Hawaii

Cindy and I just returned from a nearly two week trip to Hawaii - the first time both of us had been to the Hawaiian Islands.  I had saved up years and years of American Airlines and Hilton Honors points that I'd accrued from being on the road for my work.  I have to thank my boss, Daniel, who allowed me to keep my points rather than turn them into the company as I've heard other companies will do with their employee's frequent flyer or frequent stay accounts.  But he feels it's a great perk for his guys who put in a lot of time on the road. 

Last summer, I got a letter from American Airlines that stated I'd lose over half my points if I didn't use them by October of 2010.  Cindy and I had always talked about going to Hawaii using my points, but we just didn't know when.  American Airlines forced my hand to make a decision for us to go sooner than later. 

We couldn't go last year as I'd used up my vacation time due to my hip replacements and our trip to Savannah and Hilton Head last May.  And the earliest I could get away from work for a vacation was going to be in late February.  Before we were able to book the trip, Cindy had to see if she could get a couple weeks off during late February and early March.  Her workplace was able to accommodate her request and I booked our flights and nights in Hawaii last fall. 

Travel to and from the islands was going to be brutal thanks to the schedules American provided us for free flights.  We had to leave the Quad City International Airport at 6:30 a.m. and we had to go through Dallas/Fort Worth to Los Angeles International then out to Kona's Keahole International Airport on the Big Island.  We had significant layovers in DFW and at LAX - a minimum of 3.5 hours at both airports - on the way out.  DFW is not a bad place for a layover, but the American Airlines terminal at LAX is a step above a Greyhound bus station. 

We got into Kona at 9:20 p.m., Hawaiian Standard Time - 1:20 a.m. Central Standard Time.  By the time we got our rental car and had to take a detour to our hotel - it was 52 miles of mainly mountainous roads instead of the flat, direct 17 miles for the detour due to a traffic accident that had closed the main road to our hotel -   it was 11:30 p.m.  By the time we got to our room thanks to a slow tram at our hotel, it was midnight.  That was 4 a.m. back home - or the same time we got up to start our journey to Hawaii the day before. 

Coming back was even more brutal.  We had taken Hawaiian Airlines up to Maui - a great airline, by the way.  I wish more airlines on the mainland worked with the same efficiency, accessibility and friendliness - as well as having great planes with a lot of room - as Hawaiian Airlines.  Coming back, we had to fly from Maui to Honolulu - endure a 35 minute layover - and then fly on to Kona.  We had to get our bags from Hawaiian and then truck them over to the American Airlines counter.  We had a little over a two hour layover at Kona before taking off after 11 p.m. local time (3 a.m. back home).  We got into LAX around 6 a.m. local time there and had a 7:05 a.m. flight to Chicago.  Our layover in Chicago was only supposed to be 90 minutes, but the pilot who was supposed to fly our plane to Moline called in sick.  So, we had to wait for 30 minutes PAST our scheduled departure time before a pilot showed up and flew us home.  From the time we left Maui to the time we unlocked our door, it was a shade over 18 hours.

We had gotten up at 6:30 local time the day (Saturday) we left (10:30 a.m. back home).  When we got to bed on Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m Hawaiian time).  My math isn't too good, but I figure I was up for 35 hours because I just don't sleep on planes.  And American Airlines planes are not comfortable whether they be for a short or a long haul.   After this trip, I won't be flying American all that much any longer.  I'm starting to accrue points on United now, primarily because they have more direct and convenient flights out of the Quad Cities than what American has.  And they've sort of turned into the lesser of all evils when it comes to air travel for me. 

In addition to the free flights and free rooms, we used some savings we'd built up and had a pretty good tax return this year.  It was the only way we were able to pull off the trip to Hawaii.  And it was probably the only way we could have done it, so we looked at this as a once in a lifetime trip.  If you've never been to Hawaii, here's a tip - make sure you have a shitload of cash or a lot of room on your credit card.  The place ain't cheap.   The cheapest price we found on a gallon of milk was $8.49.  The cheapest gas was $3.77 a gallon.  Beer was a minimum $8.99 a six pack - and that was for domestic American beers.  Cindy remarked more than once that she thought it was completely wrong that a gallon of milk was more expensive than a pack of cigarettes.  We're not smokers, but even we knew that $6.99 for a pack of cigarettes was pretty high. 

We went at a pretty good time.  We've had a brutal winter in Middle America.  I figured that if we went at the end of February, we'd be sick of winter (we were), and that the weather would moderate by the time we got back.  I wasn't too far off.  It was 18 degrees when we left and we had six to eight inches of snow on the ground.  When we got back, the majority of the snow had melted - save for the drift piles, snow in shaded areas and along fence rows - and the temps had been in the 30's and 40's while we were gone.  Temps later this week are supposed to reach close to or into the 50's.  So, the timing for weather was good. 

It was sunny to partly sunny nearly every day we were in Hawaii.  Temperatures ranged from the upper 70's to lower 80's, but they would drop into the low 60's if you went up in elevation.  The only rain we ran into was on the windward side of the islands on a couple of occasions.   We took the precaution to tan at a tanning salon for a couple weeks before we left, but we still needed sunscreen while in Hawaii because the sun is pretty much right overhead year round.  We burned a couple times, but aloe vera and skin lotion took the burn and the sting away pretty much overnight.  She's pretty fair-skinned, so it's actually the darkest Cindy has been since, well, probably since we've been together. 

About the only problem with the weather had to do with the wind.  A strong high pressure system sat north and east of the islands for a full week pushing some heavy winds on shore.  I thought high pressure systems were supposed to mean good and tranquil weather, but they must mean something else around Hawaii.  Although the temperatures stayed warm, the wind for the last full week we were in Hawaii blew from 15 to 25 miles an hour sustained primarily out of the northeast with gusts of as much as 50 miles an hour at times, especially overnight.  We were told that Hawaii is usually a breezy place, but even the natives were amazed at the prolonged strength of the wind. 

Also, in regard to timing, late February and early March is the prime time for Humpback Whale watching off the west coasts of the big island of Hawaii and Maui - the two islands we were going to visit.  We were able to see the whales from our hotel rooms and we took a two-hour excursion while we were on Maui to see the humpback whales up close. 

While on both Hawaii and Maui, we were able to take in a lot of the local culture and restaurants.  Everything from the seafood to fruit was so fresh that it we had some of the most memorable meals ever.  Cattle ranching is big on Hawaii and Maui, so the grass-fed beef was pretty good, too.  Breakfasts are big in Hawaii and we visited a number of spots that served some great morning food. 

We had rental cars on both islands - a Mustang convertible that had a 4-cylinder engine that was a real dog; and a Toyota Camry that Cindy was scared to ride in until I convinced her that Hertz was too big of a company to allow a car that hadn't been fully checked over for defects to leave their lots.  We drove over 660 miles on the Big Island and 399.9 miles on Maui (I checked the odometer when I turned in the car).  My idea of a vacation is to lounge around the pool or a beach reading a book.  But Cindy had read about all these great and beautiful drives on Hawaii and Maui that we had to check out.  The last thing a guy like me who drives for a living wants to do is drive during our vacations.  Sometimes the drives were out of necessity since our hotels were sort of out of the way, but more often than not it was for pleasure and exploring.  And we do like to explore while we're on vacation.

Hawaii, as a whole, is not without its problems.  Tourism is down significantly.  Tourism figures from 2009 vs. 2008 showed that people visiting the island was down 5% and those people who came spent 10% less money than the year before.  Believe me, we helped make up a good portion of that spending deficit. 

Hawaii is mired in an El Nino-induced drought.  We expected to see a lot of lush tropical plants and flowers along side fast running mountain-fed streams and waterfalls that filled huge pools of clear, cool water to jump into.  They just weren't there.  One resident on Maui told us that it's been the worst drought conditions in 30 years.  High fire danger signs were prevalent throughout both islands - even on the windward sides which usually have high rain totals.  On the leeward sides of the islands - the western sides of Hawaii and Maui - if it wasn't watered by an irrigation or sprinkling system, it was brown.  There were even leaves on some hardwood trees that were turning color like it was fall. 

Drug problems are heightened on the islands, as well.  We were told there is a large methamphetamine problem on the islands.  There were a lot of public service announcements on local radio and televisions stations which had teenaged kids talking about being hooked on meth at an early age and warning against starting at any age. 

And the days of "Maui Wowie" marijuana are over as the local and federal governments have enacted an aggressive campaign in finding and destroying marijuana fields on the island.  In fact, the state of Hawaii has a "zero tolerance" policy against people who grow marijuana on their property.  We heard of a tough story of a young mother who owned land on the north side of Maui who was arrested for having pot plants on her property.  She claims she didn't know they were there.  They were found by authorities in a heavily overgrown area on the edge of her property, completely inaccessible from her house.  However, there was a foot path on the back side of the property up from a dirt road that went to the marijuana patch, probably made by the people who planted the pot on the property.  She has three young kids, no history of trouble, no drug paraphernalia or even a hint of a holding area for the pot on her property.  However, we were told the state was trying to take away her property because the marijuana was growing on her land.  Evidently, a high-profile attorney has taken her case on a pro-bono basis. 

We fell in love with contemporary Hawaiian music, I fell in love with a new beer I found - Kona Brewing Company's Big Wave Golden Ale, and Cindy fell in love with the Hawaiian Springs brand of bottled water.  A lot of people will say water is water, but I have to admit that for some reason the Hawaiian Springs water had to be the best tasting bottled water I've ever had.  And we were introduced to Kalua pork - basically a pork shoulder that is wrapped in indigenous leaves and cooked at a slow pace over lava rock underneath the surface.  It was damn tasty.   

So, look for our reports of restaurants, scenic drives, destinations and other (what I think are) interesting details on our trip to Hawaii.  I'll be sure to fill you in on the circumstances of being evacuated from our hotel for a possible tsunami that was to possibly occur after the recent devastating earthquake in Chile.  That was sort of exciting and rather stupid at the same time.  We ate some great food, saw some great sights and enjoyed the hell out of Hawaii. 

Two things we DIDN'T do while we were in Hawaii -

1) We didn't go to a luau.  This was a bone of contention before Cindy and I left for Hawaii.  I had read about and heard about luau's from people who attended them in the past.  The overwhelming consensus was that luau's are sort of fun, but the food sucks.  And they're high-priced.  After mildly arguing with Cindy that I really didn't want to do a luau based on the reports I'd gathered, she finally called my two oldest sisters who have both been to Hawaii and been to luau's.  One sister said, "Oh, God, Will would hate it!"  The other sister said, "It's like going to the state fair and sitting at long tables with a bunch of people you don't know."  Cindy finally capitulated and we're glad we didn't go.

2) We didn't go visit the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island.   We were less than 30 miles away one day during a day trip, but it was getting later on and we didn't really have the proper footwear to go walk over the black lava.  When we got to talking to some people later on about going to see Mauna Loa, we were told that the lava flow was minimal and you could only really see it at night and that was only after a long hike.  Besides, most of the island of Hawaii is landscaped with black lava rock - especially around the resort we stayed at.  We were told that basically what we were looking at on and around the resort would be the same thing we'd have to drive about 90 miles to see - only with some pockets of sulfur-smelling "vog" emanating from fissures in the rocks. 

We liked Hawaii so much that we immediately said we'd like to go back at some point.  But unless we hit the lottery, or I find a job that pays a minimum of $250,000 a year, we won't be able to stay at the places we stayed at, nor eat at many of the places we did on this trip.  I like to tell people that everyone should be sentenced to visit Las Vegas for at least three days once in their life.  However, I will add that everyone who has the chance and the means to do it - go to Hawaii for at least a week.  It was just nani (Hawaiian for "beautiful").