Category Archives: On The Road

There are lots of pictures from this morning in the gallery.

At the Lu’au, the previous evening, Mark and I got a tip that the place to go on the island for boogy boarding was a beach far out west. According to our maps, it was about as far west as you could possibly go on our little island. So, on Saturday, we decided to head in that direction. Check out Mark with the shibby rental car during our morning drive on the sunny southern shore…

By 9am or so, we were driving through the nice little town of Waimea, where the road forks. On one side, the road branches north into a famously beautiful canyon. On the other side was our beach. We decided to take a couple of hours and drive up into the Waimea canyon for a bit of a look around.

The canyon was AMAZING. In the course of less than 20 miles or so, the road wound from the ocean’s edge to over 4000ft above sea level. Everywhere we stopped we saw amazing, green, lush, cliffs and beautiful steep valleys. Many of the Jurrasic Park movies were filmed on this island, and it really felt like I was walking through some kind of paleolithic rainforest at times.

The road winds along the rim of the canyon, and at the end of the road is an overlook and many trails winding along the north shore of the island, also known as the Nepali Coast. This region of ultra-steep and ultra-green rainforested cliff lines are so incredibly beautiful that they just don’t seem real. It feels like you’re standing on top of a movie set!

Some day I want to go back and backpack through this canyon. It is such an amazing place, I’ve never seen anything like it. But on this day of our vacation, we were hungry for lunch and some boogy boarding so we decided to head back down to Waimea for the next leg of our adventure.

Sorry I’ve been so slow to pound these out. There’s more shots from the day in the gallery.

On Mark’s first full day on the island, we wanted to get out and see as much of the area as possible. In the morning, we drove up to Lihue and had breakfast at Oki Diner. It was pretty darn great, Mark’s pancakes had bananas baked right in, and mine had macadamia nuts baked inside!

We then decided to find Maike, who was sitting on a beach on the south side of the island. Her beach wasn’t the best for boogie boarding, so we headed off to find a better one. On the way, we stopped in to check out the Spouting Horn blow-holes.

Next, we headed to Sheraton beach in hopes of better surf. There was a sandy break, but it was too small to ride. A larger break down the beach was totally dominated by a surf school. So, we gave up after a while and decided to snorkel.

I thought this was one of the coolest things I have done in quite a while! I don’t have a camera that works underwater, but I really wish I did. The fish were everywhere, and they were soooo colorful, and funny shapped! I’ve seen fish like these in aquariums, but I never thought I would be able to swim with them in real life! We have a friend who dives all of the time, and he’s been trying to convince us to dive as well for years. I always blew him off, because I never felt there was all that much to see under water. Wow was I wrong! I really want to go some place where I can snorkel again, it was awesome!

So, I was having a lot of fun, and I started diving down to the sea floor to touch or check out things. At one point, I see this giant black sea urchin, and I think “Wow, can I pull that up?” Yes, evidently my oxygen-deprived brain thought that grabbing the huge black sea urchin was a good idea. Needless to day, the sea urchin bit back, and in a split second my snorkeling was over.

After soaking my fingers in vinegar for a couple of hours, I was fine to go to the big event of the week, the Lu’au that we made reservations for back in January. It was a great evening, and open bar with all the Mai-ti’s we could drink pre-paid! A HUGE buffet including fresh local fruit, Kalua pork, grilled fish, and even poi! Mark and I both tried the poi, and while I enjoyed it, Mark thought it was the most disgusting thing he’d eaten in a really long time.

The dancers were fantastic all night long. I got a whole bunch of blurry shots, but the experience was fantastic. At the end of the night, a Maori fire dancer came out and performed. This guy was incredible, and really topped off a great show. For future reference, Mark and I definitely recommend the Sheraton Lu’au.

More shots from the day can be found in the gallery.

On Thursday, we finished up at the conference, and adjourned an hour or so early so people could make their flights. Tak and Kaz were gracious enough to let me tag along as they drove south to their next hotel, and eventually, they would drop me off at the car rental place so I could get the car and pick up Mark at the airport.

The sky above the north shore was doing that thing where it was sunny one minute, and pouring rain the next (repeat as necessary). Looking back on my shots, this rapid and repeating transition made them all very mutable, one minute clear and colorful, the next dark and ominous.

Our first stop was a small beach down a steep (STEEP) wet and muddy trail. The maps called this one “Hidaways Beach” or Pali Ke Kua Beach. It was a beautiful little spot of sand and clear blue-green ocean wedged in between two hundred-foot-tall sea cliffs. Beautiful.

The next stop was called “Queen’s Bath” and required a longer, but less scary, hike to get to. The trail wound through dense rainforest and then out onto a black, volcanic rock coastline, with huge waves crashing all around us. There were waterfalls pouring over the rocks, waves crashing 50ft into the air, and supposedly turtles swimming just off the rocks (I never saw one).

The Queen’s Bath itself was a large pool formed in the rock, and as the waves crashed over the edge, they filled across the pool in a beautiful way that I think I was completely unsuccessful in capturing in the camera.

Our final stop on the road to the airport was Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. While you couldn’t (or maybe we just didn’t) hike through the refuge, there was a great overlook where you could see hundreds of birds swirling through the air. They were all carrying sticks and grass for nest-making, I guess it’s that time of year!

In the evening, I stopped in at the car rental place, and was plesently surprised to find out that the “Toyota Corrolla or equivalent” that I had reserved turned out to be a charcoal grey 2007 Mustang coupe! Vroom! When I saw Mark’s smile as he walked out of the airport and saw me in this car, I knew it was going to be a fun weekend!

Pictures from the first three days of the trip can be found in the gallery.

Wow! What a week! My plane took off from DIA around 10am on Monday morning (Feb 19). It was fun flying out with all of my co-workers. Even though the first flight was a bit too roller-coaster-y for my tastes, the mood in the planes was festive and excited.

We landed in Kauai at around 6pm local time that evening. There’s something so wonderful about stepping off a plane into a warm, breezy, tropical atmosphere. The airport was basically outdoors, with three of the four walls open to the breeze, and the sound of palm trees swaying and roosters crowing filled the air.

It was wonderful to be in the warmth and sun of the islands. But my conference was three days long, and located on the rainy north shore. I soon learned that tropical rain storms are great! One minute the sun is beating down, the next the heavens open up and water simply pours out. Then, a few minutes later, the sun is out again, and there is almost always a rainbow.

We worked hard for those three days. I got great input on my masters project, and a serious learning experience as I presented it to the group. I met people from all over the world who were working on similar topics as I was, and I volunteered for more work than I probably should have. The group in general made great progress, as people seemed excited to be here, excited about their past work, and excited about all future prospects. Except, perhaps, whether you can call a 17km-grid model a true Cloud Resolving Model. Probably not.

I was so busy that I only got about an hour one day to go down to the beach and take pictures of the beautiful Hanalei Bay. While we had a great view from the conference room, I was in Kauai for two days before I was able to actually touch the water. And even then, it was just a little bit of wading, as I had to go back in for more work soon. But the Bay was incredibly beautiful. With huge waterfalls in the distance, surfers, boogie boarders, and snorklers peppering the water, and such warm water and sun!

Even though it rained every day, there was some sun every day too, and a very productive conference. Definitely a great place to be and to work.

We’re back, and I’m getting the photos sorted out. I hope to be able to put together a nice, detailed trip report in a day or so.

For now, the overview of the trip is simply: I had a team meeting/conference in Kauai on the north shore in the Princeville resort last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Mark had a trade show in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday. After his conference, Mark flew out to meet me in Kauai, and we spent a long weekend exploring as much of this incredible island as we could. It was a great trip, we both had a great time!

Lots of great photos from the trip can be found in the gallery!

Mark and I bought the tickets, and last weekend we found ourselves boarding an airplane for New York City. It was good to get some time in back in the stratosphere, because the last time Mark and I flew, it was a really rough ride, with a long scary, rolling, and eventually aborted landing into the airport. It was nice to remember that most flights in big planes are no big deal. Especially since we are due for eight hours in the air on the way to Kauai in just over a week.

We arrived in Manhattan at around 10pm their time Friday night. I remembered the wrong address for the hotel, and we ended up having the cab drop us off with all of our luggage on a random corner of Broadway. The first adventure of the weekend was wandering through Times Square with our luggage over our shoulders on a Friday Night!

We found the hotel after only a few blocks of walking. We were staying at the Amsterdam Court Hotel, which is a smaller, older building, with a great atmosphere. The elevator was tiny, and moved slowly and jerkily as if it had been retrofitted with the auto-driver. The main staircase had marble stairs with deep, smooth grooves worn into them as people had been walking up and down these for 200 years. Our room was tiny, but decorated in a simple, modern style that I really liked.

Saturday morning we got up late, and headed out to see some city sights before we were due for our dinner reservations. We checked out the classic spots in mid-town, Rockefeller center, shopping on Fifth Ave, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, FAO Schwartz, and even a bit of Central Park.

Saturday evening was the big event. Beginning with dinner at Sardi’s at 6:30p. The menu was adventurous and delicious. I had fois gras for the first time, and I decided it really does taste like tortured-goose liver. I didn’t eat much of it. The show started at 8p, and we made it without much issue. Watching Les Miserables for the first time, I realized that there were a lot of adult jokes and snipes that I never got from just listening to the CDs. I enjoyed it; Mark felt the second act was pretty slow.

On Sunday, we hopped on the subway and headed up to the American Museum of Natural History. This was a cool place, but we ended up in many of the “animals of [insert part of North America here]” exhibits. These were interesting, but Mark and I have actually visited many of these places and seen these animals. It was weird walking through exhibits describing all of the wonders of the Rocky Mountains, when we would be heading back there in a few hours.

I did really enjoy all of the fossils and skeletons on the top floor. I had no idea that animals like these actually existed! There were tortoises bigger than me, moose-like animals with racks of antlers so huge it looked like they couldn’t hold their heads up, and giant scary fish with huge teeth and claws on their feet/fins!

That evening we made it to our gate at the airport a full three hours before our flight left, and there was another plane to Denver getting ready to take off. The awesome United guy managed to get our luggage moved over and let us take the earlier flight home. What a great weekend and an excellent adventure!

Looking towards the alter area of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This amazing landmark sits on 5th avenue in Manhattan, and towers over the original Saks 5th Ave and a huge Banana Republic. In other words, walking in here is like walking into another world.

I’ve gotten a good number of pics from last weekend resized and organized, and I should have them up in the gallery soon.

Just got back from a trip to New York City! This is the view south of a snowy landscape as our plane banked and headed in for a landing at Denver International Airport. More cool pictures from the trip will be showing up in the gallery in the next few days!