So... ok... i need to live up to that title, don't I? Well I didn't write friday night like I had hoped to, but hopefully this will more than make up for it.
The End
LOL, NO, i'm totally kidding! I've been having a blast here in Maui. Yesterday (friday) I started my day with a 2 hour drive up Haleakala. at 10,000 feet the summit is quite chilly but extremely sunny. It's above the cloudline so you can see and ocean of clouds extending seemingly forever. The crater is HUGE!!! I've come to learn that it is the combined crater of 3 seperate volcanoes that thousands of years ago were actually 3 seperate islands. As they got bigger, they grew together into what we now know as Maui. I took lots of pictures..all of which you can find in my Maui album on facebook. Just a reminder... that's http://www.facebook.com/stephen.farquhar
But now on to the juicyness of my Saturday. I woke up hella early this morning because I needed to be in Lahaina by 8:30 to check in for my zipline tour. Those of you who know me well enough know that zip-lining....NOT something that I would ever do. It's so far out of my comfort zone, that if my comfort zone were to explode, the zipline wouldn't hear the sound for another three days. But alas... I decided that i needed to do something risky and fun for once. So it was that I walked into that store front with a slight amount of fear shaking in my bones.. Only one other person there hadn't done it before. She seemed more scared than me. This made me feel a bit better. I signed my release and waiver form, got weighed in (for safety reasons you have to fall within the range of 80 to 260lbs) and got in the van to be driven to the lines. Now mind you, I had to shed all the stuff that I didn't want to lose...ie. car keys, wallet, cell phone, etc. so with nothing but a camera and my empty pockets, we drove up half way. At the half way point, we got our water bottles, harnesses and helmets and got into another van. Another 10 minute off road (in an econoline van...bumpy) and we were at the first zipline. Me being nervous as hell opted to watch a couple people go before I went. Right hand caribeaner..left hand strap... hold on for dear life and GO! Half way down and I was already a changed man. I knew I was going to want more when it was over. The next 3 lines were similar, getting progressively longer... 500ft on the last one i think. On these we kept our normal hand positions and didn't do anything out of the ordinary. After the 4th line we took a half hour break for lunch. Rotisserie chicken sandwiches and brownies. yummy. The lunch break took place on a scenic lookout approximately 1000ft up on the edge of a cliff. The valley was spectacular. look for my panoramic photo on facebook. After dinner we had a short hike to the next line. This time we were allowed to get a running start and/or only hold on to the carribeaner and hold a camera with our free hand.... i didn't do this until the 6th crossing though. The video of that is ALSO on facebook. Then crossings 7 and 8. The last one was 1200 ft long and was by far the most fun. There was a 5 minute wait for the van to come get us and were on our way back to the office. When we arrived we were greeted with juice and homebaked goodies. And a coupon that gave us 25% off the Haleakala zipline if we booked within the next 30 days.... guess what I went back to my hotel room and did? lol. That's right, I booked a SECOND zipline tour on the cliffs of Haleakala. I made sure to request my tourguide, Luke from today. He was awesome and I'm excited to zip with him agian.
All in all, I'm EXTREMELY satisfied with this vacation. I can't wait for my tour tomorrow. It's a bit longer of a drive but well worth it in my opinion. It's only 5 lines but Luke says the last one is more exciting than the final one in Ka'anapali, so I'm excited.
I will TRY to post about it after I return to the hotel tomorrow. :-)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Rocky start, but all is well
Ok, so the vacation started off a little rocky... but I'm in a much better mood about it, and much better place now. :-) no, i'm not in heaven...though pretty damn close. Let's start from the beginning...
Arrive at airport at 6:15...a little early, but scott had to be at work a bit early for something that he absolutely could not be late for, so I didn't mind getting there early. At first look... the terminal had a coffee cart and a bathroom.. there was a lounge, but it was closed.
I spent the next 3 hours eagerly anticipating what sort of aircraft (or paper airplane) i might be traveling in. The many that I saw got progressively smaller and smaller. The Cessna made me a little nervous, and slightly over 20 seats. But to my surprise, it wasn't my plane...in fact my plane hadn't even arrived at the destination that it was departing from to come get us in HNL. The flight got delayed 3 different times, so my 3 hour wait turned into a 6 hour wait. luckily the bar opened just in time for the airport fire alarms to start going off. Buzzz Buzzz Buzzz constantly. i headed straight to the bar in hopes that a nice stiff drink might help to drown out the constant buzzing. As I finished the drink I started to feel a little bit better... then the sirens started going off too. Time for a pint of beer. Just as i'm finishing the last drops of beer, i heard the boarding announcement. YAY ME!! I got on the plane (in a window seat because I insisted on a good view the whole way. The beer caught up with me just in time for take off.... oh boy did I have to pee. Never mind the fact that I went immediately prior to boarding the plane (seriously within 5 minutes) By the end of the 20 minute flight I was hurting. lol. Pee break at the airport, baggage claim and then on to the car rental place....line of about 50 people. 90 minutes of standing in line later, and I have my car. I drive 10 minutes to my hotel to go check in... the time was 235... check in is technically 3:00. My room hadn't been cleaned yet. so I sit in the car for 25 minutes and go ask again.. I had to wait for another 15 minutes while they had somebody specifically clean my room. So at last, I went to my room, dropped off my bags and went in search of something to eat...because up to this point all I've had is 3 cups of coffe, a jack and coke and a beer.
Enchiladas in hand, i woof them down at the local mall and head to walmart for some vodka and soda. Smirnoff Raspberry is yummy. Later, I grabbed a pizza from the Hut. and I've been in my room relaxing ever since.
One look at the view (posted on facebook) and I fell in love with the place. nevermind the rocky start to it all, I'm on vacation now and I'm happy.
Tomorrow I go check out the the Haleakala Crater up at the summit. I'm quite excited. I'll put more pics on facebook. :-)
Good night everyone, i'll update again tomorrow night.
Arrive at airport at 6:15...a little early, but scott had to be at work a bit early for something that he absolutely could not be late for, so I didn't mind getting there early. At first look... the terminal had a coffee cart and a bathroom.. there was a lounge, but it was closed.
I spent the next 3 hours eagerly anticipating what sort of aircraft (or paper airplane) i might be traveling in. The many that I saw got progressively smaller and smaller. The Cessna made me a little nervous, and slightly over 20 seats. But to my surprise, it wasn't my plane...in fact my plane hadn't even arrived at the destination that it was departing from to come get us in HNL. The flight got delayed 3 different times, so my 3 hour wait turned into a 6 hour wait. luckily the bar opened just in time for the airport fire alarms to start going off. Buzzz Buzzz Buzzz constantly. i headed straight to the bar in hopes that a nice stiff drink might help to drown out the constant buzzing. As I finished the drink I started to feel a little bit better... then the sirens started going off too. Time for a pint of beer. Just as i'm finishing the last drops of beer, i heard the boarding announcement. YAY ME!! I got on the plane (in a window seat because I insisted on a good view the whole way. The beer caught up with me just in time for take off.... oh boy did I have to pee. Never mind the fact that I went immediately prior to boarding the plane (seriously within 5 minutes) By the end of the 20 minute flight I was hurting. lol. Pee break at the airport, baggage claim and then on to the car rental place....line of about 50 people. 90 minutes of standing in line later, and I have my car. I drive 10 minutes to my hotel to go check in... the time was 235... check in is technically 3:00. My room hadn't been cleaned yet. so I sit in the car for 25 minutes and go ask again.. I had to wait for another 15 minutes while they had somebody specifically clean my room. So at last, I went to my room, dropped off my bags and went in search of something to eat...because up to this point all I've had is 3 cups of coffe, a jack and coke and a beer.
Enchiladas in hand, i woof them down at the local mall and head to walmart for some vodka and soda. Smirnoff Raspberry is yummy. Later, I grabbed a pizza from the Hut. and I've been in my room relaxing ever since.
One look at the view (posted on facebook) and I fell in love with the place. nevermind the rocky start to it all, I'm on vacation now and I'm happy.
Tomorrow I go check out the the Haleakala Crater up at the summit. I'm quite excited. I'll put more pics on facebook. :-)
Good night everyone, i'll update again tomorrow night.
The Vacation Begins
So here I am. Eagerly anticipating the arrival of the still, mystery aircraft that I'll be travelling on. The least 3 planes I saw got progressively smaller... first a 50 seat...then 40, then 20. I'm getting scared. I don't want to fly to maui on a paper airplane. It's currently 8:15, so I still have about an hour or so before the plane starts boarding. The flight check-in was interesting. I'm so accustomed to being asked the normal barrage of questions regarding my baggage..then they take my checked baggage and I proceed to the security screening checkpoint. This time however was a bit different. First, they never asked me a single question except: "can you sign here please" (regarding my credit card transaction for my checked bag". THEN she said: "ok, now take this bag with you to security and they'll take it from there. Another first. I've never had to carry my own checked bag before. There were two lines... the first one, you just hand your bag over and then you head to the other line and go through normal procedures. The best part was that these were the most courteous TSA employees i've ever met. They smile, they say please and thank you. When I passed through the metal detector, the guy said "thank you so much, have a wonderful trip"... MIND BLOWN! Aside from the absence of any sort of food or beverage in this tiny little terminal, my airport experience here has by far been the best I've ever had.
I'm so excited to finally get to Maui. My rental car is reserved (a chevy aveo, or similar vehicle) and my Hotel is confirmed. 4 nights at the Maui Seaside Hotel in Kahului. On my agenda for this trip is a fantastic 8-line ZipLine tour in Lahaina and I'll be spending a couple of days exploring the Haleakala Crater and surrounding areas. Eventually I hope to make a complete exploration all the way around the island. There's just so much to see and not enough time to see and do it all. I'm possibly going to go check out the Sugar Cane Train, a steam engine train that has a 6 mile route. It takes around 70 minutes round trip, so I figure it'll be something fun to do. I still have a bunch of research to do on fine dining and tourist attractions. But of course, anybody who knows me knows that I hate being looked at as a tourist, so i'll try to blend in as much as possible.
Rain is forecast for today and a bit tomorrow, but I'm hoping that tomorrow can start my exploration of the crater. up at the summit the weather is bound to be different. They warn that it is much colder up there, which is why i brought jeans and a hoodie. There's ever rumor of snow, so we'll see. I'd love to see snow, just so I can tell people that I built a true snowman in Hawai'i.
For the moment, I'm gonna call it a day on this blog. I'm at about 40% battery remaining and I want to save a bit for later. I'll try to keep up the blog on all my vacation destinations. :-)
Wish me safe travels everyone!!! :-)
Stephen
I'm so excited to finally get to Maui. My rental car is reserved (a chevy aveo, or similar vehicle) and my Hotel is confirmed. 4 nights at the Maui Seaside Hotel in Kahului. On my agenda for this trip is a fantastic 8-line ZipLine tour in Lahaina and I'll be spending a couple of days exploring the Haleakala Crater and surrounding areas. Eventually I hope to make a complete exploration all the way around the island. There's just so much to see and not enough time to see and do it all. I'm possibly going to go check out the Sugar Cane Train, a steam engine train that has a 6 mile route. It takes around 70 minutes round trip, so I figure it'll be something fun to do. I still have a bunch of research to do on fine dining and tourist attractions. But of course, anybody who knows me knows that I hate being looked at as a tourist, so i'll try to blend in as much as possible.
Rain is forecast for today and a bit tomorrow, but I'm hoping that tomorrow can start my exploration of the crater. up at the summit the weather is bound to be different. They warn that it is much colder up there, which is why i brought jeans and a hoodie. There's ever rumor of snow, so we'll see. I'd love to see snow, just so I can tell people that I built a true snowman in Hawai'i.
For the moment, I'm gonna call it a day on this blog. I'm at about 40% battery remaining and I want to save a bit for later. I'll try to keep up the blog on all my vacation destinations. :-)
Wish me safe travels everyone!!! :-)
Stephen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)