Up High in the Sky

On Thursday, we embarked on our first helicopter ride, an open door ride around the island around Kauai. This is one of the few ways to truly see what the island is about. So much of Kauai is difficult to get to and much of the island is impossible to get to with a car. Of course, you can do an all day hike, camp, bike or boat your way around. We chose a 60 minute ride above the island.

It started off very nice - easy take off. We saw the plantations, farms and resorts on our way to the good stuff. Soon we arrived at Waimea Canyon and some nasty weather. Okay, maybe it wasn't all that severe, but the bouncing of the helicopter and surrounding rain and wind freaked me out. Of course, I was in the middle of David and the pilot so my vision was limited anyway. Despite both the weather and my limited view, I still think the whole thing was incredible. The island is absolutely stunning - 3,000 foot cliffs, incredible (and mostly unreachable) beaches, deep canyons and stunning forests.

We relaxed Thursday night with an incredible and delicious dinner at Roy's. The service was impeccable and the food outstanding. The chef really plays up the flavors of Hawaii and we left very full and satisfied.

On Friday, our last full day in Kauai, we ventured out to Waimea Canyon via Canyon Drive. This narrow, winding road leads 19 miles along the edge of an impressive canyon to a vista looking into a valley dropping nearly 2000 feet to the sea. It really is incredible.

We flew out of Kauai to Honululu and then onto Seattle on Saturday. We stayed a night in SeaTac Airport and left for Chicago Sunday morning. It is good to be home with lots of incredible memories and more appreciation for the diversity of this country than ever.

Zippity zip

Captain's Log, Stardate Kauai Day 5, we conquered the zip line today. Well, 5 ziplines. Kauai Outfiitters was our host. We and 11 others ventured out on the ziplines today. Let's just say, it's extremely easy, very rewarding and tons of fun I would definitely do it again (and again and again). The trip we chose was a 5 hour (lots of waiting along the way) afternoon ride. After a 20 minute van ride with our guides, Kevin and Trevor, we drove to a secluded ranch (complete with cows and of course ROOSTERS "bagaaaa!"), got a safety briefing, made a quick bathroom stop and went out to the ziplines. The first one a short warm up, the second slightly more adventurous and then on to the larger fun lines. One line was 800 feet and the last a very nice 1800 feet over a wooded valley. What a blast!

Yesterday was a low key day. David discovered that snorkeling is not that great in Kauai. The waves are much higher here and the island isn't nearly as protected as Maui. That's okay, there's plenty to do landside. We checked out Spouting Horn, a lava area near the sea where waves come in and abruptly shoot up a blowhole.

We drove to Hanapepe and enjoyed wandering around the small (and slightly deserted) town with cute stores. The locals were very nice (as are most in Kauai) and we are planning on returning this Friday for the "Art Walk." The photo to the right is a cute truck (with flames!) and flowers.

We ended the day with a luau. It was about what I expected - decent food, decent entertainment and buttloads of tourists. Got that checked off the list.

David made a tasty noodle and vegetable dinner tonight. Tomorrow, fancier dinner.

Roosters Roosters Roosters

You guessed it, we are now in Kaua'i. We left a decent condo in a bad neighborhood to a crappier condo in an okay neighborhood. Let's just say, it's rustic - and cheap. Oh well. We've been doing well enjoying nice lunches out and making good dinners in the evening. We'll continue that here in Kaua'i. We've found so far that people are very nice in Kaua'i and much nicer than those in Maui. Maui is nice but very commercial. Kaua'i is much more rugged and adventurous. This place is truly beautiful and like nothing else I've ever seen. Everything we loved about the risky drives in Maui is all around us in Kaua'i.

After arriving Sunday, we enjoyed a small dinner out at a 2nd level restaurant with a view of the incredible sunset, a pitcher of passion fruit (lilikoi) coladas and amazingly fresh calamari. Today, we ventured up the northeast side of the island after an awesome and authentic Japanese noodle lunch (at a place down a dicey street in a very local area), completed a short but itchy and sweaty hike to a boring little waterfall and enjoyed driving as far as possible on the north side of the island. The views were stunning and the drivers here are pretty decent (much better than those in Maui). Apparently, Andy Iron, a locally famous world champion surfer, who was found dead yesterday at age 32, was from the north part of the island (where we were today). We saw tributes to him all around.

I also confirmed my feelings about hiking. I really love hiking in the southwest states where it's dry but hot, there's little vegetation and NO bugs. The hike today was in very humid conditions in areas with a million ants (I'm not kidding) and lush vegetation jumping out everywhere.

Today we also booked a lua'u, zipline trip and helicopter ride. That helps form out the week. I'm really looking forward to doing everything and hoping to add a horseback ride and boat trip to our list.

This ones a LuLu

Get the peanut butter and breadfruit sandwich.  It's as good as the one mamatiki used to make it.

So, Roseann and I are sitting in a second-story Tiki bar in Kihei, trying to catch up on our writing for the blog.  This is a place called LuLu’s, which is as cute as a Tiki bar in a strip mall can be.  There is a weird-ass waterslide out back where kids are practicing surfing maneuvers, a Starbucks to the north as well as to south of us and a crazy guy running through traffic (par for the course in Kihei).  Behind the crazy guy is a swath of ocean as blue as one can imagine. 

It is late in the day and so the surfers, swimmers and snorkelers are at a minimum.  Personally, we have done a lot of snorkeling and that will be the topic of another blog post.  Roseann and I were going through a list of pluses and minuses of what we like and what we’re a bit eh on when it comes to Maui; once again, fine readers (reader?), that is a post to come.  Roseann cannot work on the pluses and minuses post this moment, because she is trying to scale the wall at LuLu’s and remove the literally hundreds of dollar bills taped up there.  At the same time, she’s swearing about Northwestern defeating Iowa in football.  The other two bar patrons are politely ignoring her (one who looks a bit like Elvis).  Maui has been more expensive than we expected.

This is an interstitial post, before we get back to the main storyline.  We want you all wondering what’s coming next!  In our case, what’s coming next in Kauai; we leave for there tomorrow morning – we are already packed and bags we did not need any more are on a slow boat back to Chicago (and yes, that’s another post!).

LuLu’s has a puffer fish hanging from the ceiling, a 7 foot tiki doll of Elvis, and for some reason, a sign by the bathrooms reading ‘Wrigley Field, This Exit’ – I don’t know why.  Roseann is back at the table now clutching a bunch of singles and we are drinking Mai Tais; tonight we will have half-price sushi at 10PM at a place called Sensei that the locals swear by.  So, that’s the update! 

Oh, one last thing.  We got married on Wednesday on a small beach in South Maui.  It was a sunset wedding and we have plenty of pictures, but once again, that’s another blog post.

All Around the Island

Yesterday, we completed the road to Hana - and the 5 mile (+!) very rough road past Hana around the island of Maui. The Road to Hana was crowded with plenty of rude shutterfly (look - a waterfall! snap snap snap snap snap) tourists, thousands of winding curves - (ok maybe only 620 curves), innumerable one lane bridges and many beautiful, expansive vistas. It was very nice. I wouldn't do it again however. Honestly, one waterfall looks the same as the rest of them with a few exceptions. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad we did it (including the last rough part through a lava field), but I'm satisfied and don't feel the need to go through it again. I will add that in my opinion, the road around the north side of the island is much better for a number of reasons (shhh! Don't tell the tourists!)

We did take the entire day to make the drive, starting at 9am and ending around 6pm. We stopped numerous times, took lots of photos and enjoyed the abundant beauty around us. We also enjoyed the black sand and gray sands beaches near Hana. The black sand beach was truly striking, very memorable.

Kudos to David for driving the entire time and handing the narrow, one lane roads like a pro. All of us and our 8 cameras make it back safely.

Somewhere just before Hana, we pulled off to visit a roadside market. They had overpriced tacos, a chicken wandering around, and a (junk) souvenir shop and a small bakery/food shop. The bakery was actually quite nice. We spoke with the owner/baker and discovered her coconut/pineapple cake. Yum! Most retailers sell banana bread. It was refreshing to see a baker attempt something much more appetizing. We bought a slice of cake and enjoyed it later.

Primary Research - Beer

Okay, a lot of travel logistics the last few days have kept this post on the sidelines.  When I started this post, it was a paean to drinking in Canada, called 'There is no hops in hops' - I would like to think I would have worked on that title a bit before posting it.  Here was a little of what I wrote:

I am currently drinking Pelican Tsunami Stout, an Oregon beer (USA!) that gets an A- on BeerAdvocate.com.  To me it tastes more like a porter; it has a great richness and smokiness.  It was recommended by Tyson, our bartender at the Fish House in Stanley Park, Vancouver, who scoffed at me when I told we'd gone to Yale Town Brewing (and rightfully so, the place was shit - I actually was testing him to make sure he didn't tell me that the watered down swill I'd drunk our first night in Vancouver was anything other than a horrible excuse for beer).  Tyson recommended we try Cannery Brewing Company, one of the best craft breweries in BC.  We tried the Maple Stout (a bit like a creme brulee beer) and a Blackberry Porter he swore by, which was meh; it had a bad chemical aftertaste.

Notice the Guinness glass in this promotional shot - the taxes in Canada make creating custom stemware prohibitively expensive

The point I was trying to make was that, like with sales tax and street signage, native British Columbia beer really sucks (I won't say all of Canada, since I love me some Unibroue beers out of Montreal - I think the point of demarcation here may be Winnipeg or maybe Thunder Bay - go west of there and yer hosed).  Most people in Vancouver seemed to know very little about good beers and I suspect that the parody of our neighbors to the north sitting in thermals on their porches drinking copious amounts of cold yellow piss-water with a picture of a moose on it is not too far off from the truth.  Maybe in a few more years this will change.  The beer store we found our second to last day was decent and the owners were knowledgeable.  I would guess that in ten years time Western Canada might have some decent craft breweries.

Now we are in Hawaii and the island Safeways sell a good selection of local island beers.  I have several cans of Maui Brewing company's CoCoNut Porter in the fridge.  I will also make it a point to find some of the imperial coffee stout from Kona Brewing Company while we are here. 

The CoCoNut Porter is a tad bit pricey for a beer I picked up at a supermarket (Mahalo!) but my god it's worth it.  It's a good solid porter that I would recommend even without the wonderful toasted coconut taste that comes in at the end.  It's good on the beach and great with breakfast cereal (jk!... kinda).

In Hawaii they have developed the ability to print company logos on glass; maybe we should sell this technology to Canada

We have about two more weeks to determine if the beer culture in Hawaii is better than the beer culture in Seattle.  I have a suspicion that Seattle bars will win out but the craft breweries in Hawaii may be superior.  Taste tests to follow.

50!

Aloha! Mahalo! and everything in between. I have officially hit all 50 states and was greeted with a rainbow. Woot!

Maui is beautiful and like a foreign land. After a fairly rough 6 hour flight ending with a nauseating bumpy landing, we finally arrived in Maui. We spent our first night at the Royal Lahaina Resort. Today, we checked into our condo rental for the next week. It's a very nice two level condo in a fairly "trashy" area of Kihei. Oh well, Aloha.

So we are settled into the condo and even got some groceries. I haven't been feeling well since landing in Hawaii. My head is pounding with a relentless headache compounded by a bit of a stomach ache and the occasional nausea. Not fun.

Despite the dreckitude headache, David and I drove around the northern portion of Maui. Starting in Lahaina, we took on the "Rugged North Coast." It was stunning and well worth the hours of very narrow, extremely dangerous winding roads - some parts with only one narrow lane. Naturally, what I loved most was the very few visitors venture this way so we saw very few others. Those who were also there surely admired the stunning vistas, heart dropping cliffs, rugged shoreline and the vast ocean below. For a bit more info, check out: http://gohawaii.about.com/od/maui/ss/west_maui_north.htm

The drive was broken up with a short and amazing hike from the road to the magnificent cliffs to "Mushroom Rock." Yes, Mushroom Rock. I guess it looks like a mushroom... maybe if you are on mushrooms. The vertical drops below us were quite vast.



(Olivine Pools at the bottom of the rocky hill)

We also hiked a moderate distance down a fairly steep wall of rocks to venture into the Olivine Pools. (see them in the distance in the photo above) These natural pools are amazing. The lava rock creates and shields the calm pools from the wild ocean. Waves were crashing into the rocks every few seconds sending huge amounts of splash up and around the pools. The water in some of the small pools was cold but one of the larger pools had fairly warm water. The area was absolutely amazing and an incredible experience. There were other people there when we arrived but left shortly after we took a dip in the water. The experience was very exhilarating. Check this out: http://www.hawaiiweb.com/maui/html/sites/olivine_pools.html

We stopped at numerous other lookouts along the drive, each offering stunning vistas and each different than the last. We also found an incredible giftshop on the top of a hill, far from anything else. It was an artist coop with reasonable prices for very nice items. We picked up a few choice items and went on our way.

I'm really hoping to feel 100% soon to take advantage of more hiking and swimming.

To see all of Maui day 2 (and some 1) photos, check out:
http://bit.ly/aJd4xN

Eh, Canada...

Oh, you big lug of a country to the north.... I keep expecting you to live up to my expectations of a hip European-influenced burg, and yet you keep telling me yer really like Bob and Doug McKenzie, ya hosers.

Vancouver is very pretty from a distance and rather mundane up close. I think if you put Wichita on a peninsula with stunning mountains behind it, people would talk favorably of the local scene, and the great food and would expect you to ignore they were talking about Wichita.  The guidebooks would say, 'Make sure to check out the Super Safeway under the bridge with no readily accessible public transportation and poor signage - it's a market!'  And there you would have Vancouver's celebrated Granville "Island" market, with its overpriced stalls of faux gourmet items and seasonal local produce, like Chilean avocados and Hawaiian pineapples.

Of the guidebook recommended neighborhoods to visit, Gastown was both sketchy and touristy, Yaletown was college kids drinking swill and Chinatown was nice, but not anywhere near as vibrant as Chinatowns in NYC or San Francisco.  The southern neighborhoods were not mentioned by our guidebook.  They were clean and probably worth living in if you had to live in Vancouver.

I can easily cherry-pick Vancouver to death to prove my point, but that's no fun.  Beautiful mountains, fun outdoor activities, great seafood, decent Asian fare, friendly people.  Hell, even the hordes of homeless addicts seem relatively nice.  On the way back from the Grouse Grind yesterday we stopped for lunch and our waiter/the restaurant bartender, answered my questions on why Vancouver had so many addicts.  According to him, other Canadian cities ship their homeless to Vancouver because of the temperate climates.  Now, if this is official policy, it does not meet the standard of a quick Google search, but let's just grant that the homeless don't want to freeze to death and Vancouver is not a bad place to beg on the street.  The downtown homeless are mostly young and maybe they think it's a fun life with no responsibilities.

I think we had some faux-bos at the concert last night.  Three smelly kids in front of us seriously partying on Ecstasy, looking like three-toed sloths attempting to dance, while some guys behind us lit up a joint and one old guy occasionally popped up in the crowd dancing like he had palsy and bumping into people.  Once we got past the Joni Mitchell wannabe opening act (who sang one ballad in Polish?), Josh was excellent, providing a very entertaining show.

Anyway, now it's time to pack up and head back to Seattle and then tomorrow we head to Maui.

2830

100 minutes up, 8 minutes down. 2830 steps, 2800 vertical climb and 2.7 miles. Today, we completed the "Grouse Grind," an intense climb to the top of one of Vancouver's neighboring mountains. The hike was tough - no lie, but the view of Vancouver 3500 feet below was worth every step up the stairs, rocks and roots to the top. Due to the intensity of the trail (people actually die trying this trail, but I bet they were running instead of the slow, steady pace we took), you cannot hike down - and thank god, it would be even harder. So we had to take a Swiss style gondola back to the base - pretty much straight down.

This hike and mountain trip, for me, was the highlight of Vancouver - except maybe tonight's Josh Ritter show at the Commodore Ballroom. Josh and his Royal City Band put on a two hour, full throttle show. It was great. However, I learned a lesson, don't hike up the equivalent of two Sears Towers on rocks and then stand for two hours. My feet hurt.

Across the Border

"I'm sorry, Vancouver, I'm just underwhelmed."

I would love to write and say that I am so amazed and overwhelmed with exciting and never-ending activities to do in Vancouver, but I'm not. Despite the perfect weather (58, clear with no wind), Vancouver is just an okay, wanna be American city with good food in a beautiful region. Truly, the region at large is stunning. Mountains in the backdrop, water around and great mild weather. But it seems to me that Vancouver is just missing that special "pow" of great cities.

So we are at the end of day 2 with one day left in BC. We've gone to the majority of the "must see" sites, visited quite a number of neighborhoods and come to envy many of the food selections. Our first meal might rank as the best and certainly one of the most interesting, Japa Dog. Japa Dog is a fun fusion of traditional Japanese ingredients topping variations on hot dogs. Trust me, it works and the flavors just jive. Yes, I said jive.

Most of downtown Vancouver has a modern, western sterility that is tough to overcome. To top it off, Vancouver seems to have a very loose, or non-existent policy on open air drug smoking. I suppose that's fine if you want junkies to consume your downtown, but I just hate being asked for money (for the habit of course) every 200 feet. It really casts a long dark shadow on the city. We've also gotten away from the downtown area a number of times but it has been challenging to find an area with a good energy.

Anyway, most of the must sees were only must sees if there are no great cities left on the planet and it's a choice between these activities taking the ACTs again. Okay, that's a bit harsh, but needless to say, I am underwhelmed.

On the other hand, the food in this city is outstanding. Much of the food is directly influenced by Vancouver's diverse ethnic population. Additionally, the fresh fish and oysters are fabulous. The downside, it all seems overpriced and the taxes here are nuts. We are usually good at finding great tasting and cheap local and/or street food. Not much of that here, unless we are just totally missing it. The food we've had is excellent, just pricey. We did splurge tonight and enjoyed a long dinner at Vij - a high Indian restaurant in South Vancouver.

Tomorrow's plan is a day filled with hiking and the Josh Ritter show. Then back to Seattle.

Onto Vancouver

As we leave Seattle and head up north to our rube-like neighbors who say ‘eh’ too much, phonetically speak French (as opposed to our inability to speak it at all) and who think fresh food means no chemicals (makes me wanna polysorbate 80 them cannucks), here are a few of my many thoughts on Seattle.

It rains too much here, but people seem to have gotten used to it; very few umbrellas, a lot of slickers.  I think coffee culture makes a lot of sense in a town where being indoors is often preferable.

And a lot of those indoor types seem highly driven.  For the few random Halloween yahoos we saw in Capitol Hill on Sunday night while we had a really good dinner (local foods, a wee bit of offal, good libations, excellent preparation and taste, affordable), there were a lot more working on computers in the cafes, bettering themselves, planning out the next Amazon or Microsoft.

We went back to Capitol Hill yesterday and it really made up for the smelly, squalid, tourist trap that is the Pike Street market.  Yawn.  My god, there are probably 50 better produce markets in town than that celebrated dreck.  I bet I can find ten better ones in the International District which favorably reminds me of Little Vietnam on Argyle in Chicago.  We had lunch in Capitol Hill next to Elliot Bay Books in a warehouse-like cafeteria called Oddfellows that served good mussels and chowder and we left paying only 15 bucks for a filling split meal.

Since we got here, we have been to two of the slowest Starbucks in history, including one two days ago on the way to the ferry that almost caused us to miss it (‘ummm, I think this shot has been sitting 22 seconds, I better dump it and start over.  Oh, are you in a hurry’).  Oh, and brother Michael, so far your theory where I should get 5 shots over ice and they’ll offer me the sixth shot for free has not worked.  

 We may give up on Starbucks and try Queequeg’s, the local coffee chain in Vancouver.  (Actually, coffee elsewhere in town also seems slow – I think this might be a local cultural phenomena on par with not speeding, stopping for pedestrians, etc).

Ballard was very cool.  Queen Anne was beautiful with great view of the city and it bored me to tears.  Considering how narrow the streets are here, there should be more one-ways.  Driving around Queen Anne necessitated constant stops to let other motorists pass.  We stopped at Gasworks Park yesterday, which was a park created through adaptive reuse when the city shut down the gas utility up north near Fremont and mowed the lawn, threw on a thin veneer of paint on the machinery and said, ‘open for public use’.  It had beautiful views, but I honestly think the city should have spent the money to remove the works and decontaminate the grounds.  Adaptive reuse at Gasworks seemed a bit of a cop-out here for civic responsibility.

All in all, though, this is a great city, one of the best I’ve been too in the United States.  It’s pretty in the rain and it has such incredible diversity of people and locales and I’m looking forward to spending one more day here on Friday.

Anyway, off to Vancouver and the biggest Chinatown in North America; a nice way to spend American Election day.

Still Raining

Yes, it rained all day in Seattle. Apparently, it was a record amount of rainfall. From my point of view, it rained all day and sometimes rather hard. Oh well, what else can you expect when visiting Seattle in November?

Today we had a full day in Seattle, following our full day in the Olympic Peninsula yesterday. We left Seattle and headed north to catch the ferry across Puget Sound to Kingston. We then drove for nearly two hours to arrive at Olympic National Park. This massive park is outstanding and quite diverse. We enjoyed an easy hike to a waterfall followed by a harder hike. Then, we drove back north and then west to the north coast. The beautiful drive back east to the ferry was rather long but enjoyable. Once back in Seattle, we found a fabulous gastropub in the Capitol Hill area. The fish here is so amazing. And the beer selection is equally impressive.

Monday was all Seattle. We got around many parts of the city including the Central Area (including Pike Market), Capitol Hill, Fremont, Ballard, Queen Anne and Gas Works Park. Each area has its own unique flavor and each was enjoyable. Capitol Hill is hip and is home to Elliott Bay Bookstore and numerous cafes and shops. Fremont is similar but smaller and quaint. Queen Anne is far more residential with stoic but unimposing homes set on a very large hill. Ballard, by far my favorite area, was a pleasant surprise. The area is almost isolated from the rest of the city purely by its location on the NW corner, bordered on two sides by water. Several streets host large commercial corridors that are walkable, historic, unique and very pleasurable.

Our day ended with a local theatre production of the "Living Dead" - David's selection for entertainment. This took us to West Seattle, a fairly boring and uninspiring part of Seattle. The play was entertaining, however.

Tomorrow - off to Canada!