4/8/00

Arrived into Honolulu at around 4pm. Picked up our rental car, a Chrysler Sebring convertible, and drove to Waikiki. We stayed at the Sheraton Princess Kiaulani, across the street from Waikiki Beach. I got the room thru priceline.com for $50 per night. The lobby is very pretty and looks first class. Our room is simple but adequate. We have a lanai, if you peek over the side you can see a sliver of Waikiki Beach between the Sheraton Moana Surfrider and the Outrigger Waikiki hotels. Once we got our things into the room, we walked across the street to check out Waikiki Beach. The beach is nice and the water is very pretty. We walked down to Duke's Canoe Club and had some Mai Tai's. We decided to eat dinner there also, each of us had Mahi Mahi prepared in different ways. The food was good with a nice salad bar. The 5 hour time change made us all tired early, along with the Mai Tai's. We were in bed by 9:30. I bought a lei from a woman at Duke's, a plumeria, for only $5.

4/9/00

We all got up at 5:00, which wasn't very difficult since we went to bed early. We got to Pearl Harbor by 6:45, it was less than a 1/2 hour drive-but no traffic that early. They don't officially open to 7:30 so we found some breakfast first. Got back to Pearl Harbor by 7:20, a line had formed at the visitor's center-we were about 15th in line. At 7:30 they opened the doors and passed out tickets for the movie and boat to the island. We had 1/2 an hour to look at the museum before our movie and boat to the memorial. 1177 sailors are entombed inside the Arizona, the Memorial was somber. I wished I had brought me lei to toss into the water. We were back on shore by 9:15. We went next door and toured the USS Bowfire-a WWII submarine. $8 adults. Our next destination was the north shore of Oahu to see the beaches, large waves, and surfing. We passed fields of pineapple and eventually came to the Dole Plantation. It was raining pretty hard, we all got pineapple dole whips. Our first beach stop on the north shore was the Waimea Bay Beach Park. Watched surfers and the big waves (aka the Bonzai Pipeline). The usual around the park was closed due to a rock slide, so they had a detour across the beach. Up the road another mile or two we stopped at another beach-this one was surrounded by a reef and the pools were really neat. In Kakuku we stopped at Giovanni’s, a road side stand/coach. They were serving plate lunches out of the coach/truck. The tables were packed, we got a plate of 12 shrimp scampi and rice for $11. Was delicious. The northeast side of Oahu was the prettiest. We stopped at Hanauma Bay on the SE corner of the island then. It cost $1 to park, and $3 entry. We rented snorkel gear for $6. You really didn't even need the snorkel gear since there were so many fish near the surface. Mike & I even saw a sea turtle. For dinner we ate at Tonaka of Tokyo-we were among the very few Americans there. The show put on by the chef was great and the food as well great. We were able to get one dinner free with the entertainment card. After dinner Neil & I walked down the main drag of Waikiki and looked at some of the shops.

4/10/00

We got up really early again, 5:00am. We went to Diamond Head, we were beginning our hike as the sun rose. Took us about an hour round trip to do the hike. Even with hanging out on top for 10 to 15 minutes. Great views of Honolulu from the top. We checked out Waikiki beach again for heading to the airport. Couldn't get any coupons for Aloha for Mike, so he flew Hawaiian for $54. Got in Kauai about noon, we have a Jeep Wrangler for a rental car. Drove to our condo in Poipu. We are staying in unit 525 at the NihiKai Villas. The unit is very nice, spacious with cathedral ceilings, and 2 large bedrooms with their own bath. We have a large lanai overlooking the ocean-about 1/4 mile away. The unit came equipped with all of the necessities. We went to the IGA in Koloa to get groceries. $6 for a gallon of milk, and over $2 for a dozen eggs. We went to Brennecke's Beach Broiler for lunch, a five minute walk. We rented snorkel gear from Snorkel Bob's in Koloa for about $20 per week. We walked back down to Poipu Beach. Neil & Mike snorkeled and I sat on the beach. For dinner we went to Pizetta in Koloa-wouldn't recommend it-very average.

4/11/00

Our first stop today was the Spouting Horn. We then headed onto Waimea Canyon. The canyon was beautiful-similar to the Grand Canyon, but much lusher at the bottom. We stopped at several outlooks, we drove up the Waimea canyon drive from Waimea. We drove to the end of the road to the Pu'u o Kila lookout overlooking the Kalakau valley, the largest on the Napili coast. We hiked a little ways on the Pihea Trail, the lushness of the island is incredible. The trail was very wet and slippery clay. We stopped at the restaurant in the state park, Koke'e lodge. Sandwiches were about $8 each. We headed down from the canyon on the Koke'e road, which comes out in Kekaha. We passed a lot of sugar cane fields and had impressive coastal views. From Kekaha we headed to Polihale State Park, which is on the southern border of the Napili Coast. The beach was gorgeous with a STRONG SURF. It was fun to play in the waves. We had to travel down  a dirt road thru the sugarcane fields for about 3 miles to find the beach. We also checked out the Queen's Pond at Polihale, a reef enclosed area with relatively calm waters for swimming. We stopped in Waimea for shave ice at Jojo's. I was great! They had 61 flavors of shave ice. For dinner we at A Pacific Cafe in Kapa'a. Food was excellent, Mike said the best he's ever had. Drive there was almost an hour though. The presentation of the food was impressive too. The dinner was $170 before tip, with drinks and dessert too. Can't do that every night...

4/12/00

We went on an hour long helicopter tour with Air Kauai. Our pilot was Pat and our helicopter was only 8 weeks old, they just had got it in. We got a 25% discount with the entertainment card, the total was $140 each. The sights were incredible, especially along the Napili coast and in the valleys. We saw loads of waterfalls. The 60 minute ride was long enough, glad we didn't do the 90 minute with Jack Harter(they cancelled on us since we only had a group of three). After 60 minutes, we all felt kind of woozy. The other nice thing about Air Kauai is that they shut down the helicopter between flights so we had a chance to meet the pilot beforehand and take pictures with him after. The day was beautiful and mostly sunny so we drove to the North Shore. We stopped in Hanalei for lunch at Zelo's Beach Grill. The food was very good. We continued on to Ke'e Park at the end of the road. It was gorgeous! We did a little snorkeling and checked out the tunnels/caves. Stopped in Hanalei for shave ice at Shave Ice Paradise, wasn't as good as Jojo's. Between Ke'e and Hanalei we crossed many one lane bridges, some were really old. Neil & I watched the sunset from across the road from Nihi Kai, we also saw seat turtles in the surf.  Had a few drinks before going to Roy's in Poipu for dinner. Mike & I both got the tasting menu for $45. Food was great and the chocolate soufflé was incredible. We also had lava flows, pinocoladas with strawberry puree in them.

4/13/00

We drove to Wailua Falls, the falls pictured in the opening of Fantasy Island. It is near Kapa'a. We found the trail, near the 2nd guard rail, and hiked down the base of the falls. Neil swam in the pool of water, Mike hiked around the back of the falls. It was beautiful, the water was really cold though. We stopped at 2 other falls near there. We went to the Hyatt in Poipu for lunch, they had 2 Macau birds in the tropical area of the lobby. We checked out the grounds and ate at the self serve cafeteria. We went down beyond the Hyatt on the dirt road. The first beach we stopped at had a lot of garbage strewn around. We drove to the next one east, but it was really windy. So we drove to the Sheraton to check out their beach. It was nice for laying out, surf was a little rough, but still a lot of people in the water. We saw some more sea turtles across the road from the Nihi Kai. We went to Brennecke's for dinner. Crab legs were the special. Their lava flows were really good.

4/14/00

We took a boat tour of the Napili Coast today with Blue Water Sailing. The trip was about 5 hours, they call it the Napili Express. The scenery was incredible. We stopped to snorkel for a bit too. We spotted some whales, Neil took a bunch of pictures so hopefully we'll get one with a fin coming out of the water. The crew was great, our boat only had 9 passengers, while its capacity is 20. We like not having a crowded boat. Cost for 5 hours including lunch, beverages, and snorkel gear for $110(for 3 people). Neil & I were glad that we had our Transderm Scop motion sickness patches on, as some parts were pretty rough. One girl threw up repeatedly off the back... We went to Lihue for shave ice at Halo-Halo, it was very good. For dinner we went back to Roy's, ate way too much again. Had the wonderful chocolate soufflé again.

4/15/00

We flew today Aloha Airlines from Lihue to Kahalui, Maui. We took one of the few non-stop flights, most stop in Honolulu. Dawn & Phil came in before us by a little bit, they met us at the baggage claim. It was great to see them again. We all took the shuttle to get our rental car, a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Looks just like Neil's at home, at least on the outside. Brakes squeak, steering is very loose, and the shocks have seen better days. Only 35k on it, that's a lot for a rental. Drove to Kahana to our condo. The NoeLani. The view is gorgeous from our lanei, we are 30 feet from the water and Molokai is across the channel. We went to Lahaina for lunch and ate at Aloha Plate lunch next to the Old Lahaina Luau. Real good. Our next stop was Safeway, where we loaded up on snack, drinks, beer, and food for dinner. We snorkeled in the cove next to our condo, saw some fish. Ok snorkeling. For dinner Phil made us a fruit salsa for the blue marlin that we grilled. We also grilled asparagus and Dawn made a spinach salad with a  vinagrerette. We drank on the lanai most of the evening.

4/16/00

We went to the beach at Kapalua Bay this morning. It was good for snorkeling and sunning. According to the Travel Channel it is the #1 beach in the US. We stayed until noon or so and then went to Maui Tacos for lunch in Napili, food was good and under $7. We went to Lahaina in search of shave ice, didn't find the real thing, only stand crushing ice cubes. The syrup wasn't as good either. We went to the Old Lahaina Luau tonight. Sign in started at 5:30, we got there at 5:40, but should have gotten there by 5:15. They give you a Mai Tai and lei then show you where your table is. We had great seats in the first row of tables near the center of the stage. We walked around and saw what the locals were selling, leis, carvings, and woven baskets. We also saw where they had the pig cooking. The food was very good, especially the pig. The taro is an acquired taste I think. It is open bar and all you can eat buffet for $69.95 per person. So we all drank up!

4/17/00

We left the condo at 7:00 and headed for Hana. We picked up a tape at the Shell in Kahului while filling up with gas for $20(plus 4 bottles of water). We stopped at some small waterfalls and hiked at one of the waysides. The road was narrow with lots of blind curves. One of our favorite stops was Waianapanapa State Park just a few miles outside Hana. There are large sea cliffs out of lava, a tunnel, and a black sand beach. We stopped at a few fruit stands en route to Hana and bought some pineapple, coconut, and apple bananas. With all of our stops along the way we finally got to Hana around 1:00pm. Some of us got crabby along the way and were referring to the road to Hana as the “highway to hell”. We ate lunch at the Hana Ranch Restaurant. We continued on towards the Seven Sacred Pools. One of the highlights was supposed to be Wailua Falls, which was bone dry. The pools were pretty, but the falls in between weren’t flowing very much, rain levels must have been low recently.  Swimming in the pools was safer because of the low water flow. Dawn & I went to the lower pools while the guys went to the upper pools. They decided we all should go to the upper pools, much less crowded. The water wasn’t flowing much at the top and there were lots of mosquitoes. Neil asked the ranger at the park about the road back around the other side of Haleakala, the one the rental car companies will void your contract for driving on. He said “it’s open to all cars”, the maps and guidebooks make it sound like some mountain pass road.  The ranger was quite short with Neil when he asked. So we decided to go for it, after all we have a Jeep. Only portions were unpaved and it was not bad at all. It was neat to see the different landscapes on the other side of the mountain, the dry side. The road wasn’t as curvy as the one to Hana and took less time it seemed. The Jeep handled it well with no problems, so did the mustangs and cavaliers that we saw on it. Phil made jerked chicken for dinner. Phil’s dinners are always good.

4/18/00

We headed to the south shore to check out some of the beaches in the Kihei and Wailea area. Our first stop was Big Beach, the guys and Dawn had fun playing in the heavy surf. Even Phil taking a header didn’t stop them from having fun. The only facilities were portable toilets so we left when we needed lunch(& flush toilets). We headed up to Kihei and had lunch at Bubba’s Burgers, food was tasty. We also got to use their webtv to send free email. We emailed a few people, and we emailed Dino(my boss) to tell him we took jobs with Long’s Drug and won’t be coming back….  After lunch, we went to Tobi’s for shave ice,  a couple doors down from Bubba’s. Their ice had the finest texture so far, but the flavors weren’t as good as Jojo’s on Kauai. The next beach we went to was Wailea next to the Four Seasons. It was a nice beach, but the guys didn’t like the calm waters. So we decided to head on to Ulua beach, right in front of the Renaissance Wailea. Both beaches were gradual with smaller waves to play in. We went to the car rental place next since the Jeep’s brakes were making loud grinding noise. They swapped it with another Jeep that was exactly the same except for about 1000 miles difference on the odometer. Brakes were better, still loose steering though. Neil grilled brats for dinner. We all went to bed pretty early since we are going to Haleakala for sunrise tomorrow.

4/19/2000

Neil's Birthday. We got up at 2:00am to drive up to the top of Haleakala for the sunrise. We left the condo at 2:30, and got to the summit by 4:30. It was quicker than we thought. Neil drove while the rest of us napped. It was in the mid 30's at the top, and very windy. The sky started lighting up around 5:15 and the sunrise was at 5:58. There were a lot of people there for the sunrise, many of them bikers that would be going down. We were glad we didn't do the bike ride down, since it would be another windy and cold 38 miles down to the bottom! Phil was cute bundled up in the wicker beach mats. We could see the peak of Mauna Loa on the Big Island above the clouds-it is 80-100 miles away. On our way down we stopped at the Kula restaurant for breakfast. We also went to Lahaina to check on snorkeling tours to Molokini. Phil made quesadillas with the leftover jerked chicken for lunch. Then we went to Kaanapali Beach for the rest of the afternoon. We were lucky to find an open beach access parking place at Whaler's Village. We picked a spot in front of the Kaanapali Alii condos. The waves were huge, fun for the group to play in, although Neil took a header that really hurt. We all managed to stay up until 8:15 to make it to our dinner at Roy's just up the road from us. Mike told them it was Neil's birthday so they had confetti and streamers on the table. They also brought a complimentary creme brulee for desert. The plate said "happy birthday from Roy's" in chocolate around the edge. It was really good.

4/20/2000

The first beach of the day was Napili Bay, the surf was pretty rough again. The bay is protected somewhat by a small reef in the middle where the waves were breaking. The guys decided to rent boogie boards from Snorkel Bob's just off the main road. I checked out the different condos, Napili Bay, Napili Sunset, and the Mauian. All of them looked nice. We to Maui tacos for lunch, the quesadillas are the best. We went to Honolua Bay Marine Reserve north of Kapalua off of the main highway, took the staircase down to what we think was Slaughterhouse Beach. Neil and I snorkeled and saw a young green sea turtle, he had no algae on his shell!  We saw an octopus and big parrot fish. Dawn had to use her lifeguard skills on Phil, he cramped while swimming. We went back to Napili so the guys could boogie board some more. Dawn and I walked to the Kahana Mall from our condo when we got back. We looked at the shops and stopped in the jewelry store. The jewelry looked too perfect to be real, so I though they were good fakes. Then we saw the price tags, one ring was $360,000. I have never seen so many gorgeous rings and earrings. Phil grilled pineapple and shrimp along with some vegetables. Phil made a great rum punch which got us all buzzed real quick. We wanted dessert, but figured none of us should drive. We called a cab to take us to Whaler's Village, about 10 minutes down the main highway. Went to Hagen Daz. Then we went to the Rusty Harpoon Bar for their late happy hour from 10pm to 2am. They had $1 tap beers and $2.50 bottles. They guys did some shots too, they were extremely drunk. Mike ran thru the shrubs when we left to stop a cab for us.

4/21/2000

Morning came way too soon. It wasn't easy getting up for our morning snorkeling trip. We had to drive to Kihei (about 50 minutes) to catch our boat. We left the condo at 6:00am, Neil said he was still buzzed until we got to Kihei. Our charter was called Sea Fire, it was a Zodiac, which is a hard hulled inflatable type boat. Our first stop was Molokini crater for snorkeling. We was an octopus, actually we got to touch it since our guide picked it up off the bottom. My snorkel sucked, it kept filling up with water. Neil switched with me and proceeded to inhale a bunch of sea water. He also most gave the fish some food. Kind of funny. We then went to "turtle town" where we saw about 5 sea turtles. I almost ran right into one on the surface. Our guide got a picture of Neil & I with another one. The charter lasted until about 10:30(3 hours). We went to Kamaole II beach in Kihei to dry off and relax. We ended up all sleeping a bit for an hour, and listening to some idiot talk constantly. The sand was super soft and comfortable. We went to Bubba's again for lunch and Tobi's for shave ice. We headed back to the condo where we lounged by the pool. It was actually nice to be away from the sand. For dinner we had grilled asparagus, ono marinated in lemon & rosemary, and for desert grilled pound cake with strawberries. Phil outdid himself with this one.

4/22/2000

We dropped Dawn & Phil off at the Kahului Airport around 9:15. We drove around the north side of West Maui, the way the rental car companies don't want you to go. Eight miles of the road was basically one lane with lots of blind curves. We saw some really beautiful views along the way. Very rugged coast. We stopped at Honolua Bay for snorkeling off of the old boat launch. The water was really murky and we didn't have much sun, so it wasn't the great spot it is supposed to be. We went to the Aloha Mixed Plate in Lahaina for lunch. We decided to spend our last afternoon ad Kapalua Bay. We snorkeled, fed the fish some peas, they really swarmed for those. For dinner we went to A Pacific Cafe at the north end of Kaanapali. Mike & I got the tasting menus while Neil had rib eye and tiger shrimp. We went to Haagen Daz in Whaler's village for dessert. Stopped at the ABC store to pick up some gifts. Got David & Casey 6-4oz cans of Macadamia Nuts for $15. Picked up grass skirts for Hannah and Elizabeth.

4/23/2000

Neil & I were up by 7:00, went for a walk. We left the condo at 10:30 and drove to Kapalua Bay to take a few pictures. Our next stop was Lahaina where we did a little shopping. We got to the airport at 12:30 and were able to get on the 1:30 flight to Honolulu. Our bags made it there before we did. We took the WikiWiki Shuttle to the other terminal. Checked in at Northwest and found we couldn't get 3 seats together. We tried to get seat assignments at least 3 times before we left, but they wouldn't give them in advance. We went to Stinger Ray's for some food, and we sat outside in a Japanese garden courtyard. It ended up that I switched with someone so I could sit by Neil. Our flight was a redeye to Minneapolis, about 7 hours, with a connection to Milwaukee.