Thinking Out Loud

After my big day at Costco (I still can’t believe I did that – I’ll likely be bungee cord jumping or skydiving next) I was looking forward to a more relaxing day. Audie called me from the lobby first thing in the morning, ready to go, but I hadn’t had my shower yet. I asked for ten minutes. He told me he had one other thing to do, and would be back in about a half hour.

Hawaii time is always twice as long as anywhere else. This morning, that was a good thing.

My shower was broken. It tried to squirt water. But it just couldn’t. Two little drops would leak out and then it would hiss at me and another bit of water would trickle out. And then it quit trying altogether. Read the rest of this entry »

This is something I never dreamt would happen. I would be at Costco on vacation. Even more than that, that I would be at Costco in Hawaii.  I was so excited I almost peed myself.  In fact I think I did a little when we got to stop at Walmart on the way back.  Woohoo!

At this point I decided I needed a car.

No offence to anyone, especially the shoppers out there.  Shopping is not intended to be part of  any of my vacations.  I did enjoy the time with the family.  But my poor old heart can’t take this kind of excitement day after day.

I was very tempted to pick up the 12 gallon bucket of peanut butter though…

Today was pretty quiet. The highlight of the day (photographically speaking, that is) was the surfing dog. I couldn’t get a good photo of the dog riding the waves in, but it really happened.
Bandit the Wonder Dog insists that it’s not real, it’s all done with PhotoShop.

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It’s another sunny, hot day in Wialea today.

As expected, my few hours in the sun erupted into a sunburn. It’ s not painful, except for the top of my feet, but I know I’m gonna lose some skin in a few days.  But I ain’t gonna let that bother me.

According to Google Earth, it’s only a couple of kilometres (or about 160000 inches) to the Palms at Wailea from my hotel.  I checked the map so I knew where I was going and off I went for a walk.  Chelsea and Jonathan were supposed to be here already, and if they were at home I was hoping for a short visit.  Audie and Lois and family were going to arrive sometime today too.

I got to the Palms a lot sooner than I expected.  I arrived at an intersection I wasn’t really expecting, and my first thought was “Now where the hell am I?”  I looked for a street sign (as if that was going to help) and there it was!  The Palms at Wailea.  Just across the street.

I called Jonathan’s cell, and demanded a beer.  More importantly, I wanted to know how to find them.  A few minutes later I was sitting on their deck.

Audie and Lois were already in town.  They had gone to the airport to pick up more people, and would be back later.  I finished my beer, and as nice as the grounds at the Palms were, I wanted to move on.  I’m not much for hanging around hotels or wasting time at a pool when there’s an ocean a few blocks away.

I got directions to the beach (I could see I needed a car soon) and headed out.

Maui is a little island, and I knew it couldn’t be too far to the ocean.  I could smell the sea from the Hotel Wailea’s lobby, and when I was on the upper deck of the lobby I could see the water over the top of the trees.

I asked the guy at the front how far to a beach, and he said he would give me ride in the shuttle.  I asked if I could walk there, and he told me it was about a fifteen minute walk.  Read the rest of this entry »

I’m back-dating some posts to the blog for my trip to Hawaii to the actual dates I was there…

I guess if I FaceBooked regularly, I could have put stuff there day by day. I could have done that here too, but really – I’m in Hawaii! I had things I wanted to do with higher priority than to sit in front of a laptop. Checked email in the morning, and that was about it.

I got into Maui at about 11:00 pm on Wednesday April 28. I had been in either an airport or a plane for 16 or 17 hours. I wanted a smoke and a cup of coffee more than anything, but knew I should try and get a cab to my hotel. I had budgeted about forty dollars.  I didn’t want to rent a car and drive the 35 kilometres or so at night in a strange location.

I found a taxi, and decided I could wait for my cigarette until I got to the hotel.

I had no idea the speed limit was so slow. And, being Canadian, when I saw the speed limit signs saying 35 and 40 max, I naturally thought km per hour not miles. It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel. The driver didn’t know exactly where my hotel was, but he called his wife and she googled it, and sent him instructions on his iPhone.

Now, to tell the truth, I didn’t really see the fancy entrance to the hotel.  I  was mesmerized and horrified by the meter on the dashboard.  My only hope was that it hit 100 dollars, because I could see there wasn’t a space for 3 digits in the dollar counter. Therefore, it should roll over to zero, and there was the possibility that the driver wouldn’t realize how long he had been driving and the fare would be closer to my estimate. Read the rest of this entry »

I seem to have lost my Taiwan DVD.  All I have are these little lo-quality files that I made for something or another a long time ago.  I found them on my old computer.  I can’t re-make it cause the original DVD files were on a hard drive that crashed.  And I don’t want to rebuild it from scratch, cause it would take me months to sort through all of the photos and video we took.  And it wouldn’t be the same…

I have a video of Taipei

Download Video Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve never been to the mountains in the winter time, so while I was in Calgary, a trip to Banff was nothing less than a necessity. It was a great day – the temperature was around 14°, hardly a cloud in the sky, and a slight breeze to remind you that it was winter in the mountains.

It goes without saying, that skiing was not on the agenda. Photography (or something like it) was the focus. Maybe there would even be a bear or two this time around. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s one o’clock a.m. and I should be sleeping since I want an early start for my trip to Alberta tomorrow morning – later this morning, actually.

According to the weather report, there is a chance of snow flurries here in Saskatchewan.  There’s supposed to be mild temperatures with a mix of sun and rain and in Alberta.

I hate driving in a snowstorm, so if it’s ugly here in the morning, I’ll postpone the trip for a day or two. Look for me tomorrow afternoon sometime. I’ll be the one calling from my cell for directions…

When I bought my camera, I managed to convince the salesman to throw in a remote control. I didn’t know why I wanted it, I just wanted it because I wanted it.

I had never used it, but it was supposed to let me take a photo from as far as 25 feet away. So, when someone said they wanted a family photo while we were in Edmonton, I thought it was the chance to try it out. Read the rest of this entry »