conveniently forgot to charge me the fee. With the destination tags on our luggage, we moved on to the next x-ray machine to send our luggage to the plane and then into the security check-in.
On all the other flights we took, anything we were carrying was set on the conveyor belt and sent through the machine while we walked through the metal detector with out shoes on. This time, the laptops had to come out of the cases and mine had to be inspected and wiped with the magic bomb detecting cloth and everybody had to remove their shoes. Except for Tim. I guess those under twelve are not suspected of shoe bombing, must be the smaller feet and limited amount of explosive space, although Tim's feet are almost as big as mine. Danny, however got the quadruple S on his ticket so he was subject to the full search.
As the officer that was to inspect Danny asked him to remove his shoes, another officer said he didn't need to. When the first office showed the second the ticket, they all seemed to roll their eyes in a collective gesture of futility. So Danny had to remove his shoes, get scanned with the wand and be patted down for weapons. I guess the random search theory is really effective.
On good thing about the search is you the searched person gets to go on the plane with the first seating, instead of the fourth which the rest of us had, and I was going to take advantage of it. When they called the first seating we went up with Danny's ticket on top, she gave us a look when she saw the other three were for seating four but I made it clear that Danny would not be going on the plane by himself and we boarded. The flight home was fine, a little bumpy on occasion to the point where the seatbelt sign was on for almost the whole ride. We arrived home early Sunday morning and after we picked up our bags we called the limo to take us home.
Most of the snow that had fallen while we were gone had melted, but there was still some in the yard for Danny to play with after we unpacked. I washed all of the clothes in between naps on the couch watching football and we all relaxed for the day getting ready to start our regular schedule the next day. I thank you for tuning in to our little vacation message, we had a great time and I hope this was somewhat entertaining for you. We look forward to seeing everybody and sharing our experiences.
The Springers