Tag: gopro

Dive & Thai

On By StevenIn Relationships, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

Today started out with rain.  The dive shop called yesterday afternoon to let us know that rain was on the way and if there was no visibility underwater they might need to cancel. Luckily, they didn’t and at 11am they picked us up.  By noon we were on the water with Reef Pirates Jake, Lauren, Captain Dan and two other divers, Farouk & Hakan.  The rain had cleared up, but it was still overcast.  Jake would be teaching Sue and Hakan, while Lauren was Farouk and my dive master.   A quick ride to the first dive spot and we were ready.  Jake walked Sue through the ABC’s of diving while I hit the water.   It was an amazing dive.  Beautiful coral, fabulous fish and more sea turtles than a terrapin soup recipe.   The GoPro behaved perfectly and videos will be up soon.   Sue did her first dive, hanging out at about 30 feet.  It was a little scary at first, plus I get seasick and very easily cold, so I wasn’t sure how it would go. I am game to try anything once, so there I went. I didn’t make the second dive—the cold got to me even though I am sure it wasn’t cold for most people—but I did enjoy it and might even try again. Steven really likes it, so chances are good. I will keep the scopolamine patch manufacturers in business.

We got back to the hotel around 4pm, sat for about 15 minutes then headed out to Waikiki beach.  We walked about a mile and a half to the Maui Brewing Company and grabbed a pre-dinner beer.  For dinner, Sue found a place called Opal Thai, where the chef asks you about your likes and dislikes then prepares your dinner. I asked him why he has menus and he said, “I don’t know.”  It was great.  We have no idea what we the food we were served was called, but was delicious.  We started with a rice dish—can’t really do justice to describe it, but it was yummy.  Then we had a tofu lettuce wrap and I had chicken wings in a honey garlic sauce.  For our main courses, I had a savory duck with chilis while Sue had vegetables with noodles.  We talked a bit with our table neighbors—Dominic & Moe—who work down the street at place called Moku, where we are going tomorrow.  They are some of my closest friends now as they shared their tequila with us; it is a byob restaurant.   We ate every morsel and I don’t think I ever had such wonderful Thai food.

A quick Lyft back to the hotel and somewhat surprisingly, when we got back to the hotel at 8:30, we were both ready to call it a night.

Sorry—no photos or videos tonight—I will post them as soon as I can.

Aloha

On By StevenIn Relationships, Travel1 Comment

indexWe leave on an April 26 flight to LA and then to Maui; we arrive at 5 pm.  We are staying on Maui until noon on Tuesday, May 1, when we fly to Oahu.  We are in Honolulu until noon on Friday, May 4; then a stop in LA and finally to Chicago at 6 am on Saturday.

Since the airfare and hotel are paid for by my company we have to do a little bit of “work stuff.”  We have a meet & greet dinner on the first night. (I am not looking forward to this. I will have to be on my best behavior. Boo!) and then I have a breakfast meeting the next morning for 90 minutes.  (Read: Sue sleeps late.) Other than that, we are on our own.  I am very excited about this trip–especially since it is snowing this morning (April 9; Cubs home opener postponed).  We have created a short list of potential activities and will need to figure out which ones we have time/energy/inclination to do:

  1. Watch the sun rise on Haleakala and then a 23-mile bike ride down the mountain
  2. Scuba (try dive for Sue)
  3. zip lining–yes, Steven, who is petrified of heights, thinks this would be fun.
  4. Hiking on Haleakala
  5. Hiking on the Acid War Zone Trail
  6. Drive the road to Hana and hike along the way
  7. Visit Haiku and Paia
  8. Kayak to Molokini
  9. Sunset kayak tour
  10. Some other kayak tour
  11. Surfing!
  12. Kayak trip to Gilligan’s Island! – wonder if it will be more than a three hour tour (a three hour tour)
  13. Hiking on Diamondhead
  14. Visiting with Sue’s niece (actually my second cousin’s kid) who lives in Honolulu
  15. Relax? – probably not, but figured I would put it in anyway
  16. Avoid Steven’s colleagues

A couple of interesting points.  Seems like everything starts early in the morning especially the kayaking.  Haleakala is about 11,000 feet high and the sunrise tour starts at 3 am, so it will be cold.  The kayak trip to Molokini is 3.5 miles each way and since neither Sue nor I are real kayakers, we have no idea how hard that would be. (How hard could it be???)  Sue is not interested in surfing (I have trouble balancing on firm ground.), but I don’t think that will stop me.  I am a certified Scuba diver, but Sue has never done it, so maybe we will try and fit that in to see if she likes it.

When we decided to start up this blog, I did the only thing reasonable –I went out and bought a new toy–a GoPro camera.  (I helped the purchase along when he was dithering by suggesting the blog.) Now I am trying learn how to use it and will hopefully master it before we go. (Hmmm, I noticed this is I and not we. Where’s my GoPro?)   I’ll post some videos before we go so you can see the learning curve (which hopefully isn’t too long) on my new favorite toy.