Our company moved into a new office. What an exciting day and what a huge upgrade over an old space. Everyone is psyched.
It’s time to write something about our Hawaiian vacation and I can’t really think of a good place to start. I have mixed feeling about this particular trip because of a number of events, but I think with time all the bad memories will fade and only good ones will stay.
Yet I can’t seem to be able to proceed without talking about the bad experiences and getting them off my chest. So excuse the negativity of this post and the general lack of pictures. The upcoming posts will be better, I promise.
I still didn’t come up with a good structure to write about this trip, so I’ll just go on about things that come to my mind. Our general approach to this vacation was to take it a bit more easy than usual, but we ended up driving somewhere every day anyhow. There was only one day when we didn’t use the car at all.
Our room in the hotel got upgraded because of our Gold VIP status. I didn’t realize this at first and was slightly upset, but later on after checking the website it turned out that we ended up in the best location the whole resort has to offer. We had a small balcony. The view on one side was a lagoon and on the other dolphin pool and open ocean.
As for the island itself I expected it all to look like Jurassic Park. Turns out different parts of the island are polar opposites of each other. The western side is mostly a lava dessert. Everything is surrounded by dried up lava and sharp black rocks. Barely anything grows at all. Very unusual looking landscape.
On our first day we decided to explore the western side of the island, the part that we were staying on. Since we drove to our hotel during the night we didn’t really see any surroundings. There were also 3 official national park sites on this side of the island — two to the south and one to the north.
In the morning, after eating our breakfast1 we got into our awesome yellow Jeep and drove south. Our first Hawaiian stamp stop was Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park. We were told that there are giant see turtles feeding near by and went went down into the water. At first we couldn’t really see anything and felt disappointed. And then we started noticing that there are numerous huge turtles sitting in the water. Since they barely move around they are hard to spot.
Next stop was another NHP — Pu`uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. This location probably has the most unfriendly and unhelpful ranger we have ever met. But since the territory is rather small anyhow we just took a hike on our own and saw the wooden carved statues that I’ve seen pictures of before.
In the evening we ate dinner in the Lagoon Restaurant that’s right under our hotel room, but the food was crap again and we still payed a lot even with coupons. That was the last time we tried eating at the hotel with the exception of Luau. And that was the end of our first day.
On Saturday we couldn’t help ourselves, but go to the Volcanoes National Park, the thing that I wanted to see the most. The drive is about 3 hours and we took the road that goes by Mauna Kea through Hilo and to the south. The ranger at the Visitor Center was very helpful and she built a good plan for us for the day.
We went in the direction of Jaggar Museum. First short stop was near some spot where vapor was coming up form under the ground. Normally this might be a very interesting sight, but after our Yellowstone trip this looked utterly unimpressive. The next stop was a view point near the Jaggar Museum itself.
Now there one could clearly see a very large volcano caldera filled with lava and in the middle of it there was a large crater with a lot of fumes coming out. During the day the lava glow is not visible, but at as we saw later at night there is a distinct red glow inside. For some reason I always imagined the volcano in the way they are drawn in cartoons — big mountain with a top cut off. This really looked nothing like it, but it was a first time I actually saw a volcano crater.
After that we drove in the other direction to some other caldera (I don’t remember any of the actual names). What was interesting about this one is that there was a hiking trail down to it. I’m not sure about the actual elevation difference, but the hike itself was about 1.2 miles each way along a rather steep trail, so not an easy exercise, especially for those of us who barely move at all on regular basis.
Walking on the lava is an interesting experience. At some points it felt like a good asphalt and in others it felt like walking on a frozen snow. With each step you can hear the cracking of little pieces of lava breaking up under your feet. They are actually very sharp little stones full of pores from the air when it was drying up.
Then after we got out of the caldera we went through a lava tube — the place where lava actually used to flow. It reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns somewhat because of how moist, dark and cool it was. At that was about a time when I started to realize that not taking any kind of a sweater was a big mistake. On the other side of the island, where we were staying the temperature was around 90 degrees and here it was quite cold in a t-shirt.
Our dinner was yet another “adventure”. We found a place with really nice Zagat rating not far from the park entrance. We ordered some hot soup and hot tea in an attempt to try to stop shivering from the cold. I also ordered a $40 filet mignon and Alena ordered some salad. The said part came when our food was given to someone else and we were told that it was the last filet mignon they had. And we saw all this play-out in front of our eyes, but not like we could stop the waitress and say — are you sure that’s not our food?
Either way, they did have another piece for me and they ended up giving us their most expensive appetizer and the soup for free and the steak was just exceptional. So we hold no grudge.
Then we drove back to the hotel and as soon as we got back we went to the pools. It was nice when they keep them open until 11pm. They had one of the jacuzzis there that can only be reached through the water and is completely secluded from 3 sides. I don’t think I have to say anymore. And that pretty much concludes our Saturday.
Hilton Waikoloa Village была на высоте. За счёт Даниного Gold VIP статуса в Hilton Honors club, комната нам досталась в самом дорогом здании отеля — Lagoon Tower. Окна выходили на лагуну, дельфинариум и частично на океан. В комнате был балкончик, где мы иногда завтракали. Дверь же наша выходила на водный канал по центру которого на кусочке земли росли тропические деревья. Среди деревьев важно разгуливали фазаны и утки, а еще там любили тусоваться маленькие, но очень шумные птицы — ор, который они поднимали по вечерам и ночам нас сперва просто поразил (спать нам они, к счастью, не мешали)!
Еще меня очень впечатлила коллекция статуй, ваз, и других вещей расположенных в коридорах (и не только) отеля. Иногда создавалось впечатление, что идёшь не по отелю, а по музею. Если верить вебсайту отеля, цена этой коллекции превышает $7,000,000.
Бассейны и джакузи работали до 11 вечера. Вообще бассейнов было много, и мне очень понравилось сьезжать по водному слайду в одном из них. Джакузи на мой вкус могли бы быть и погорячее, но в принципе и так было ничего.
Лагуна, которая сперва на нас не произвела особого впечатления, оказалась замечательным местом для загорания и купания в океанской водичке. Вода была очень чистой — я могла видеть дно даже в тех местах, где ногами до него я уже не доставала.
Еда не территории отеля оставляет желать лучшего. Завтрак в буфете (омлет с соком и фруктами) стоит по $25 на человека. Чашечка кофе – $7; а когда мы заказали еду в комнату, то нам пришлось заплатить дополнительные $10 за “сервис” и “доставку” (это учитывая, что два скромных салатика нами заказанные стоили $28).
Вообще из всех мест, где мы если, больше всего мне понравился Brown’s Beach House ресторан, расположенный в The Fairmont Orchid отеле. Да, там цены тоже были солидными, но отменное качество еды, великолепный сервис и романтическая атмосфера этого места делали эти цены хотя бы оправданными. Сидели мы на лужайке практически на берегу океана (правда, было уже темно и океан мы не видели), толстенький гаваец играл на гитаре и очень приятным голосом пел гавайские и не только песни, там и сям полыхали огнём факелы… Вобщем, было хорошо, а эсколар (масляная рыба) с эдамаме полентой и грибами не разочаровал ни меня, ни Даню.
На День Благодарения мы, следуя американской традиции, ели индюшку (в Ruth’s Chris ресторане). Было очень даже вкусно – и мы просто обожрались одной порцией на двоих (даже представить не могу как кто-то мог умять целую порцию).
Раз уж речь идёт о еде, то хочется упомнянуть и походе на Luau. Мы много слышали о “kalua pig” — свинье запеченной в банановых листьях в специальной подземной печи — и каково же было моё разочарование, когда на вкус эта свинья оказалась ничуть не лучше “pulled pork”, которую я уже неоднократно готовила дома используя slow cooker. Если честно, мной приготовленная свинина мне нравится даже больше — думаю причина в барбекью соусе, который придаёт ей более пикантный вкус.
От шоу на луау я тоже ожидала большего — танцы мне показались несколько примитивными и однообразными. Конечно, было интересно посмотреть на традиционные танцы “хула”, но 2-3 танцев было бы более чем достаточно, чтобы составить полную картину (шоу, естественно, включало намного большее количество танцев). В целом я не жалею о походе на luau, но больше туда я бы не пошла.
На сей ноте хочу сделать паузу. Продолжение следует.
Sunday was a day when we did some relaxing. We had luau1 reservation so we didn’t want to drive anywhere. In the morning we went on a beach near Marriott hotel. The beach itself was so-so, but while we were there a giant sea turtle crawled out onto the beach from under the water. That was pretty cool.
Then we went to Hilton pools. We discovered an awesome water slide. I haven’t been on one in a long long time and Alena probably hasn’t tried on before at all. We spent a lot of time in the jacuzzis, pools, water falls and water slides.
And in the evening we went to luau. We really wanted to do it because we regretted not going to one on our previous trip. But I guess our expectations were a bit high. Not that the food was bad, but Alena can cook better pulled pork. And the show itself was rather primitive. Maybe 5 minutes of it was somewhat exciting — the belly-dancing and the fire throwing, but most of it was very repetitive and boring.
We got somewhat unlucky with the company at our table. We got seated across from a pair of kids so we had no-one to talked to. And on the next table from us there was a Japanese couple seated across from a pair of kids as well. But there is nothing we could do.
Monday… Well, I wrote about Monday in the previous post. It was really something.
Ну что ж? Я могу нас поздравить!!!!!!! Вчера я сделала тест (EPT) — и получился большой жирный синий плюс. Я даже решила остатся дома по такому поводу. Дело в том, что ко мне прилепилась какая-то простуда, и я не была уверена — идти на работу или оставаться дома второй день. Ну при таком раскладе событий я решила себя поберечь.
На всякий случай я сбегала в аптеку и купила тесты еще двух компаний — Clear Blue и First Response. Один из них я использовала вчера, а один — сегодня утром. Результаты меня не разочаровали.
Единственное что меня беспокоит — это простуда. Теператую я с вечера пятницы (сегодня среда, еще утро). Температура хоть и небольшая — 37.1, но всё равно неприятная. Надеюсь, я скоро поправлюсь.
I’ll post more when we get the machine. I’m happy with it and I think it will last us for a good amount of time.
Why MacBook Pro? First of all we paid less than half the price for the same set of components. Second I still think XP is a great OS and if one were to believe the hype Win 7 is better. And third — Alena didn’t like MacOS as much and its her laptop.
Good choice for home computing! I’m pretty happy with my Dell Vostro 1700 (17″ laptop) which is an analogue.
Yup, that was our thinking exactly. I can’t use a desktop because it usually sits on a dinning table in the living room, yet I don’t want to sacrifice a nice screen for example because it’s never going to be taken on a trip.
Now if I were buying a laptop for travel it would have a whole other list of characteristics that I would look for and most of them would be the opposite of this one.
Тёма: An analogue laptop? That’s called an abacus!
So I’ve known for over a week now! I ordered some pregnancy books online (“What to expect when expecting”, “Belly laughs” and one more) using gift card which Maruks got me for my birthday. I’ve started reading 2 books already (mostly in the subway).
I am trying to eat healthier — not that my diet was super-bad or something, but I eliminated caffeinated drinks and trying to be very easy on sugar. I am eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and I hope that it will not be hard to maintain this diet throughout the pregnancy.
We’re going to see the doctor on Sunday (Dec 20th). I hope that all the tests will be fine. Danya started cleaning Shublik’s litter box as a precaution (hopefully, Shublik is as healthy as they come).