Hawaii is done for a few years

February 2011 will be a new destination. I have been to all the Hawaian islands and will start a new area of the world in 2011. It will be in February and it will be warm.  Thanks for all the cool e-mails and comments.

Sleep is good

After I got back from the Observatory I took a 1/2 bottle of red out the back door of my condo onto the second hole of the golf couse and lit up a cigar. Laid back on the tee-box and looked at the Stars. Woke up about 2 a.m. I feel asleep on the golf course!

In the top 5 of places I have been

Highlight of my trip by far, might even be in the top 5 of all places I have been. I knew I wanted to to see this observatory but I had no idea how much I would like it. The pictures don't do it justice. To start the story from the beginning, I tried to book a tour to the top of Mauna Kea but they were all booked, I was on waiting lists but never got a call that I could go. My last night here I just decided to drive up to the visitors center and see what was going on, maybe I could latch on to van or se if I could get up to the top or at least 1/2 way. Everyone had been telling me you had to have a 4X4 to go to the Observatory. Well, I went to the visitor center and I did not see anything that said you can't go, just signs that said "We Strongly recommend, you have a 4X4 truck to go to the summit." So I drove my Nissan coupe on up to the summit. I was the only car at the top.(got some funny looks) 14,000 feet in a Nissan! I'm sure there are times when you have to have a 4X4 but there was no snow and the roads were pretty good so I just pushed it on up to the top. So glad I did this! Anyone who comes to the Big Island this is a MUST DO! After the sun went down it got even better. The stars were so big and seemed to be reachable. None of the pictures after dark turned out .Believe me the best stars I have ever seen up to now have been in the Boundry Waters, the stars at Mauna Kea make those look silly. I thought I could grab the Big Dipper by the handle. I saw a shooting star and thought I should duck.

Pool Day

Today is Pool Day, at the pool off and on. The Russians have moved in. One Blondie one Brown and one Black haired. They tend to be very carefree upon ajusting their tops while sunning. You don't really think of Russian as a sexy language but today it seems to be! I'm kinsa worried about the blonde, she has been on her stomach a little to long and her butt cheeks are getting red. Where is my loation?

Observitory tonight!!

Golf Day

Today was golf day, I have been looking forward to this all week. The course is awesome and today other then the wind it was a great day. On some of the holes you can see Maui in the backround and other holes you see Mauna Kea in the backround. Shot in the dark I asked if they offered a United Airlines discount and they did! saved me $50.00

Kilauea

This was kinda funny, I asked this lady who about 60 to take my picture. After 3 pictures of her thumb and telling her husband that "the way they make camera's nowdays is backwards" I don't think she could see the LCD screen in the sunlight? Anyway, her husband took the camera snapped the picture and the "camera seems fine to me! lets go Doris"

Kilauea is awesome, one of the reasons I came to the Big Island was to see this. *** Click on the picture of the Steam through the trees on the left and you can learn more about Kilauea. ***

*** Then look below and check out my short Video of the Steam vent. ***

*** Golf today at 1500 then maybe Mauna Kea Observatories, i'm on a waiting list for the next two nights. ***

Volcano

WOW, I loved it!

Great day

Woke up to see the 40 MPH winds have died down, I know, I know at least its warm but 40 MPH is a pain in the butt. I would not call the Big Island pretty, I mean Kauai is 10 times more tropical. The Big Island is kind of a ranch island. Its cool looking but not what you would think of when you think Hawaii. On my drive today I stopped at one of the Black Sand Beaches. I almost passed it by, who wants to see a beach of black sand? Glad I stopped, it is one of the coolest things I have seen so far on this trip. Seals, Sea Turtles and Ne Ne (Indangered Hawaiian Goose) call the black sands home. ( I did not see any of them ) Talk about hot, the beach is cooking! You could fry a Scottish boy pretty fast. I'm sitting in the comunity center of the resort complex, its the only place I can get on the net. (only draw back to this Condo) Drinking a few Long Boards and updating the blog before I cook some dinner. **** Tomorrow is Volcano National Park !! ****

Slow Monday

Sorry guys today was slow. No big wave,no goat, just a nap and a run.



Hope to post more fun stuff tomorrow

What a Hockey Game!

I know I'm in Hawaii but what a freaking hockey game!
To bad USA did not win but congratulations to Canada!

Went for a good 5 mile run today, seems easy to run when you are in a
new place. **** went for a run this afternoon also, yes a double session! The afternoon run was only 2.5 but was downhill into the sunset, the uphill into the dark wind on the way home. I almost had to pull up the wind was killing me. *** Double session, reminds me of football in high school.

The picture above was on my afternoon run, I also saw a goat with horns on my run. A freaking goat! I crossed over to the other side of the road, it had horns!

The sun is deadly today, Going to hit the gym then read some book. (about Poppa bear Halas)

Lazy Sunday. Next few days I want to see Mauna Kea. I will keep you updated.


Ron

First 24 hours

I was looking forward to a very restful vacation and the 1st 24 hours have been anything but that. My flight 609 out of Chicago was delayed due to the storms on the east coast. That messed up my connection in SFO. I had to jump on a trip tp PDX and try to go ORD/PDX/SFO/KOA. When I got to PDX all the trips had filled up, the CSR told me on Friday afternoons you can't get a trip up and down the west coast, even if they look open they fill up. (commuters) I was looking at the departure board in PDX and I saw a Delta flight to HNL and had to go out front to ticketing and buy a ZED fare.($75.00) The back through security and just made the trip. When I got to HNL of course all the HNL to KOA trips were long gone. So I got a room at the Best Western and called it a night. I woke up about 0130 and turned on the news just in time to hear about the TSUNAMI heading to Hawaii! Last thing I want is to get caught on HNL so I headed out for breakfest and then to the airport to catch my flight or an earlier trip if I could. My resort on KOA is on top of a hill so I felt safe as long as I got there. After a delay due to Tsunami re-fuel (During the delay I found $60.00 bucks! I Tried to hand it in to the GO-Hawaii CSR and she just said keep it) Anyway, after the delay for the duel fuel load, in case they could not fuel on Kona we were off. Picked up the rental car and off I went to my resort. On the way I pulled off to the side of the road with 100's of others to watch for the "Wave" . They said it would hit at 1100 but we waited until 1230 and then people just started to disapate. The Tsunami that never came, I guess thats a good thing but part of me wanted to see it. ( I will post some pictures tomorrow night )
Checked in at my awesome resort and took a nap before heading to the pool where I am now. Time to find some food and drink, keep warm everyone, until tomorrow night. Cheers!

Hawaii 2010 Off to Kona

O.k. Kids, for those of you that enjoy my blogs
here in my winter 2010 vacation.
It will start Feb 25th

Off to The Big Island, this is the last island in Hawaii
that I have not been on.