Our summer 2023 family trip to northern Michigan and Minnesota abruptly fell apart due to conflicts with dates and scheduling. It gets harder to get together, especially now with Mark working full-time in Georgia and Matthew in a full time grad school program in California. When I was working on my MBA and working full-time, I was the one that our vacation schedule primarily revolved around, but now being retired, that has changed. Such is life.
Fortunately, timing worked out for a December vacation. Matthew's semester was ending and he was signing up for the Honolulu Marathon, and we were able to plan around that. It was an easy sell for Mark, for whom Hawaii has always been a vacation choice for him and he asks, "Why do we always go on vacations to cold places?!" (Iceland, Alaska, Maine, Nova Scotia, Iceland again, Scottish highlands, etc.)
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| So Hawaii it is! Not the cheapest vacation destination, but prices were a little less in the off-season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. |
Fri Dec 8:
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| Friday would be a LONG travel day. Left our house at 7am, reluctantly bade au revoir to Brady, knowing he would be in good hands with my Mom, went to TF Green Airport and crisscrossed the nation, arriving at our hotel in Waikiki at 1am Saturday local time (6am EST). These flights were no where near as long as when I frequently traveled to eastern Asia for business, but my memory is short. On the positive side, the outbound flights for Jana and me were free (points). |
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| Tried to make the most of each leg of the trip. Starting at TF Green, where the airport is very convenient and the bathrooms are among the cleanest I've even seen in the many airports I've been in domestically and overseas. |
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| Lunch at CLT |
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| After a nice sushi lunch in Charlotte, I was glad to have plenty of leg room in an aisle row on the next segment to Seattle. |
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| Watched the movie "Race" about Jesse Owen's successes, bigotry in America, and the '36 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Great film. --- I didn't get why Owens was using a trowel to dig holes in the track at the starting line until I read later that in 1936 all tracks were made out of cinders and there were no starting blocks. --- Source attribution: By http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/635727-poster-for-jesse-owens-biopic-race-debuts#/slide/1, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48645609 |
Flew Alaska Airlines on the final segment to Honolulu, and I alternated cat-napping and just being restless. By the time we landed Honolulu, I was pretty grumpy and just wanted to get an Uber to the hotel and lay down and sleep.
Saturday Dec 9:
Surprised myself and actually got about six hours of decent sleep. Got up and planned out my run. I really wanted to run around Diamond Head and get a feel for the only hill we'd be running on tomorrow's marathon course, but that would amount to six miles and I didn't want to run more than four.
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| Instead, I ran down to the finish line at Kapiʻolani Park. The park roads were closed for the finish line setup, and there were so many runners out there practicing. It was a warm 72°F, but my run was short and slow, so I managed. I'm worried about tomorrow. |
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| Nice water views! |
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| Beach right at the park. Maybe I should jump in the ocean there post race tomorrow? |
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| Running on a pier near the beach, I almost stepped on a few of these guys. |
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| Had breakfast several mornings at Café Waikiki across the street from our hotel. Lox and bagels, açaí bowls, and iced lattes were great! |
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| Sunset at Waikiki Beach. Mark arrived this evening, and wanted to check out the beach. |
Honolulu Marathon day. See full race write-up here.
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| Not my best marathon performance by any means, but glad I did it and glad it's done! |
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| My dinner tonight at a Japanese restaurant. Look at how much wasabi they gave me! Didn't care for the dinner overall. |
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| Festive Christmas lighting in Waikiki. Still doesn't compare to Christmas displays in a colder climate, like New England, but at least the lights and decorations were well done, unlike the very tacky Christmas displays I've seen in Florida with blow-up palm trees, etc. |
Monday Dec 11:
We had loosely planned on activities as a family yesterday, but the marathon just wiped me out, more than usual and certainly much more than anticipated. I believe that had to do with the effects from the heat and humidity.
As today would be our last day in Oahu, this was our only chance to get out and sightsee and hike before leaving the island. First up was a visit to Pearl Harbor, long on my bucket list. At the cost of $1 per person, I secured tickets months in advance for the four of us to visit the USS Arizona.
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| From the ferry that takes you out to the USS Arizona. The Arizona lies underneath this white domed structure for visitors to walk through. You can see rusted parts of the ship, which itself is a memorial with hundred of entombed soldiers from that fateful day that will live in infamy: December 7, 1941 |
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| Names of all the military entombed here. The vast majority died that day; however, this also includes some survivors from that day that were subsequently entombed by their choice at the end of their natural lives. |
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| Koko Head: remains of railway tracks and trestles built by the US Military in the 1940s and used to transport troops and equipment to the top, where radar sites were active back then. |
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| Nice views over the Pacific Ocean from the top. |
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| Flew from Honolulu (island of Oahu) to Kona (island of Hawaii) |
Tuesday Dec 12:
New island for me. Another action packed day, starting off with a 93 mile drive from our condo to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the opposite side of the island from where we were staying.
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| Stopped at Hawaiian Coffee to fuel on way to the park. Nice little coffee shop! |
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| Despite them being out of both coconut milk and pickled carrots, we opted to stay and get food there anyway. |
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| Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: today's hike was on the Kīlauea Iki and Crater Rim trails, a roughly 4-mile loop in total. |
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| Kīlauea Iki erupted for 36 days in 1959 (above). Much of what we would be hiking on today was over lava rocks and a solidified lava lake from that time. (National Park Service photo - I wasn't born in 1959!) |
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| First we entered the Thurston Lava Tube |
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| This is a 500-year-old lava cave located at an altitude of 3,900 feet on Kīlauea Crater in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Named for its discoverer, Lorrin Thurston, in 1913. |
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| Here Matthew and I are on the floor of the lava lake, December 2023. |
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| Here is that same lava lake floor, 64 years earlier, in December 1959. (National Park Service photo) |
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| At the opposite end of Kīlauea Crater |
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| Matthew peering into a fissure from where lava once exploded upwards |
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| Interesting flora on the lava lake floor |
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| Jana climbing out of the crater, as the trail climbs over lava rocks here. Surreal. |
After Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, it was off to lunch and a drive back to Kona, where we dropped Mark off for his two scuba dives, one in the afternoon, and one nighttime manta ray dive, where he got bitten on the head by a seal! Matthew and I went on a nighttime manta ray snorkeling tour, where we went out on a boat for about 30 minutes and then got in the water, where we saw at least five dozen manta rays. The rules were we couldn't touch the manta rays, but one did come up and touch me!
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| Manta ray that Mark filmed on his dive. The ones we saw were up to 16' in total span! Gentle giants. |
Wednesday Dec 13:
Got up early. Well, early for a vacation, at about 6am. There isn't much open at that hour on the big island, but we found a neat coffee shop (yes, that's a recurring theme; I could have worse "addictions"). It was close to our condo where Matthew and I fueled up before our big hike.
We drove for about 1.5 hours, from our condo at sea level, to the Mauna Kea Visitor Center, at 9,200' elevation. We followed the recommended advice of waiting there for 1/2 hour before starting our climb. We had to fill out a form before departing and speak with a ranger about our hike preparedness (e.g., did we carry enough water and food, prepared for altitude change, cold weather, etc), and after he was satisfied and gave us an overview of what to expect on the hike as well as recommending that we not go to the sacred summit (more on that later), we were on our way at about 8:45am.
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| Starting off from the Visitors Center 2 other hikers starting their hike |
Equipment and supplies: In my backpack, I carried a huge bag of trail mix, a Clif bar, two granola bars, three 16 oz Body Armor sports drinks with electrolytes, and a liter of ice water. I wore shorts, a long-sleeve tech shirt, Solomon trail shoes, and a tech hat, but in my backpack I also carried a pair of running pants, a 66°North tech quarter-zip from Iceland, a thick hat, and gloves.
It was 46℉ at the start of our hike, and the temperature would drop into the 30s as we ascended. After a very short distance on the auto road, the Humu'ula Trail branches to the left, and continues upward for about 5 miles before rejoining the auto road. The entire hike was exposed, and being a sunny day, I was glad (thanks to Jana really) that I had put sunscreen on my neck and face. I did fine on the first mile, but by the second mile, I needed the first of several 5-minute breaks to get some food and take a break from feeling a little light-headed.
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| Start of the trail, turning off the road |
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| Looking back down at the visitors center, with neat cloud formations beyond |
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| This is about 1 mile in. There is still vegetation here, including grasses and scrub bushes |
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| Just over 2 miles in. Are we on Mars now? Elevation just over 11,000'. No more vegetation, and a dusty barren landscape. The summit is still not in sight. But on a positive note, the elevation levels out a bit here and the steepest mile (Mile 2, 1,100' gain) is now behind us. |
We will see less than 10 hikers total all day. We pass one woman hiking alone (can't recommend that), but all the rest of the groups are comprised of two or three. About three miles in, we come upon a couple who is taking a break. I'm asked a seemingly odd question of how I like the laces (lock-lace style) on my Solomon trail shoes. (I respond in truth that I hate them, as I they don't lock down tight enough the way traditional laces do.)
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| At about 5 miles in, we can see the lower observatories near the summit of Mauna Kea. It looks close, but it will take us nearly an hour to get to the actual summit. |
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| Near the summit, we reconnect with the road, but still have a mile to go. There are very, very few vehicles here. |
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| At 13,796'. There are signs discouraging people from going to the actual summit (13,803') as can be seen over my right shoulder above. The controversy is that some native Hawaiians believe the actual summit to be sacred. We did hike to the summit, but we adhered to requests for treating the summit with respect, including not taking photos of the ceremonial site or lingering at the summit. |
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| Snowfields just below the summit. SNOW!!! Slippery, but very exciting! I haven't seen snow in RI this season, but I did in Hawaii! |
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| And now the long, long, hike down. We opted to take the road down, as we were tired and thought it'd be easier and quicker. But it was a long 8 miles back to the Visitors Center. |
Thursday Dec 14:
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| After 3 nights on the island of Oahu and then 3 nights on the island of Hawaii (a/k/a "The Big Island"), we flew to Kahului on our final island visit: Maui |
We would only be staying one night in Maui, largely due to the prices. Hotel rooms seemed to start around $650/night, and we got one of the cheaper condos on Airbnb at about $400/night. That's pretty much double what we paid on the Big Island. Not sure if that's normal or temporary due to any reduced lodging capacity after the Lahaina fires.
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| This is "inside" the Kona airport, after passing through security! |
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| Walking to board our airplane. There are no jetways at the Kona airport! |
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| First stop after landing in Maui and getting rental car was a coffee shop for breakfast. I promise I did not flush any kittens down the toilet. Hopefully no hopes and dreams either. |
After breakfast, it was time to drive to our prime destination on Maui: Haleakalā National Park. Despite being only a 50 mile drive, it took us about 2 hours to drive there. You'll get a sense why in some of the photos below:
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| This is the main "highway" |
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| Picturesque, but in my mind I'm worried about what happens if a car comes around the corner |
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| And then the inevitable happens! Now what? (I was driving, Jana taking the pics) In this case, the car in pic backed up quite a ways until he found a turnout place to pull over and let me pass. |
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| Along the way, we saw the after-effects of several horrific accidents, just left on the side of the road. |
Along the way some of the water views were just stunning, including this one where we pulled over:
Out final intermediary stop was at the grave of Charles Lindbergh. Yes, the famed aviator of Spirit of St Louis who became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927.
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| At his request, in 1974, Lindbergh was buried on the beautiful grounds of this small and simple church in a very remote area not that easy to get to (Palapala Ho'omau Church, built in 1864) |
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| Lindbergh's self-selected final resting place, a simple grave among lava rocks under a plum tree |
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| I'm personally not much of a cat fan, but as we pulled up, this friendly cat came out of the church and purred |
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| And about 1pm, we finally made it to our destination! |
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| Coconut tree! |
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| Gorgeous ocean views near the start of our 5-mile hike |
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| Just another amazing view along our hike! |
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| Check out this tree! |
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| You can take the boys out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the boys. |
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| Pretty cool hiking through a huge bamboo forest! |
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| Our final attraction on today's hike: Waimoku Falls, cascading 400' down |
Another adventure packed day on our final full day in Hawaii. After our two hour drive back and dinner, I was pretty wiped out.
Friday Dec 15:
Got out early for a final Hawaiian run, a 6-miler in Kīhei:
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| Certainly a picturesque run! |
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| Interesting Christmas display. They even have cotton-like fake snow in front of the palms! |
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| Breakfast at Kīhei Caffe. Might as well try something Hawaiian: pancakes with coconut and pineapple, and an iced ube latte. (latte made from espresso, ube (purple yam) extract, almond milk) |
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| And our final stop before heading to the airport: Maluaka Beach This is one of the few times we went to the beach, and also despite each accommodation have a swimming pool, I don't think any of us ever made it to one. What? --- As Chris Garvin once said (and I'm paraphrasing), it looks like Walker vacations are not for relaxing. No, they're not! I can nap on the couch back home. They're for packing in as much adventure as you can. |
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| Maluaka Beach |
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| Arriving at Kahului Airport |
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| Goodbye, Hawaii. 6 hour flight to LAX. |
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| On the flight from Hawaii, I finally got to watch this WWI movie about two British soldiers on the front lines in France. Very good movie! --- Attribution: By Universal Studios, DreamWorks Pictures, and/or the graphic artist(s) - http://www.impawards.com/2019/nineteen_seventeen_ver3.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63969796 |
The four of us flew to Los Angeles, where Mark changed planes to fly back to Atlanta, and the three of stayed overnight at a hotel just outside the airport.
Spent one day in southern California before taking an overnight flight back home.
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| Neat flowers at our hotel |
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| Took us about two hours to go two miles, between the hotel shuttle to LAX and on rental car shuttle, all jammed with people and luggage. |
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| Rented a car and drove north to Camarillo (Uber is $85 each way; rental car $35 for the day); I have to credit Matthew with this research. --- This is outside Matthew's apartment; he and I went for a run while Jana cleaned his apartment. I would say she got the short end of the stick, except that it was hot, almost 80°F on the run |
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| Clearly the highlight of the day was visiting Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles), including a 2-mile nighttime hike up the trails to the observatory |
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| Nighttime views of LA |
And then it was dropping off the rental car, and another long shuttle back to LAX. Once we entered the airport grounds, the driver gave us two options: 1) depart here and walk about 8 minutes to get to our terminal, or 2) stay on the shuttle 40 minutes more with him for be driven there. I'm glad he gave us that option; we had been on the shuttle long enough.
Sunday Dec 17:
We arrived with plenty of time to spare for our 12:53am JetBlue redeye flight to Logan. Only to learn that the flight was delayed about one hour to 1:47am. And then that became 2:26am, which came and gone as we sat in the otherwise empty airport terminal except for passengers and the cleaning crew vacuuming and steam cleaning carpets. Each time the flight was delayed, I had to reschedule our Amtrak tickets, each time costing me more money.
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| Final leg delayed until the middle of the night. Exhausted. |
Finally about 3am we left LAX. 3am! Traveled through the night, arrived Logan, took the train down to Kingston, where my Mom picked us up and we reunited with Brady, and finally got home close to 4pm. Exhausted.
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| Matthew asleep in the short car ride home. Not sure what was Brady's excuse. --- I would go on to sleep 13 hours straight that night! |
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Hawaii trip pros:
- Scenery: Some pretty amazing natural views.
- Diversity of landscape: From tropical beaches, to bamboo forests and waterfalls, to barren Mars-like landscapes, to lava fields, to snowy mountain summits, Hawaii has quite the natural diversity.
- Lots to do: From hiking mountains and rainforests, to visiting beautiful beaches and national parks, to snorkeling amongst manta rays, many adventures await in the Aloha State.
- Safety and cleanliness: Hawaii is in the top 10 states for safety (as are New England states), and has among the lowest gun ownership and lowest rates of violent crime in the US.
- Laid back: Especially on the islands of Hawaii ("big island") and Maui, we never saw traffic, businesses opened later, and people just seemed more relaxed and easy going.
- Coffee shops: Not that I would go to Hawaii specifically for coffee shops, of course, but we went to a number of them and they were all really good.
Hawaii trip cons:
- It's expensive!
- It's a long flight (or series of flights) away.
- Oahu (or at least Honolulu, especially Waikiki) is just too commercialized for me.
- It's hot. We had a number of people, mostly our Uber drivers, tell of stories how they moved here from the mainland US because they couldn't stand the snow, the cold, etc. I'm probably in the minority, but I like a change of seasons and generally cooler climates.
- There's a lot of cement here, which doesn't make it the greatest for running. Unfortunately, that was true on all three islands we visited.
Trip highlight: Hiking Mauna Kea. Snow at the top was a bonus!
Trip lowlight: The insane traffic and shuttle and flight delays at LAX. (Of course, not really Hawaii related.)
And that's a wrap. This was truly a great trip and fun family vacation, with many challenging and rewarding adventures.
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