Friday, January 20, 2012

What a difference

a day makes. We woke up on Thursday morning, early as normal and ate our last meal in our oceanfront condo in Kona, Hawai'i

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We were lucky to find this place with a beach right under our lanai (sundeck), and where you can view the sunset without any effort except to grab our camera. It was just luck that we managed to book our vacation during the recent cold snap at home. There's nothing like taking a break somewhere warm while it is snowing and below freezing where you live. When we travel we usually take our rental car and drive to the ends of the earth looking at all the sights, taking in all the scenic beauty we can and squeeze every waking moment doing something. This time was a bit different, we were more laid back. I was more interested in compiling more video and eating where the locals eat. We found some great local eateries and we also took a small 8 passenger commuter flight from Maui to Kona. There were a couple of "must sees" which were the scenic road to Hana and the Place of Refuge which we missed the last time, and other than visiting a few music stores we acted like beach bums

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We normally don't duplicate trips to recently visited places. We were in Kona only two years ago at the insistance of friends who were having a yearmark wedding anniversary. We visited with our friends in the fall of 2011 and they mentioned that they wanted us to come to Kona again for his Special Birthday. We decided that if we came again we wanted to "squeeze" in another Island. We were going to pick Molokai, but in the end chose Maui. The second half our our vacation to Kona was to attend this dinner. There were 9 one us; two from Maple Ridge, two from Vernon, two from Whistler, one from Denver, CO and us from Vancouver. All of us were also here in 2010. Dinner was in the Posh Hilton Resort in Waikaloa. I like Kona, coming back here is like coming home as we know where everything is. They want to come back here in 2 years for another dinner.

We had to check out of our condo at noon and live out of our car until our plane was scheduled to leave at 11pm that night. The flight was 5 hours and we arrived back in Vancouver around 7am and home by 9am after some errands. We unpacked our suitcases and after putting everything back to their rightful places we headed out for lunch as we had no food at home and were too tired to grocery shop, let alone make something. So we were getting very tired after being up for 31+ hours.

We had gotten used to the warm temperatures of Hawai'i around mid 80's every day but now we return home to snow and freezing temperatures, but I'm defiant . . .

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except our sand is WHITE and I still have on my Hawai'ian shoes . . .

6 comments:

  1. Dear Bob:

    Well done, Mr. Skoot. I have ventured out in the snow many times wearing only a tee shirt, or even bare-chested, but never I have gone barefoot in the white stuff.

    Ity looks like you had a great time in Hawaii. I have only been to that state of paradise only once, but it was a habit I could get into.

    Fondest regards,
    Jack/reep
    Twisted Roads

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  2. You definitely picked the right time for your vacation. Looks like you and the missus had a wonderful time. You make me want to pack my bags, book a flight and go there, stat.

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  3. You had such great weather on your vacation, i bet it was hard to come home to snow.

    It looks as though you are handling it well, now go put some pants on, you are making me cold, lol

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  4. It's only as cold as you think it is. I remember walking out in the snow barefoot. Adds a little thrill to life. Sorry you had to come home to snow. But you gotta take the bad with the good. And just who defines which is which??

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  5. Jack:

    The plan was to go somewhere that felt like summer, when it was cold and icy at home. We lucked out this year by being away at precisely the right time. You have no way of forecasting the weather 2 months out.

    SonjaM:

    We actually had a chance to relax this time. We spent the last two days staring at the waves and enjoying the warm sun. We also found some great local places to dine

    Trobairitz:

    It was hard to come home, we really liked the summer weather the best, the palm trees and the laid back Hawai'ian style. Shorts, sandals and T-shirts are accepted everywhere, even in the high-end resorts. I ditched my shoes when we got there and it was a great disappointment to put them back on when we caught the plane back home. It symbolized the end of our vacation.

    Steel CupCake:

    We seldom get snow here, this year was unusually cold and luckily we booked our vacation to somewhere warm. Walking barefoot contributes to better posture and better foot health. There are a lot of articles about minimalistic footware which mimics what nature intended. It's good to be home, but not so good to have to go back to work, and we miss the warmth already

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  6. Don't forget your sunscreen in that nice "white sand"! Why is it I don't think this is the first time those feet have been in the snow...nor the last. :)

    Indeed, what a difference! Lovely trip to help tame the winter grey.

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