Saturday, October 11th, 2008
|
|
8:16 pm - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
|
|
11:03 pm - Ugh
|
I'm still buried under all the work that piled up while I was gone on the honeymoon.
Leaving for a conference in Pigeon Forge tomorrow.
current music: Matthew Ebel - Latte Days & Porter Nights
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, October 5th, 2008
|
|
4:00 pm - The Honeymoon Report (Part II: Maui)
|
Honolulu is a deceivingly large city. For some reason, we usually don't think of it back here on the mainland, but it has almost 400,000 people within the city proper and almost a million in the metro. The best way to describe it is to take about half of Atlanta and put it on an island. Consequently, you have all the problems associated with a large town. Lots of people and lots of traffic.
But you get away from O'ahu and things change greatly. 70% of the population of the state is in Honolulu, which means only 30% of the entire state's population is spread out over the six remaining inhabited islands (and a good percentage of those live in Hilo on the Big Island). The rest of the state is very rural and a long way away.
The distances to be covered are also deceivingly large. If I wanted to drive to my state's capital, it's about a 3 hour drive to Montgomery. If I want to drive to our largest city, it's about an hour and a half to Birmingham. But if anyone in Hawaii wants to travel to Honolulu, it involves an airline flight (and all the crap that comes along with that), or by a boat that may take several hours. Even the Superferry takes at least 3 hours point to point. Consequently, you may meet Hawaiians (and we did) who had only ever been to Honolulu a couple of times in their lives.
With this in mind, and having enjoyed our time in Honolulu, we were off to Maui, the Valley Isle.
( Day 5: Ala Moana beach, and off to Maui... )
( Day 6: Exotic Birds, swimming and a luau... )
( Day 7: The 'High Point'... literally! )
( Day 8: Swimming, and our outrageous dinner... )
I was a little uncertain about Maui when we arrived. It was a little bit browner and deader than I remembered (drought issues over the last few years), but we had a great time. Part of that has to do with picking a great place to stay, probably in the nicest resort on the island.
Tomorrow, we would be off again, to the Big Island of Hawaii.
current music: Clon - Do Ra Wa
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
|
|
10:36 pm - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
|
|
1:30 pm - The Honeymoon Report (Part I: O'ahu)
|
So this is going to be a long one. And, there's going to be no sex videos or pictures, you perverts.
On the whole, the honeymoon turned out fantastically. We both had a romantic, interesting and relaxing time visiting Hawaii. This was the second time in the islands for both of us, but the first since we were small children. There are some things that I would definitely do differently the second time around, but that is to be expected with any trip.
A note about pictures: I took over 600 pictures, so obviously this is not all of them. All the pictures here (except the panoramas) link to low-res versions. If you want to see a high res version of any of them, ask me. The panoramas are full resolution and weigh in at about 19mb each. Also, I link one of my legs is shorter than the other, because a lot of my photos are not quite level...
After the whirlwind that was the wedding, Sarah and I rushed home on Sunday to get unpacked from the wedding weekend and repacked for the honeymoon. We arrived back in Huntsville in the early afternoon. Got the car unloaded. Then Sarah remembered that she forgot to bring her big suitcase home with her. So off we went to Wal-Mart to procure a cheap bag for her.
We didn't even have time to open gifts, because we had to go to bed. Our flight out was at 7am.
( Day 1: A long day that didn't start out so well... )
( Day 2: The Arizona Memorial, Waikiki Aquarium and hiking Diamond Head )
( Day 3: Touring the Island, Tropical Gatlinburg and a gorgeous beach... )
( Day 4: The only Royal Palace on American Soil, Kalakaua avenue, and tropical birds... )
Coming next, Maui!
current music: Yes - The Ladder
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
|
|
12:08 pm - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
|
8:35 am - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
|
7:37 am - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
|
12:57 am - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
Our Hawaiian adventure is over. Sittin'around waitin'for an airplane. KOA-LAX-DFW-HSV. Gonna be a long night...
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
Friday, September 26th, 2008
|
|
7:59 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
|
|
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
|
|
9:02 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
|
|
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
|
|
9:24 am - Todays Pictures from Paradise
|
 This is a shot of the swan court at the Hyatt in Maui. You can't see any in this picture, but there are swans and koi in the water.  Us enjoying our outrageous dinner. |
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
|
|
6:32 pm - The Cat
|
So why am I blogging again? Last time because it was a memorable. But this one is very sad, so if you don't want to be sad, just skip this entry.
Sarah and I arrived in Kona a few hours ago. We rented a car and drove a few miles south to our "resort" in Keauhou Bay (and believe me I'll go all into this after we get back at the end of the week). We get to Keauhou, turn down a few roads and get down near the coast. We turn onto Ehukai street and as I'm about to turn into the Sheraton, we notice a little mass in the middle of the road. It looked like a cat. Then, as we drove by, it raised its little head.
We immediately turned around. As I pulled the car over, the cat got up and kind of hobbled into some bushes. I parked the car while Sarah went over to try to help it; I let her do it since she's the Vet Tech. After chasing it down the bushes a little bit, she was finally able get it scruffed. It was badly hurt.
We put it in a beach towel while I drove up to the Sheraton to get directions to the nearest vet clinic; Sarah held the poor little thing the whole time. It turns out the nearest clinic was just up the road, so we drove as fast as the rented Charger would take us back up the cliff. The little thing was fighting so hard.
After driving around in the shopping center trying to find a clinic, we finally were able to find one.
And just as we were walking into the clinic, she died.
...
I guess it was just her time, and only God can determine that. But even in the five minutes we were with this little cat, I had already formed a bond with her. We had a stake in it now. And I was really hoping she would make it and maybe, with any luck, she could recover enough for us to get her flown to Alabama and have a home. She would have had one hell of a story. In reality, even then, I knew that the damage was probably just too bad.
It really saddens, and even angers me, for a couple of reasons. One, because it probably just happened minutes earlier. She still looked stunned and hadn't had a chance to move into the brush yet. And two, we passed a number of cars going up the road on our way down; any one of them could have stopped and helped this poor little kitten and she may have survived, but none of them did. It took a couple of folks from 4,000 miles away to stop and take pity on one of God's creations who was injured by us as humans.
So everyone please say a prayer for the little black and white kitten who died in Sarah's arms tonight. She's gone on to a better place than even Hawaii, and I'm glad she was in someone's arms when it happened.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
|
|
10:16 pm - A lesson in why it's good to (occasionally) complain
|
I'm breaking my self-imposed pseudo-exile. This is too good not to blog.
So a friend of my Dad's, who lives in France, wanted to get us a wedding present. Since we couldn't think of anything for him to get us, he decided to send us some American Express gift cards, which we could use of as we so chose. We decided to use them to buy a really outrageous dinner.
We actually decided to go to the dinner here in one of the restaurants at the hotel (the Hyatt Maui) because it looked tasty, didn't require us driving anywhere, and had amazing views of the beach and sunset. So I call up there and ask if they take Amex, since these cards are good anywhere Amex is taken. They say yes. So I set a reservation.
We go. The food is amazing - some of the best sushi I've ever had. And, the view of the sunset just gets better every night. So the bill comes for $117.63. I hand the waiter one of the gift cards, and Sarah and I go back to the enjoying the beach. Then the guy comes back and says they won't take the gift cards. I ask why. He gets his boss. His boss never tells me why, but says they won't take them at the restaurant but would at the front desk.
Irritated, I tell them to charge it to the room with the intention of immediately going up and charging the card for the cost of the meal.
So I get to the front desk. I hand her the card and tell her what I want to do. She tries to run it and it gets declined for not sufficient funds. There's no way, because I checked the balance immediately before we went to eat and there was $200 on it. I'm getting really irritated now, but I kept my cool (I've come a long way in controlling my anger over the last few years).
She calls Amex. Long story short, the restaurant did charge the card, then after charging it decided they wouldn't accept it. Whether this was an accident or a hope that I (probably like many of the wealthy folks staying here) wouldn't pay attention to my bill, I'm not sure. No such luck for them, though - I watch everything like a hawk.
It took about a half hour to clean up the restaurant's mess, but we finally were able to get it all straightened out and the monies charged appropriately. I asked to speak to a manager, because I had a number of complaints that I wanted to get at least heard: the inconsistent policy of the restaurant (don't tell customers you take something and then decided after they've eaten not to take it) and then all the problems after it.
I wasn't rude and I went out of my way to compliment the front desk worker who had solved the problem so well. I just let him know that I was disappointed that things had been allowed to get this far. He was very accommodating, and after a short exchange, he knocked $60 off the charges to the room.
So there are several lessons to be taken from my experience tonight: if you have gift cards, ask specifically if they accept them; don't assume that just because the issuer says they should be accepted, doesn't mean that they will. Watch everything like a hawk, because hotels are sneaky and will try to pull a fast one on you if you're not watching.
And finally, if you honestly believe you have been wronged, complain. Now, I say that with the caveat that you should not go around looking for things to complain about. But if something happens and you complain, very often they will try to make things right in some way.
Anyways, just wanted to blog that because it was too good. My wife is staring at me, so I'm out.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
|
|
8:08 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
 Another beautiful Hawaiian sunset. So ... someone tell me where the whole "leaving" thing comes into this? |
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
|
|
7:21 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
|
|
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
|
|
7:53 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
|
|
|
6:18 am - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
We've arrived at the Maui Hyatt. This place is awesome! Thanks also to work for the great gifts!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Friday, September 19th, 2008
|
|
9:09 am - Today's Picture from Paradise
|
 There was a man on Kalakaua Avenue who had exotic birds. We actually got some pictures of Sarah and I holding them. |
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
|
|
6:46 pm - Posted using TxtLJ
|
|
|
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kiranlightpaw's journal
