Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Kona, Hawaii Jan 1, 2006


Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Or Happy New Year in Hawaiian! Happy 2006!

Here is a copy of my travel log so far......

Hawaii 2005-06

Dec. 23, 2005
Left LA at 8:30 a.m. via American Airlines. How airlines have changed! No more meals anywhere! We paid $5.00 for a turkey/cheese sandwich which was probably made 2 days ago! We arrived in Honolulu at 12:30 p.m. Hawaii time (2 hours behind LA)Got our car, and had 3 hours to wait for Jennifer to arrive, so we went and got something to eat then just drove around. Bought Lei’s for all of us, including Dionisio’s,, our good friends here that we are spending Christmas with. J arrived at 3:20, and off we went to Willy and Nora’s. They have moved and they live on the west side of the island in Kapolei, in the Makakilo gated community. Their house is absolutely beautiful. They overlook Honolulu, and the view is breathtaking.



Dec. 24
Got up to shower, only the shower outsmarted me. Had a heck of a time figuring out how to turn on the shower! Finally remembered that you pull down the faucet and that starts the shower. Came down stairs and Jennifer came out of her room and said that the shower was smarter than her and how did you turn it on? We got a laugh out of that.Jennifer and I went for a drive today to Diamond Head. Also had lunch at our favorite burger spot, Teddy’s Burgers. They have moved from a tiny, secluded spot to right down on Wakiki, and they are still good.Tonight Willy and Nora had their xmas celebration with their very large family. I have never seen so much food. I thought the Wraspir’s did a good job of providing lots of food, but honestly, we don’t hold a candle to the Dionisio’s. And it was all wonderful!

Dec. 25
After calling all of the kids, we kicked back and relaxed most of the day.Bad news today,Jr.Jo's brother-in-law, died this afternoon at about 2:00 p.m., PST. He has been sick and just never recovered from a bad bladder infection. His Parkinson’s got worse, and he just wasn’t strong enough to fight it. He died very peacefully at home with all kids home. Jean, Jo's sister is doing well, knowing that Jr. is in a much, much better place.
We are going to Willy’s Aunt Betty and Uncle Bernie’s tonight for dinner. Bernie was the first Philippine lawyer in Honolulu and spent time as a representative for the state of Hawaii.It has been very hazy here, VOG they call it…haze from the volcano on Hawaii.
What a place Bernie and Betty’s place is! First of all, when you walk in you are immediately in a time warp! Back to the 60’s….green shag carpet, olive green and orange walls and orange furniture everywhere. Actually, I admire them for keeping it up so well! Now, let me tell you ,this family is TALENTED! Bernie and Betty’s children are so musically talented it is unbelievable. Not only were the tables loaded with food; there was a honest to goodness band playing! And most of the band was either family or friends of theirs. Their two daughters sang beautifully, and so did their son. One lady who sang was the voice coach for the lead singer in the musical “Miss Saigon” and she had a beautiful voice! Bernie and Betty were wonderful hosts and we had a great time.

Dec. 26
Off to the big island today. Jennifer, Al and I arrived around 2:30; rounded up our rental car (another convertible…can’t be in Hawaii without one!) and set off to find our condo. We are staying at Holua and Mauna Loa Village…these condo’s are part of our Shell Vacation Club. I had reserved a two bedroom condo here; however, when we got here they had a computer “glitch” and had only one bedrooms left. After I explained that there was 6 adults staying in this condo, (Ric, Janet and girls, plus Jennifer and us) they put us in two, one bedroom units for the night, saying that we would have to move into our two bedroom tomorrow. I was not too happy about moving, but at least we have two condo’s for the night and no one has to sleep on the floor! Ric, Janet and girls got in about 6:00 p.m.

After they got settled in, we took off to find dinner. We had dinner at one of our favorite places, Bubba Gumps. After a short wait, we were sat at a wonderful table outside, overlooking the ocean, hearing the waves crash and loud screams. Loud screams??? Wait, that doesn’t fit into this scenario! What happened is a cockroach the size of Texas had flew in and landed on Jennifer’s arm, took a cruise down her arm and then cruised down the table; causing Jennifer and our two grand daughters to scream so loud I am sure you could hear them on the mainland. The rest of us were so stunned over the screams we just sat there and watched the cockroach on his/her trip up and down the table! The roach then attempted to fly, but Ric backhanded him/her and sent it flying! The rest of the dinner everyone was on “cockroach alert!” Ah yes, we are in Hawaii.

Dec. 27
We all just kinda lazed around this morning, Ric, Janet, Ashley, Cammie and Jennifer took off to go to the Place of Refuge, however, they couldn’t get to it due to high waves. After they got back, we waited around for Mike and Bev to arrive. After they got here, some of us took off for a Costco/Safeway run. Then I took Mike and Bev to their condo. They are staying at Sea Village, which is about 4 miles north of us and is where we stayed last time. It is really nice. All came back to our condo to have taco’s and everyone gave up early….long day.

Dec. 28
Everybody, with the exception of Al and I, took off to see the volcano. We decided to stay here and rest and do nothing! We did drive down Ali’i drive to see where Jack and Sue are staying. The location of the condo we got for them is awesome…right in the middle of downtown Kona, walking distance to everything. I hope they like it.
Mike, Bev and Jennifer returned from the volcano around 7:00 and we all went to Rocky’s for Pizza. YUM…some of the best pizza I have had. Ric, Janet and girls stayed at the volcano to see the lava flow at night. They said it was cool to see, but hard to walk to the point where you coud see it.

Dec.29 Happy 37 Birthday Jennifer

Woke up to a sick Jennifer. She has a really bad cold and she spent the day in bed. Everyone else but Dad went downtown Kona to do some shopping. Had lunch at the Hardrock Café. Jack and Suzi got in today around 1:00 and we got them checked into their unit. It has a great location, but the unit itself isn’t the greatest. We were going to go to Roy’s for dinner tonight, however, canceled because Jennifer is sick. We bbq’d tri tips here at the condo.

Dec. 30
Jennifer is feeling a little better. We took it easy most of the day tho. Suzi is in the hospital…she has a kidney infection that has really gotten bad. This trip isn’t the best so far for some of us! The girls went shopping downtown again and the boys went to town to have a drink at Lulu’s. For dinner I fixed a lasagna from Costco. We really are laying low this trip...at least so far!

Dec.31
FINALLY…we did something today! We had the worst breakfast at Bubba Gumps….which is usually very good but all of our food was either cold, soggy or didn’t taste good. Afterwards Ric, Janet and Ashley went back to the condo, Ashley isn’t feeling good! The rest of us took off for the north shore to see the huge waves. Huge waves and high surf is pounding the islands and it is great to see. We stopped at the National Energy Lab Beach and the waves were HUGE….I would guess over 20 feet high and when the hit the rocks they would splash up at least 50 feet in the air! After oohing and aahing over them we took off for the little town of Hawi on the north shore. It was like stepping back into the 1950’s. The town is very small, but very unique! We drove to the end of Hwy 270 to see the Pololu valley and overlook. It was absolutely breathtaking. And we could see Maui clearly today from the north shore.

Driving back we almost ran out of gas and had to make a quick stop in Waimae to get some go juice in the car! We got back to Kona and went looking for the hospital to see Suzi..I hope she hasn’t taken up a week’s residence there! She is looking and feeling much better and we hope she gets out tomorrow.

Dinner was at Mike and Bev’s condo at Sea Village. I think I prefer those condo’s to the one’s we are in…at Sea Village you have a nice view of the water, even in the back condo’s. Here we can see NOTHING! Condo’s are nice, but absolutely NO VIEW of anything but more condo’s. Jack came to dinner, but took off for the hospital afterwards to spend more time with Suzi.We came back to the condo, and NO ONE stayed up to welcome in 2006 in this time zone. We were so tired we celebrated the new year in Pacific Time Zone and went to bed.

Hopefully, 2006 will be a great year for everyone! We were not unhappy to see 2005 leave...

Until next time.....

The Wroamin Wraspir's
Al and Jo....no dogs or cats on this trip!