Just minutes from San Francisco on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge sits the tiny and charming seaside village of Sausalito. Many people say it reminds them of the Mediterranean. It has even been compared to the French Riviera. Another option to get to Sausalito is by ferry. The Sausalito Ferry will get you there faster than the bus or driving. … [Read more...]
Going To The Sun Road Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park is located in the state of Montana in the U.S.A. It shares a border with Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Together the two parks make up the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. We highly recommend visiting both parks if you have time. … [Read more...]
Byodo-In Buddhist Temple
Byodo-In Temple Information And Location The Byodo-In Temple is an exact scale replica of a 900 year old Fuji temple in Japan. It was built in the 1960's to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants that arrived in Hawaii. The entire temple was built with out the use of nails. We enjoyed walking around the grounds surrounding the temple. They were very tranquil and picturesque. There are ponds full of huge Koi Fish. We noticed a few cats sitting around the water edge captivated by them. It was as if they were almost in a trance like state staring at them. Inside the temple is a Buddha … [Read more...]
Honolulu’s Chinatown, Iolani Palace And Aloha Tower
Once you get to this section of Honolulu there are many attractions with in walking distance of each other. You can easily spend half a day or longer depending on what you would like to see in the area. Exploring Downtown Honolulu Website Chinatown Honolulu's Chinatown dates back to the 1800's. Some of the original architecture is still standing today. It's well worth spending a few hours checking out the area. There are many places to eat truly authentic Chinese Food. The open air market is full of exotic fruits and vegetables, and live fish to buy fresh out of the tank. The busy … [Read more...]
Our In Inexpensive Waikiki Hotel and Car Rental
We were ending our stay in Hawaii with a week on the island of Oahu. We used our airmiles to book a stay at the Aqua Palms & Spa Hotel. There are many Aqua hotels in in the Waikiki area, we like the particular location of this one. It was at the far end of the Waikiki area, across the street from the Hilton Hawaiian Village. This location is out of the main Waikiki hustle and bustle. It is much quieter, yet only blocks away from the beach, main attractions and restaurants in the area. The staff at the hotel were very friendly and extremely helpful in giving us the information we needed … [Read more...]
Volcano National Park
We decided to do another day trip to the other side of the island to explore the Volcano National park. Even though we had flown over it by helicopter, we thought it would be worth visiting on foot. This would be our fourth visit to the the windward side of the island and unfortunately the fourth time we would experience rain there. We passed by vast areas of old and newer lava flows and got some really nice views of the coast along the way. We took the southern route along highway 11 to get to the park. Punalu'u Black Sand Beach Our first stop en route was at Punalu'u black sand beach. … [Read more...]
Liliuokalani Gardens and Banyan Tree Drive
Lili'uokalani gardens were designed to honor Hawaii's first Japanese immigrants. It's a 30 acre park filled with ponds, bridges and pagodas. It's a great place to stroll around. Some of trees were of massive proportions. Banyan drive has more than 50 huge trees that were planted 60 to 70 years ago by visiting celebrities. Each tree has been named after the person who planted it. Some familiar names are Amelia Earhart, King George V, Babe Ruth, Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. … [Read more...]
Whale Watching and Dolphins
We paid for a whale watching trip with Captain Dan McSweeny. They do whale watching tours from late December to March. The whales migrate to the warm waters of Hawaii in winter to mate and calve. This particular company offers an early morning and an afternoon excursion. We opted for the early morning trip since this tends to have the calmest waters. Jack can get quite sea sick so we wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He tried Bonanmine for the first time instead of Gravol or Dramamine. It worked really well and doesn't seem to make you as sleepy. The Sperm whale, False Killer … [Read more...]
Hawaiian Luau
Having never been to Hawaii before we decided we must experience a lu'au while we are here. We heard that the one at the Kona Village resort was one of the better ones. Unfortunately it has the most expensive price tag of the luau's, but none of them are cheap by any means. Overall we thought the food and entertainment were excellent. They have two different types of luau's to attend. One is an evening dedicated to just Hawaiian dancing and the one that we chose covers all the Polynesian types of dancing. They showed different examples from Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa and … [Read more...]
Helicopter Over the Volcano
The only way to see active lava at our time of travel was from the air. The flow that had been coming from the volcanic area and leading to the sea is no longer going in that direction. We booked an afternoon helicopter tour that left from Hilo. It makes for a long day driving about 41/2 to 5 hours return trip to Hilo, but it cuts the cost of the helicopter price. If you leave by helicopter from Kona to see the volcano it will cost $400 or more per person. We took off from Hilo airport and headed in the direction of the volcanic area. We flew over areas of macadamia and orchid farms. We … [Read more...]