6 January 2012: Orlando, Florida

Up and atom! We got up somewhat early and went to the race expo at Disney's Wide World of Sports. You can read about the expo, and our search for some good merchandise, over at my triathlon blog. After picking up all of our stuff, we headed back to our resort for a bit and then went to Downtown Disney in search of a somewhat light lunch. We ended up at Raglan Road Irish Pub, with a website here and a TripAdvisor page here, where we sat outside and enjoyed the perfectly sunny and warm weather. I ended up with a salad with grilled chicken and a Guinness while Cindy had some salmon and a hard cider, which was delicious.

After eating and walking around a bit, we headed back to our resort and did some work preparing for the next day's half marathon. We picked up the bus and made our way to our dinner location, the Yachtsman Steakhouse (their webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) in Disney's Yacht Club. This is the resort we usually stay at while down at Disney, so we know it well. This steakhouse is always wonderful and this stop was no exception. I ended up with a NY Strip Steak and Cin got a filet, both of which were delicious. We had excellent service from our waiter and an overall excellent experience. Filled with delicious and healthy protein, we headed back to our resort and went to bed early...not looking forward to our 3am wakeup for the half marathon.

5 January 2012: Orlando, Florida

I didn't take any real time off during the holidays, so once everyone got back to work and my team started back into the normal schedule, I figured it was time for a vacation! Actually...Cin and I headed down to Orlando to complete Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge, where we would run the Disney Half Marathon on Saturday and then the full Disney Marathon on Sunday, totaling 39.3mi over two days. Yep, it's pretty goofy. :) Anyway, on with the show.

We worked on Thursday and had our friend Danny pick us up in the afternoon to go to BWI. A quick trip through the ticket counter to drop off our luggage and a no-hassels trip through security and we ended up at Obryckis for a late-lunch/early-dinner. The original location of this place is in Baltimore and is well known for the crabcakes and assorted dishes; that location closed earlier in 2011 so the airport location is the only one remaining (their webpage is here). I had a crabcake and Cin had crab sliders, all of which was awesome. We then boarded our flight and ended up in the very last row with another girl who was going down for her first marathon. We chatted for a bit and I did some reading (REAMDE by Neal Stephenson) and the flight passed very quickly. After landing, we headed to Disney's Magical Express, the free bus service from the airport to our Disney resort. This is a great service and includes luggage service so you don't even need to pick up your bags from the baggage claim; they are intercepted and sent directly to your room. A quick and relaxing bus ride and we were at our resort, Disney's Port Orleans Riverside.

This was our first time at Port Orleans Riverside (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). We usually stay at Disney's Beach Club resort but went with this one this time to save some money. Port Orleans is a middle-range Disney resort while the Beach Club is a high-end one (more about the tiers and the differences between them will be coming in a later entry...stay tuned!). It's a nice place. We checked in with no issues and then walked to our room. Riverside is a sprawling resort and we wandered around, following the signs to our room number for quite some time before finding it and realizing a much easier and quicker route. :) The room was pretty basic but functional...and had two double beds. Ugh...not ideal for two married folks who needed relaxing sleep due to the races! Oh well.

After getting settled, we walked to the boat stop and headed out to Downtown Disney. Riverside runs a boat down to the Downtown area that takes about 20min or so. In the very dark (as it was by this time), you really cannot see a thing and we were very impressed with our boat driver (and wondering what it was we were floating past!). Once at Downtown, we found the Rainforest Cafe (webpage is here and TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner. They used to have one of these in Towson, Maryland, that we enjoyed quite a bit but that closed a few years back. I had a burger and Cin had a soup and salad combo, both of which were tasty but somewhat overpriced compared to other Rainforest Cafes (gotta love the Disney price bump!). I also ordered a Sam Adams but that ended up being the seasonal...and they were serving Noble Pils early (it's usually not out until the end of January). This is one of the favorite beers so that was an excellent find! After eating, we stolled around a bit and then caught the bus back to Riverside, tired and ready for bed...eager to hit the race expo the next morning!

Summary - 2011 in Hawaii (Oahu and Big Island)

Big vacation time, to Hawaii this year! This set of travellog entries documents the trip. If you have any comments or questions, drop a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Enjoy reading!

Day 1: The Trip Out -- A long trip.

Day 2: We're a Platypus -- First day on Oahu, on Waikiki Beach. On the beach, they don't do much.

Day 3: Pearl Harbor -- Lots to see and do at the Arizona memorial, the U.S.S. Bowfin visit and submarine museum, and a local burger joint.

Day 4: North Shore -- Hiking Diamond Head Crater, finding the new Disney resort, the Dole pineapple plantation, an awesome North Shore bar, finding the LOST beach, soooo many huge sea turtles, and a delicious steak dinner. Whew, what a day!

Day 5: Waikiki Beach

Day 6: To The Movies -- Movie filming locations, a Buddhist temple, Sharks' Cove, and an awesome bar with yards of beer.

Day 7: To Kona! -- Interisland travel and our awesome new resort.

Day 8: Running -- A run on the Ironman World Championships course, an awesome lunch, and some relaxing in the lagoon.

Day 9: The Wet Side -- Helicopter ride over volcanoes, finding waterfalls, a great little lunch place, and more volcanoes!

Day 10: Swimming -- Swimming with sea life in the lagoon, a torch-lighting runner, and an awesome dinner round out our last full day in Hawaii.

Day 11: Farewell...for now -- Back home we go...

Special Appendix: Running in Kona -- Triathlete thoughts on running on the same course as the legends in our sport.

18-19 August 2011: Waikoloa, Kona, and Honolulu, Hawaii, DFW Airport, and Baltimore, Maryland

We got up somewhat early on our last day in Hawaii and went to the pool at our resort to spent a little more time in the sun. We hadn't been to the pool yet, nor had we ridden the waterslide, so we opted to do that instead of going to the lagoon again. About an hour and a half later, we had some reading completed and each of us had ridden the waterslide, so we went back to our room, showered off, packed up, and headed out. Goodbye, Hilton Waikoloa Village...you are an awesome resort.

We drove into Kona and spent a good amount of time in traffic, as there was a funeral procession going on for a Hawaiian native who was one of the Navy SEALs killed in action a few weeks ago during the horrible helicopter crash in Afghanistan. We eventually made our way into Kona and went back to the Kona Pub and Brewery for lunch, which was good. Yes, I know I shouldn't go to the same place twice while traveling like this, but we knew where it was, knew it would be fast and we would like it, and we were a little time crunched. So, oh well. Afterwards, we went back to the Kona airport, checked our luggage (Hawaiian Airlines was able to check our backs all the way back to BWI even though we flew them to Honolulu and then American Airlines all the way back...how cool is that?), and got on our very short and uneventful flight to Honolulu.

Then, we waited. We were supposed to spent about an hour in Honolulu and that turned into about five, due to a large delay. We spent that time working (I wrote more in the book I am writing) and then in the airport bar, which had decent food for an airport and also enabled me to get a few more Kona beers on draft. We eventually took off and then spent eight hours in the airplane, unable to sleep. We did some more work and played some games and eventually we landed in DFW. We gave way for those that were trying to making connections (remember, we were about 3.5hr late at this point) and then made our way off the plane, happy to be standing. :)

We ate lunch at the Blue Mesa Taco Bar (their website is here) where I had tacos and Cin had avocado quesadillas, both of which were good. We then got on our flight to Baltimore and arrived with no problems, having watched a bunch of How I Met Your Mother on the laptop. Good times. Our friend Mo picked us up at the airport and that's that. Vacation over. Awesome vacation over.

17 August 2011: Waikoloa, Hawaii

After yesterday’s day of activity, and since today is out last full day in Hawaii, we opted to stay at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and just relax. We woke up late and headed directly to the lagoon where we snagged some lounge chairs in a good location (but not under an umbrella as all of those spots were already taken). After relaxing and reading for a little while, we went up to the lagoon-side bar and got some lunch. I got a burger and Cin a chicken sandwich, both of which were surprisingly good. This bar also offers a great view of the dolphin area, where they have dolphin encounter programming going on pretty much every day. It’s awesome to see the dolphins and how great they are with kids and such, but they have a lot of dolphins in a fairly small space. I really hope they like it there.

After lunch, we spent the entire afternoon reading and occasionally swimming in the lagoon. The lagoon is really interesting as it is connected to the ocean and full of sea life that you go and swim with. I swam with some big fish and then some big sea turtles. I same over one that was on the bottom eating away and then swam alongside another one for about 10yd until he swam underneath the waterfall; I did not follow him anymore as I couldn’t see well due to the waterfall and did not want to run into him or any other turtles.

Swam right over this guy!

This is just before I lost him under the waterfall.

I also swam alongside some really thin fish that were the same type that I swam a lot with during my honeymoon in Bora Bora. Cin and I have taken to calling these fish my Friends and I like that name.

My Friends. Good to see you again, buddies!

We eventually got to move under an umbrella once a family left theirs and spent the rest of the afternoon just reading and relaxing.

In the early evening, we headed back to our room and cleaned up for dinner. As we were walking over to dinner, we heard a conch shell noise and then watched as a Hawaiian guy, dressed up in full tribal attire, ran around the entire resort (this place is huge) lighting all of the torches on property with his torch (they are supplied with natural gas and by running past with the torch, he lit them). This was awesome to see and coincided with the sunset…what an awesome thing to do every night.

The torch lighter is on the right, running along the path.

We arrived at our dinner reservations, at the Kamuela Provision Company, the high-end restaurant at the Hilton (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) and were shown to our table that was outside and had an awesome view of the just-set sun. The sky was amazing and gradually got darker over our meal. We each had salads (Cin a tomato one and me a mixed local organic greens one) and then I ate grilled mahi mahi with wilted spinach while Cin had pasta with vegetables and mahi mahi as well. We both really enjoyed our dinners.

After dinner, we went to the main resort bar and got drinks and cupcakes, the perfect dessert for our day. We ate, drank, and enjoyed the live music. The perfect end to a great, and very relaxing, day.

16 August 2011: Waikoloa, Hilo, and Volcano, Hawaii

We woke up nice and early for a long day of sightseeing.  We left our resort and headed north into Waikoloa Village. We found the Kaukau Depot (their website/Facebook page is here and their TripAdvisor page is here), which is just across the street from the main Waikoloa Shopping Center. This place is a small joint and all of the people there (except for us) knew each other. They were all crazy friendly and a lot of fun to be around. We got some breakfast, me some pancakes and bacon and Cin some French Toast, all of which was awesome (but with huge portion sizes!). If you’re looking for a good breakfast with lots of cool people, check this place out. It doesn’t look like much from the outside (or the inside), but the food and the people are great.

We then drove across the top portion of the Big Island, eventually ending up in Hilo, the other big town on the island besides Kona. Hilo is older, more “forgotten” (there are a lot of closed storefronts and other similar things), and much more rainy. Apparently, the average yearly rainfall in Kona is four inches and the average yearly rainfall in Hilo is eleven feet. Wowsers. Anyway, we headed to the Hilo Airport for our helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. This was amazing. We flew down to the volcanoes and the lava spills and saw so much. We saw so many lava spills from the air, we saw where an entire town had been wiped out from an eruption, we saw active lava, and we saw where most of a town had been except for one house and a section of road in front of it, which is now rented out as a very expensive vacation get-a-way, with the primary access only via helicopter. So cool. If you are looking for a way to see the volcanic nature of the Big Island, check out Blue Hawaiian Helicopters. We flew on their Eco-Star aircraft with Captain Ray, who was amazing and did an awesome job showing us the volcanic nature of Hawaii. I simply cannot say enough about how awesome this adventure was.

Lava goes all the way to the coast.

There is a (small) active lava flow from these.

Active lava flow.

More active lava flow.

There used to be a town under here. All the residents evacuated.

Awesome shot of the Big Island's eastern coast.

After the helicopter ride, we went back into downtown Hilo and got lunch at a local joint named Café Pesto (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). I had a pizza and Cin had a smoked turkey sandwich, both of which were awesome. She also got a salad, which was all organic and local greens and a sweet bail pesto dressing that was just amazing. I still regret not getting one. After an awesome lunch, we went and found a couple waterfalls in the Hilo area, seeing Rainbow Falls, the Boiling Pots, Peepee Falls, and then Akaka Falls, all of which were pretty good. Akaka Falls, by far, takes the cake…this is an awesome sight to see!

Me, with Akaka Falls in the background.

Cin and Akaka Falls.

This is a BIG waterfall.

Done with waterfalls, we headed down to Volcano. Along the way, we took a 4mi scenic route around Onomea Bay, north of Hilo, that did have some very scenic views and we saw a lot of very high-end houses…pretty cool. We entered the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, saw the steam vents (so warm!), and then the sulphur vents, where lots of lots of sulphur was thrust into the air. So cool to see. Then, we found the Kilauea Crater and saw some awesome steam coming off of that. Next up was the Thurston Lava Tube, which was located in the middle of a rain forest region that was awesome to hike through (both the rain forest and the lava tube). Then, back to the Kilauea Crater at sunset (around 7.30pm), as the loss of sunlight turned the steam into a very reddish/orangeish spectacle. Lots and lots of people had shown up at this point near the Jaggar Museum in the park to see this and it was totally worth the effort. It was also quite cold at this point, so bring a sweatshirt if you choose to do this...I brought three on this trip and brought none on this drive, so I was out of luck, which meant I was freezing while Cin took some (awesome) pictures.

This only made me want to go in more.

Sulphur venting.

Kilauea Crater, with bonus rainbow.

Us at the entrance to the Thurston Lava Tube.

Me, in the Thurston Lava Tube.

The Kilauea Crater at sundown...the color change was awesome!

After seeing the volcanoes, we headed back to Hilo (Volcano to Hilo is about one hour in driving time, 45min if you’re speedy but the roads are quite twisty and turny). We stopped for dinner at a place right outside the Hilo Airport named Ken’s, which is a diner that came recommended from the guy at our resort that set up our helicopter tour (their webpage is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This place was all right…the menu is huge and the food, well, diner-ish. It’s a diner and that’s that. Cin had a grilled cheese sandwich and I had a beef dish with fries. Normal diner type stuff.

A long drive back (it is about two hours from Hilo to Waikoloa) and we parked the Jeep. When we did so, we noticed that there were cats in the parking lot of the Hilton…lots of cats. We noticed a cat before at the Kona Brewery and Pub and then another one at the Hilton earlier. It seems that the big island has a lot of cats, all of which come out at night. Bizarre. Anyway, we walked back to the room and collapsed on the bed…such a long (and awesome!) day!

15 August 2011: Waikoloa and Kona, Hawaii

Today, we got up and walked the mile down the road from our resort to the local coffee shop named in honor of the Hawaiian god of coffee, Starbuck. :) Anyway, after a decently small breakfast, we got into the Jeep and drove the 25mi or so down to Kona. Now, if you know anything about triathlon (me and Cin are both triathletes), you know that Kona is the site of the Ironman World Championships every year, so this place has special significance for us. If you’d like to read about our experience there, and our run along part of the course, check it out over in my other blog, Tri, Jeff, Tri!

After we finished our run, we ate lunch at a cool place on Ali’i Drive called the Fish Hopper Restaurant (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Cin had a Kona Cobb Salad, which she really enjoyed, and I had some panko-crusted Ono, which was my first experience with Ono, a local Hawaiian fish. Delicious! They also had really good iced tea here, which we each drunk about ten glasses of after our run on the Kona course, and great service from Cisco, our bartender and server. After lunch, we checked out some shopping in downtown Kona. Kona reminds me of any other little beach town that I’ve ever been in and has escaped commercialism thus far. It’s awesome and a great place to visit with a lot of old world charm, even more so than Haleiwa on Oahu. If you’re on the Big Island, spend some time in the town of Kona…even if you’re not a triathlete, you’ll love it.

After Kona, we drove back to the Hilton and rested up a bit. We then booked a helicopter tour ride for the next day to see the active lava flows (sounds awesome!) and spent some time relaxing on lounge chairs right off the lagoon in the center of the resort. This Hilton features a huge lagoon that is awesome for swimming and other watersports, and even has a section with a dolphin encounter and you can see the dolphins swimming around in their area in the evening. Very sweet.

We spent an hour and a half or so there and then went back to our room, cleaned up again, and went to dinner at Bella Vista, an Italian joint at the Hilton. This place was decent…we both had make-your-own-pasta with variations on tomato sauce and meatballs, along with salad. Pretty good food and good service as well. After dinner, we headed to the main lounge in the resort and each had a drink while listening to the band they had in, which was really good. Then, a short boat ride back to our room area, some TV watching, and off to bed.

14 August 2011: Honolulu, Waikoloa, and Kona, Hawaii

Today, we woke up and got the hot breakfast option before walking back over to the Hilton Hawaiian Village and doing some shopping, sitting on the beach, and taking some pictures. We then cleaned up and checked out of the Doubletree before driving to the airport.

The Doubletree is a perfectly good hotel and the Waikiki Doubletree is just like pretty much every other Doubletree. It is not a resort, but a good hotel. So, if are looking for a place to sleep and a good base for your explorations of Oahu, it is a fine choice. If you are looking to spend some serious time at your hotel, it is not appropriate. Just understand this. If you’re OK being across the street from a resort, and saving some money due to not actually staying there, then it’s a great choice. The service is great as well…I cannot say that enough.

Anyway, we returned the car and checked in for our flight to Kona on the Big Island. We split a Chesapeake Bay style crabcake sandwich at the airport bar…just to try it, since we are from Maryland and know crabcakes. It was actually not that bad. A short plane ride later (about 30 minutes) and we landed on the Big Island of Hawaii.

We got our rental car (free upgrade to a 4x4 Jeep Liberty!) and drove up to our accommodations, the Hilton Waikoloa Village (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Now this is a resort! This Hilton reminded both Cin and I of the places we stayed at in Bora Bora for our honeymoon. There are multiple pools, a massive natural lagoon to swim in, awesome views, a crazy comfortable room, and many, many, other things. This place is easily one of the nicest places we have ever stayed. Score. :)

After we got settled, we got back in the Jeep and drove the 25mi or so into Kona, where we found the Kona Pub and Brewer (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). I’ve been drinking Kona beers since we got here and loved them (they have bottles of it back home, but never on draft) and this place came highly recommended from others who have been here before, so we were all about it. I got a beer sampler of four types I had not had before, including two IPAs (their Fire Rock Pale Ale is common and available in most places, but not their IPA), one that is a normal brew and one seasonal variation, both of which were awesome. I ended up getting a custom pizza with Cajun Tomato sauce…and it kicked my ass. So hot and spicy, I spent a good amount of time wiping sweat off of myself. Wowsers.

We drove back after dinner and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching TV ... and the amazing sunsets you get here.

This resort is amazing…and the perfect place to spent the second part of our vacation.

13 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii and North Shore, Hawaii

Today, we woke up and got some breakfast before heading out for our first event of the day, the Movie Sites and Ranch tour at the Kualoa Ranch that we had found two days prior. Basically, this ranch has a huge amount of land and multiple movies shoot here, including Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, and Godzilla (and some episodes of LOST and the new Hawaii Five-O). This tour takes an hour or so and you get to see where many of the iconic scenes from these movies were films, including the dead tree that Doctor Grant and the kids hide behind during the dinosaur stampede in Jurassic Park. Cool stuff. After the tour, we got a snack and then headed out.

On the tour, awesome view in the background.

This bunker was created when this was a military installation. Now, it houses a collection of movie stuff and was also one of the Dharma bunkers in LOST.

The valley of the dinosaur stampede from Jurassic Park.

This may be the most famous dead tree ever.

Hiding from the dinosaur stampede!

Our next stop was the Byodo-In Temple. This is a replica of the famous Buddhist temple in Japan, recreated in the Valley of the Temples on Oahu. I went here the last time I was on Oahu and loved it, so I wanted to bring Cin here. We sat in the temple for a bit, rang the giant bell outside, and took some awesome pictures of the animals on the ground, including some massive black swans, other birds, fish, and what looked like wild ferrets.

After the temple, we drove up to the North Shore, with the intention of spending a decent amount of time at a nice, awesome beach. We stopped at the Crouching Lion Inn for dinner where we both had perfectly decent meals. Pretty unremarkable place with regard to the food, but it had good service and great views. There was also a very small (maybe a dozen of people or so) wedding reception going on in the bar, which was pretty cool. Anyway, we then finished the drive up to the North Shore and spent a good hour and a half at Sharks’s Cove, which is a cove enclosed by rocks and some openings to the ocean. There are no sharks, but there are fish and other animals as well as lots and lots of rocks. It is hard to walk around in there, but the views are amazing and the water feels great. The area is wonderful and somewhat busy, but not the extent that Waikiki is. This is a great beach and a wonderful place to spend some time…I wish I had brought my snorkel to explore it more fully. If you’re looking for an awesome beach on Oahu, I highly recommend this one.

We headed back to Waikiki and on the way back, while driving down Interstate H2, we saw some wild boar off to the side of the road…awesome. We cleaned up and then, after a brief walk later, we were are the Yard House on Lewes Street in Waikiki, a place that prides itself on its selection of over 100 beers on draft (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This is even more impressive to see than it sounds. I ended up with a Hawaiian fish, salad, and rice dish and Cin had a good sandwich and great salad. Oh, and I ordered a yard of beer…which is a three foot tall glass that holds 32oz of beer. I had an IPA I have never heard of (and do not remember the name of) and drank it all. And then…I had a second yard of beer. I finished it all and was so glad we walked to this dinner. ;) 

We walked back and watched some more TV before bed…our last night on Oahu.

12 August 2011: Honolulu, Hawaii

We woke up late and went down to Jimmy Buffett’s At the Beachcomber Bar (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). Being serious Parrotheads, Cin and I were stoked to be there. We ended up getting some beers and lunch items off the menu…all of which were okay but nothing to write home about. Cin’s sandwich advertised a good quality type of lettuce…and came with iceberg. The same was true with most of what we got…it was generic food in place of higher end stuff and the higher end price tag was still attached. The service was really good, and the chips with salsa, queso, and guacamole appetizer was delicious, but otherwise this was pretty lame. Jimmy, if you still care about what you put your name on, please fix this place.

Between lunch and dinner, we spent time on Waikiki and an incident occurred. Cin and I are fine. But, out of respect for others involved, I’m not going to write about this. I’m sorry but that’s the way this is going to be.

Anyway, afterwards, we headed to Duke’s (again, their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here) for dinner, having secured a reservation a few days before. The service was amazing…it reminded me of Bloody Mary’s in Bora Bora. I ended up with Huli Huli Chicken and Cin got the salad bar. We had some excellent drinks and then walked back before heading to the Doubletree to clean up. We then went back to the Hilton to view the Aloha Friday evening fireworks, which seemed pretty awesome but we missed the bulk of (I thought they started at 8pm but they started at 7.45pm). After they were done, we headed back and went to bed…ready for a new day tomorrow.