Massive and un-restrained title change was necessary

So Tracy and I went on an extended 11 day (or so) long vacation. We had a short, two-day stopover in Portland to visit Rex and Niaz, and then we continued our journey on to Maui, Hawaii.









Rex and Niaz gave us quite a tour of Portland- we visited all of the grocery stores that are scattered throughout the city- nothing like wal-mart has really taken hold. We also went to several awesome places to eat. Typhoon, a Thai Restaurant, and The Grease Pit, which was a tiny hamburger shack.
Typhoon served some of the most. delicious. food I have ever had- A Peanut Red Curry (which I am definitely going to experiment with) and a crab Pad Thai. delicious!
The Grease Pit had gigantic, 1/2 lb hamburgers, 6 strips of bacon, a slice of cheese, and 3 tablespoons of grease. They were also delicious, in an old-fashioned american sort of way.
The owner offered us a free meal if we could beat some of his challenges. They included (all in a minute or less): Eating a stick of butter, 8 saltine crackers, 6 oz of peanut butter, a 32 oz milkshake, a cup of ice, and various other challenges. He also offered us a free chili cheese dog if we could eat it in under one minute with no hands, 5 dollars off of our meal if we ate three napkins, and so on. FINALLY, he challenged us to eat dollar bills and he would double our money. They could only be dollar bills, though, no greater denominations.

I'm sure there were more challenges, but those are the ones I currently remember. It was an interesting experience.





We visited a Portland Rose Garden (I don't remember exactly where it was located). A little late in the season for Roses, maybe, but still pretty.
















The view was nice. unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures in Portland as I would have liked to. Can't tell you why, I guess I kept forgetting the camera.

We also visited Lewis & Clark College, where Niaz is working on her Master's degree.

So it's been a couple of days- I finally caught up on most of my sleep. I'll continue the tour now...



I actually managed to snap some decent pictures from inside the 757. This one gives you a nice view of the ocean and sky, along with the airplane wing.

We started spotting land after getting about halfway through The Golden Compass (audiobook) and watching some movie with Robin Williams as a crazy stalker-preacher.





After what should have been seven or eight hours of flight ended up only being about two hours of elapsed time because of the time zone change. Not only was it brighter and warmer in Hawaii, it almost wasn't any later!






But apparently we weren't landing on whatever Island that was, because we flew over and past it. Good pictures, though.


















After a quick stop at the Island of Hawaii (Called the big island to keep the confusion between the Island and the state, which is composed of some 137 islands and atolls), we hurried on to Maui. I will mention that when we landed on Hawaii there was no screen to tell us where our connecting flight was. We kinda wandered around, finally asked someone, and came within 2 minutes of missing the connecting flight to Maui.




Upon arrival in Maui, we stood around at the airport for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Our hotel was in Ka'anapali, and we were at the airport, which is essentially in Wailuku. Ka'anapali is maybe 40 miles away from Wailuku (I'm guesstimating here), but it ends up being almost an hour drive (the first time you do it, anyway) because of the low speed limits combined with crazy turns.
Here is a map to help you out with destinations. I want to point out that this map shows Highway 30 along the West coast as Maui as "more or less" straight. It's not. straight. at all.
Although, It was much straighter than the other coastal highways we were on, I guess. This same map shows the Hana Highway (Highway 36) along the Northeastern coast as straight, too. WRONG!


Anyway, we ended up renting a Chevy Cobalt (lowest trim level and automatic- I looked in a trunk for the noose some chevys come with but it wasn't present. Shame.) from Enterprise. They didn't actually have a car available- pretty much NO one did (or they wanted to charge 25 extra dollars a day because I'm not 25 quite yet), but the incredibly nice lady gave us a lot of help.
Before leaving Wailuku, we stopped and ate at "Da Kitchen." I had some Kalbi ribs, and Tracy had some sort of Mahi-Mahi (which means strong-strong in Hawaiian). both were delicious. By the time we left for Ka'anapali it was 7:30 or 8:00 pm.

Regardless of what it may look like on the map, the fastest way to Ka'anapali from Wailuku is to take Highway 380 (also known as dairy road) to Highway 30, and then take 30 around the West Coast to Ka'anapali. Both Tracy and I were too excited to be tired, so it was a relatively easy drive. We drove with mountains on our right and the ocean on our left (although we couldn't see the ocean very well that first night). There were NO street lights (because of the curvy road and scenery) and the headlights on the cobalt are like itsy-bitsy flashlights compared to what I'm used to on the Si, so visibility was... poor. I loved all of the curves in the highway, would have loved them more with a better car.

but that's not what I went to Hawaii for, right?

After checking in to Ka'anapali Villas, we made our way to our room. I noticed several banana slugs (ranging from 3 to 5 inches long) wandering outside on the cement, and a Mediterranean gecko was clinging to the wall next to our door.


Here's the KITCHEN! can you believe it? we got a kitchen complete with a knife set and even a fridge.












I'm going to have to stop here for now. it's way late and I have to work tomorrow! more later.

a maui update is on the way. :) give it a day or so.

Tracy and I are going to Hawaii for a little over a WEEK! I cannot put into words just how excited I am to get out of the center of the U.S. for a while- this place is alright, but MAN I need a couple days on a beach.

If all goes well, I'll be posting many pictures in a couple weeks!

jeanette-

I TOTALLY didn't expect a response! I have a strange habit, when i am bored, of clicking "next blog," reading a couple posts, and then moving on to another.

no, my car isn't literally at the bottom of lake superior. I put it into a ditch swerving through water like a moron. :) everything is fine now. how's school going for you?

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