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Our Great Adventure

Joined March 2018 Message
  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day30

    Day 29 Oakland to Baltimore

     March 25, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 45 °F

    We made it home, very grateful to Katie for picking us up at the airport and for taking care of Larry's tortoise while we were away. Planes today had 30 some passengers each. It has been a great month, now we self quarantine for 14 days. Thanks for tagging along on our fun trip!Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day28

    Day 28 Honolulu to Oakland

     March 23, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    Travel day. A few changes to our flight departure time got worked out and we flew to Oakland CA. The plane was 2/3 full! The hotel was by doing a shuttle, provided Uber from and back to the airport. Home tomorrow!Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day27

    Day 27 - Honolulu

     March 22, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Andrew fixed us a nice protein pancake breakfast, then we finished packing up and checked out. We went to their apartment to put food leftovers in the refrigerator, and then set out for a walk. It was beautiful and sunny, we walked all the way back to downtown, through Chinatown section, and saw the Cathedral l of St Andrew, Iolani Palace and Andrew and Dani's church. The streets did not have much traffic and few people were out. There has been a Norwegian cruise ship stranded here all week, passengers aren't allowed off. We walked almost four miles, then were back at the apartment for a light unch and a couple of rounds of Upwords. We walked to the store for some plane snacks and breakfast items, as the hotel we are staying at has closed their buffet breakfast. Picked up Korean fried chicken at Zippys for dinner, saw a full rainbow, as a light misty rain had started, and played one more round before going to check in at our airport hotel for the night. It has a shuttle to take us to the airport tomorrow. We have had such a great time with Andrew and Dani. It is hard to say goodbye, but it is only for a few months.Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day26

    Day 26

     March 21, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    Dani went to pick up Andrew after his 24 hour duty (he does get some sleep during that time) while I made a breakfast quiche. It is so nice to have a kitchen! We had a leisurely breakfast, and then did some packing, as we will be checking out tomorrow. Then Andrew took us to one more part of the island that we hadn't seen, the lower east side. All state parks are closed, and had yellow tape across the parking lot entrances. But there were still people on the beach. We parked on the side of the road and watched the surfers for awhile. Next we went to Bellows Air Force Base where there was a beautiful white powdery sand beach, just for Military families. We took a nice long walk on the beach, enjoying the sun, breeze and waves. On the drive back we passed Kokohead mountain and Diamondhead. We had hoped to be able to climb Diamondhead, but it is a state park and is closed. We stopped by Andrew and Dani's apartment to drop off their things, and picked up some supper. Then a quick trip to Walmart to get a new game and a Redbox movie. There weren't too many games left, I guess everyone had the same idea. But we found Upwords, and got the movie " The Great War" about a troop of black soldiers in WWI.
    Upwords was fun, I don't know how our family missed out on this game all these years!    Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day25

    Day 25-Honolulu

     March 20, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Dani took Andrew to work early, then ran. She got called into her school to get training for online teaching starting April 1 if they are not back in school. It was a beautiful sunny day today, at last, so Larry and I walked down to waikiki Beach. Today there were yellow caution tapes blocking access to the beach, no lifeguards. But there were still lots of people on the beach so we joined them for a bit to soak up some sun. Apparently Hawaii law allows you to cross a beach even if it is closed, to access the ocean. Weird, I know, so we kept our feet in the water and just walked across the beach.
    After lunch, Dani took us out Sightseeing. We started out at Hawaii's National Memorial Cemetary. It is also called the Arlington of the Pacific. It is a military cemetary in a volcano crater with fantastic views of Honolulu. It was impressive, beautiful and sobering. Most locals call it the "Punchbowl". Then we drive to Fort Island and walked a bit, saw a memorial to the USS Utah that sank during WW2 bombing. On the other side of the island we saw the USS Missouri but it is closed. We also saw the USS Arizona Pearl Harbor memorial from a distance across the harbor as it is also closed to visitors. Then we stopped at panda express and picked up dinner for us and for Andrew and headed to his ship. He had a 24 duty until 8am tomorrow but had time for a visit from us. He took us on a tour of the USS Wayne E Meyer and spent over an hour showing us where the sailors eat, and and where the officers eat, and where he stands when he drives the ship. The ship is being readied to go into dry dock for extensive repairs and won't be done until next February. This was another highlight of the trip, to see Andrew's ship. And hearing all he has to know and the responsibilities he has makes me a very proud mama. No photography was allowed of the ship so no pictures of DDG 108.
    Each day we are seeing fewer people out on the streets and traffic has gotten progressively lighter as the week passed. Our resort is now at 50% occupancy. We have not heard that there will be any travel restrictions that will affect our return home. We fly out on Monday to CA.    Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day24

    Day 24- Honolulu

     March 19, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Andrew had to work today so he and Dani got up early, Dani took him to work, did a bunch of errands and stopped by their apartment to pick up a few things. Mainly games and puzzles for our coronacation🙄😕. She came back Ave we had breakfast and were lazy for awhile. Then Larry and I went to the drugstore and jumped through a few hoops to get his prescription and to get it filled - dont ask, Hawaii has some weird laws. Arriving lunch then out for a walk down to Waikiki Beach. There were still quite a few people on the beach. It didn't rain today but stayed cloudy and overcast. Dani and I started a jigsaw puzzle, Larry napped, and we called the birthday boy and video chatted with Patrick, Peter and Timothy-Betsy was in the tub and Jen was making a birthday cake. We went to pick up Andrew and then set out to find a restaurant open, as they will all close tomorrow except for take out and delivery. Most were not open but we found a place and had a nice dinner. Agreed walking back we played a great game of Ticket to Ride-Europe, Andrew won and I came in last!Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day23

    Day 23-Honolulu

     March 18, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 75 °F

    Everyone slept a little late, and we woke to sunshine and blue skies. We are finding more closes than places open, but we were able to go for a really nice brunch at Liliha Bakery and then went to Hawaiian Village Plantation. It was a cultural educational center with replica buildings of the many different cultures who lived and worked on sugar cane plantations in the early 1900s. About halfway thru we ran into a docent who was doing a tour for one couple from Britain, and he asked us to join them. He was quite a character who had a lot of good information to share. Then Andrew drove us through some of Honolulu's neighborhoods where he likes to run before heading back to our resort condo so I could fix dinner.
    I have been planning this meal since last November when Dani was home alone for Thanksgiving while Andrew was deployed. I brought pumpkin, cranberry sauce and stuffing mix so I could prepare a turkey dinner for us to share together. I cooked a turkey, and baked a pumpkin pie, we also had mashed potatoes, gravy, and roasted asparagus. It was a special time for all of us. It started raining late in the afternoon, so we watched another movie, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood". We also did laundry throughout the day. Supposed to be rainy again tomorrow and Andrew has to work tomorrow and Friday.    Read more

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  • Our Great AdventureCA and HAWAII 2020
    Day22

    Day 22- Honolulu

     March 17, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 70 °F

    It's a rainy day, that is how everything is so green and beautiful. But it's not what I think of when I think of Honolulu. Today was also our first Corona virus cancellation . Hawaii has seemed pretty chill since we have been here, hearing about all the closings but not seeing it so much here. Until today. We had tickets for The Polynesian Cultural Center and luau, but checked their website and found they had closed until the end of the month. Later this week we were going to do Pearl Harbor, and found that it also is now closed for tours. We were going to go to see the movie "I Am Patrick" tomorrow night, but theaters have closed. Many restaurants are also closing. We are in a condo with a kitchen, so we can cook here. So we checked on another place that we had planned for tomorrow and found that the Dole Pineapple Plantation tour was still open, so we jumped in the car and took off before they changed their minds! There was a huge gift shop with pineapple everything, including a demonstration on how to cut a pineapple. Then we got on the pineapple express train to ride around the Plantation and see the fruit growing, it takes 2 years for pineapples to grow. Still a light rain, so we went for lunch at Maui Mike's, a local place that served a family meal of a whole chicken and several sides, it was so good. Then we walked in a nearby botanical garden rain forest--in light rain-so it felt very authentic. It was beautiful and we enjoyed all the plants and flowers. We weren't far from Dole so we went back for a treat of pineapple whip ice cream. We headed further north for 15 min or so and were near the north end of the island, it is much smaller the the Big Island. We stopped to see a couple of beaches, finally big sandy beaches, one was a surfers beach. Then we continued our drive around the island along a scenic Coastal road. It took about an hour to get back to Waikiki. We walked around a little as there are lots of nice shops sound the resort, and noticed a quilt shop across the street, filled with Hawaiian style quilts. We also took a quick peek at the beach but it was getting dark so we headed back to the condo to eat some leftovers for dinner, and then watched a Redbox movie, Knives Out-very cute mystery!Read more

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