# United States & Canada Vacations Forums > General Discussion >  >  Live from North America

## Petri

Trip reporting live from various parts of USA and North America.

Departed Helsinki on schedule for arrival to cold London Heathrow, the longest lasting construction site in the world.  Fast tracking through security didn't quite work, as long queue as the normal ones and the security check at LHR is one of the worst in Europe.

Had bit of a Airbus A380 spotting moment as there were two Qantas A380's parked next to each other at T3.  From the lounge saw both Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines A380's take off.  I've been in a big fan of 747 looks but the sheer size of A380 just makes it the king of airports.  Couldn't help wondering what would be the best time of day at Dubai airport to see as many as possible of Emirates' 31 A380's, now with the new terminal especially designed for it.

Uneventful 11 hour flight in a relatively full 747-400 to San Francisco.   Two glasses of champagne before takeoff, they did try to offer more twice -- not quite Cathay Pacific performance (we drank almost a bottle before takeoff) but well done.
Nice approach to SFO with Golden Gate views but unfortunately we didn't have window seats.  SFO immigration and customs were relatively smooth, not much queues but rather slow.  It would be nice if they'd welcome one to the country.

A great movie tip from the flight: French movie The Intouchables, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675434/ 
One of the best movies I've seen for ages, a good combination of comedy and drama.

Now trying to make tipping a second nature, already overtipped once :)  Where do people get all the $1 notes?

We haven't been to the US since 2008 (a week trip to NYC to cover all the 7 continents in a year).

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## andynap

$1 notes are usually change from larger notes

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## Goooner

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Maui.  It may be my favorite place outside Chicago.

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## JEK

> $1 notes are usually change from larger notes



Breaking news. You read it first on SBHO.

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## andynap

Petri asked- I answered. You are a real wise guy.

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## Petri

The 12 hour time difference jetlag isn't that much fun..





> $1 notes are usually change from larger notes



Ok, I guess I'm not spending cash enough then :)





> Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Maui.  It may be my favorite place outside Chicago.






We'll see..   a non-frozen sea, sun and warm weather are a good start!   Seawater is surprisingly cold, might be a while before I get in.  My type of water is either pretty cold but followed by a sauna, or warm like fresh cow's milk.

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## Goooner

What pat of the island are you staying on?

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## Petri

> What pat of the island are you staying on?



Napili right now, moving to Waikea on tuesday and things like trip to Hana and Haleakala national park on the itinerary.  It's been quite windy but otherwise perfect weather.

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## Goooner

You mean Wailea? That is a bit more calm than the other side of the island.  There are a few good sushi places in Kihei which is immediately north.  Wailea has some amazing snorkeling.  Right off the Four Seasons we've seen a lot of sea turtles.  Big sharks like the area too though so be alert.  One day, just drive south from Wailea until the road ends.  You end up at La Perousse Bay. The drive is maybe 1/2 hour.  Along the way is Big Beach (Makena).

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## Goooner

Also, count us with the people who were not wowed by sunrise at Haleakala. However, the view of the crater made it it all worth it.  The nearly complete lack of vegetation is somehow very moving.  It is something to be experienced.

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## Petri

Wailea, yes, sorry for the typo.  Thanks for the recommendations, I noticed that Big beach on the map the other day and was thinking if it's something to check out.  We'll be going to Haleakala just for the hike as well, not the sunrise.  Although right now the jetlag makes waking up early very easy :)

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## Goooner

Big Beach is similar to Saline, but with a more American dress code.  Same general idea though.  A beautiful beach with no businesses along it.  And the fish tacos from Jawz Taco (a truck parked outside) are really good.  The waves at the beach can be tough. Be careful.

I know what you mean about jet lag. If you are up early just because you have not adjusted to the time, make sure to enjoy the ocean front path in Wailea.  Last time we were there I was out around 5:30 a.m.  It really is beautiful at the hour.  I wouldn't recommend swimming at that hour though because the big sharks  (tigers and sometime whites) really do come in and are feeding at that hour.  Let them have the area until about 8:00 or so.

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## Petri

Booked a flight, accommodation and car yesterday and today we've moved on from Maui to another island north, Kaua'i.  We've also tried various types of accommodation, on Maui first small beach hotel to a condo, followed by a grand resort here on Kaua'i (to start with).  Not so surprisingly condos are more our type, we don't need the services and prefer the "self-do" atmosphere, I guess the closes to B&B's well find here on HI.  

We didn't like the convertible Ford Mustang on Maui that much (bad pedals and rear suspension) and chose a convertible Chrysler 200 instead -- what a difference.  We'll try the Camaro at some point, too.  I wonder what's the equivalent to "driver's car" in the US?  We don't want to rent a BMW (or Audi or Merc) but something that's not available (or common) in Europe.  A bit like it's hard to imagine not renting a Fiat 500 or Alfa Romeo in Italy.

I'll wrap up Maui in a few days and our "first week in the US" experience.  Not that we haven't known the quirks before but this time we'll think like we are in a new country :)

But first my new favourite airplane, the A380 next to a BA's 777-300ER, your average transport over the ocean.  One can't argue it has a certain presence on an airport, can one..

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I won't bore you with only beaches :)

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## Petri

En route..  as maybe mentioned earlier, we had booked just HEL-LHR-SFO-LHR-HEL flights.  For the first stop in Hawaii, I booked a separate ticket from Oakland to Kahului.  The overnight stay at Holiday Inn airport hotel was pretty uneventful -- just to recharge after a long flight (~14 hours in the aluminium tube).

OAK airport was our first experience with the modern TSA airport security (arrival to SFO was pretty straightforward, slow as hell but..).  Luckily not much of a queue but the feared belt off - shoes off routine.  Luckily the TSA lady at the front was pretty cheerful and greeted with a friendly good morning.

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How american is that..  iPad..  a coffee in a plastic mug..  a cap..  pre-order inflight meal (for a 5+ hour flight!)..   no, that's not me :)

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A glimpse of Golden Gate en route to the Pacific.  Bay Bridge looked much cooler through the fog but the camera wasn't ready at the time.

We flew to Maui with Hawaiian Airlines.  The german signs on the plane were a bit funny, though.  An old pre-Air Berlin plane from Germany.

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## Petri

*Maui*

First stop on our tour was Maui, one of the better known islands in Hawaii.  Very little expectations what to see although I did have some trouble finding a decent accommodation; many were fully booked, didn't fancy paying too much, and I just couldn't see the parity between the property and prices.  My wild guess is that people often travel there as a package and most people don't pay the normal prices.

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The sunsets are simply beautiful.  And the ocean is at least as beautiful.

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We did plan to do some SUP and other stuff but sorry guys, the water is cold!  We didn't even go swimming.

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As recommended, the highlight was the Haleakala National Park with a short hike to the crater itself.  Quite a stunning, out-of-this-world place it is.

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We also did the Road to Haka, which was nice but I guess there hasn't been much rain as the waterfalls were pretty small.  Nice but I'd rank the volcano the best sight on the island.  Perhaps this sight is such a highly regarded as one can do with the car :)

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There was a stand with amazing ice cream from coconut milk.  I wish coconut milk ice cream was more widely available.  My stomach doesn't seem to like the local milk used for cappucinos/lattes, I guess it's some non-fat stuff as the foam is pretty bad, too.  I have the same problem at home so it's mostly about processed milk, the more natural, more fat milk is fine.  I guess I'll google the best coffee house on Big Island to get a nice memory of hawaiian coffee :)

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The amount of ice cream in the supermarkets is also, well, stunning.  We get just a dozen or so B&J flavours back at home so there's plenty to try -- not sure we'll do all of them, though..

Talking about food, this country seems to drive from sugar and carbs.  One must make some effort to avoid all the extra energy from simple foods.

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And being proper tourists, we did the whale watching as well -- although they seem to be such a common task from the coastline in general.  We had originally booked a photo safari at sunset, with a professional photographer and just half a dozen passengers.  Unfortunately the e-mail confirmation listed a wrong marina and they didn't bother to wait 5 minutes for us the get to the right place.  Luckily the did refund the trip and offered an ordinary trip at discount but as always, pretty lame with too many people.

With previous travels we've learnt to look for the special tours and trips that typically offer more value for the money, less crowds and better experience in general.


Not very many foreign tourists, in fact at the restaurant in Hana we saw more foreigners than elsewhere combined.  The island must have had it's peak somewhere in the 80's I guess, gracefully aged grand old lady or something.  That's how our first accommodation looked, in good shape but way overpriced IMHO.  Our second home was a 2-br condo, cheaper and exactly what we'd want.

We enjoyed our stay but I don't think this island was anywhere near our favourite islands list.  Reminded a bit of the holiday resorts places in Spain, Greece or Italy -- but with a lot heftier price tag attached.

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## Petri

I've figured really easy way to convert dollars to euros, and be a model tipper; 1 USD is about 0.77 EUR right now.  Add the tip, 1.20 USD is almost 1 EUR.  If something costs 42$, it will be about 42€ at the end.

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## LindaP

Hope you are having a good time, Petri.....yes, avoid the American sugar and carb diet! Ha, and good luck with that in the west; where coffee is king! And Starbucks on every corner USA.
   Do you look at Trip advisor and Lonely Planet for reference ? Maybe good things of interest and info there.
    Enjoy San Fran....although I imagine its pretty chilly now.

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## Goooner

In Hawaii, search for 100% Kona coffee.  Should be expensive but very good.

You will see a lot of fakes -- coffee called Kona but then having only 10% Kona.  Go for the real thing.

Other than Jamaican Blue Mountain, it is the best coffee anywhere.

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## Petri

I planned to leave the Kona experience to the Big Island, where we are moving tomorrow to.

My favourite type of coffee is a macchiato/flat white type, made with decent espresso and real, fat milk micro foam.  So far we've noticed that double shot cappuccino gets closest but usually there are two problems; the espresso is too hot (aka burned), which I believe comes from the need to carry the coffee around in the mug for longer period, and milk foam is below standard (good foam requires both good, fatty milk and skills).

We visit the Kauai coffee plantation and they seemed to have the ingredients right; the coffee tasted fine and the milk was 2% skimmed (not that I exactly know what that is but it sounded better than soy milk), but they failed the temperature and foam.  Today at Starbucks the guy did excellent foam but that's about it, had to throw half the cup away..  Anyway, so far the best coffee at Kauai's Poipu natural food market store.

The problem with highly ranked beans is that to get best out of them, one has to prepare the coffee well, too.  It's too easy to spoil good beans and good baristas make great coffee from "normal" beans, too.

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## andynap

We stayed st the Mauna Lani on the big island years ago. A beautiful property with an Oceanside golf course built on lava. Actually a lot of the island is built on lava. It had a old time vibe to it and the King Ranch was still in operation.

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## Petri

> ... It had a old time vibe to it ...



Is there anything else here? :-)

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## andynap

Oh I think you'll find something to do- the resorts have a lot going on and Kona is a nice village

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## Petri

> Oh I think you'll find something to do- the resorts have a lot going on and Kona is a nice village



I was referring to the old vibe that everything seems to have on these islands :)

On the coffee front we had coffee here on Big Island after picking up the rental car at konamountaincoffee.com's shop.  Wow, the best coffee we've had on HI so far -- great taste, right temperature, and perfect milk foam (she even asked if we prefer "foamy" or "wet" -- "wet" was the right answer).  They seem to roast the beans at the shop and do some chocolates as well.  Promising!

We're staying at the Fairmont next to the Mauna Lani.   Not really our type of place but we'll suffer through.  I even left tip to the maid at the previous place!  (Not like in Gran Cayman years ago -- they told it's customary to leave tip to the maid, I asked how much, 15%? -- and left 15% of the amount we paid for the accommodation itself.  I haven't left anything to the maids since then.)

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## Petri

One part of the trip is that we've only drank US wines.  And so far the experience has been quite positive!

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## Reed

Hey Petri,

We spent 5 winters on the Big Island.  Try going North from where you are up to the funky little town of Hawi (pronounced HA-VEE).  Have a drink at Bamboo and for a scenic drive from there take HWY 250 down to Waimea.  Beautiful!  Even though we lived there on Alii Drive in Kona, I am not a great fan of the town.  Head down to the Captain Cook and you will pass numerous coffee spots before you get to CC which is a great place to kayak.  Our favorite coffee place (I believe you would have to make an appointment) was Pele Plantation.  100% organic Kona.  They use to do a private label for us that we used for catering gigs on Nantucket (before we felt compelled to use a local Nantucket source).  Nice people.  Our favorite resto there was without a doubt the Grille at the Four Seasons.  We are not resort people so that was not the lure.  Amazing food at their more casual resto on the property. Also some decent restos in Waimea like Merriman's.
You really should take a trip over to the Hilo side and be sure to do the "scenic tour" and then the Akaka Falls hike.  I have not done this, but my husband "Kona" recommends the night time walk to the lava fields starting at the Yaegar visitor center, take the road down (about 25 miles) and park.  Bring a flashlight and comfortable shoes.  Back in the day, this was not an organized tour but a park ranger will guide you in the right direction.  If you want to the the luau thing I would suggest going to Kona Village (also a cool place to stay in a "hale").  Great kaula pork.  The poi, not so much.

Just a few suggestions that come to mind.  PM me if you have any questions.  My husband spent more time there than I and he might have some other ideas.

Aloha!

Kimberly

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## Petri

Thanks!   We did the Akaka Falls hike today although the weather hasn't been on our side here.  With the rain and fog, this island could well be flat.   Hopefully the weather improves over the next days.

Andy, we walked the beach trail today before sunset and the Mauna Lani looked the best of all (apart from the few huge villas).  Too bad we're not there, this Fairmont is pretty disappointing.

The Royal Caribbean commercial has been running so often on TV at the fitness center that L checked it out and now wants to get on a Oasis of the Seas cruise next month.  She says it would fit the "Hawaii experience" perfectly, I was thinking more about setting foot on Haiti, Jamaica and Mexico, all countries not high on my list otherwise -- I'm more of a North Korea, Abkhazia, Myanmar, Transnistria etc. kind of a person, lol.  Once in a lifetime, perhaps?

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## Petri

Booking new accommodation, flights, cancelling previous reservations, ... world of a travel agent :) 

We'll be hiking the lava fields on thursday evening.  The weather has been sunny for the last two days on this side of the island, seems to improve on the other side as well.

I have diligently been using cash to acquire suitable notes for the future tipping needs.

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## andynap

Funny.

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## Petri

Any recommendations for a place to stay in Miami +- 100 km area?  Preferably towards condo than resort style.  Anyone with a inexpensive villa/house there that would be available for behaving finns?

We need to get our trip back on track but I doubt it will happen in a few weeks  :Music2:

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## Petri

Still on the islands, we moved to Oahu yesterday and L is participating bachata course over the weekend.

We also learnt that one needs both dollar notes and quarter coins..  lots of them.

I'll report all the islands together when we eventually leave this place (the delayed spring isn't helping :-).  Apart from the frequent sunshine, not really that much happening anywhere.  We'll do one quick crazy thing when get back to mainland and hopefully return to normal after that :)

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## JEK

Sounds like you are touring a laundromat!

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## Goooner

Oahu is my least favorite of the three Hawaiian islands I've visited.  The north shore is nice, but Maui and Lanai are nicer.  Honolulu reminds me of Chicago, but with worse food, worse traffic, and tiger sharks off a beach slightly larger than Chicago's. The Missouri tour is interesting once though.

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## Petri

> Sounds like you are touring a laundromat!



The hotel charges more for washing a T-shirt than they cost at the store..  but they have a DIY laundry -- with a credit card reader that doesn't work.  As Oahu is an extension to Japan, it's quite fun to watch the japanese girls wondering how the laundry works.





> Oahu is my least favorite of the three Hawaiian islands I've visited. The north shore is nice, but Maui and Lanai are nicer. Honolulu reminds me of Chicago, but with worse food, worse traffic, and tiger sharks off a beach slightly larger than Chicago's. The Missouri tour is interesting once though.





Yes, this is very different from the other islands so far.  We'll probably see what the fuzz about Pearl Harbor is and drive around the island, depending how the weather goes as it has been raining today.  

We've been watching the Big Bang Theory tv-series from the tablet on the plane etc. and visit the Cheesecake Factory yesterday.  I guess we'll need to do Olive Garden as well.  American institutions, you know :)   Otherwise the diet has been mostly fish although I wonder how MikeR rates the fish here..   On Kauai we went to a restaurant and ordered some white zinfandel, ahi poke to share as a started and I ordered a steamed whole fish; the waiter checked that we were ok with a) the wine, b) raw fish in the poke, and c) having a full fish with the bones, head and everything.  LOL.

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## Petri

While L was dancing, I visit a local Verizon store to get us mobile Interweb.  Originally I had planned to get something prepaid from Virgin Mobile but the idea of Sprint's WiMax as 4G and CDMA as 3G didn't sound that good.  Instead I decided to see if the smart people at Verizon Store would sell me something.

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And voila, got a 4G LTE MiFi device (although the prepaid models are the old ones) and a prepaid monthly subscription w/o contract.  $130 for the device and 3G/month for $60 is pretty steep but I guess we'll live with that.  They didn't have problems opening an account with just an e-mail address, didn't even check my ID.  The sales clerk did call their customer services to activate the data plan so when I walked out of the store, the MiFi device was up and running.

The performance is "ok" here but not exactly in the 4G category.  Verizon seems to transit all the traffic to the continent so I'll wait until we get off the islands to see what the real performance and coverage is.

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## KevinS

> The performance is "ok" here but not exactly in the 4G category.



I contend that in the US the term 4G is little more than a marketing term.  It will be interesting to see what your opinion is.

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## Petri

> I contend that in the US the term 4G is little more than a marketing term.  It will be interesting to see what your opinion is.



Our carriers also rank dual-carrier HSPA+ (up to 42 Mbit/s) as 4G but the marketing is getting better now that LTE is getting up and running around the cities.  I can't say I have seen much dual-carrier HSPA+ but the 20+ Mbit/s HSPA+ has very decent coverage, and as that's the case, I don't really plan to rush to an LTE phone.  Maybe next year.

We drove today to the northern shore in Oahu and I got full bars on the device there, somewhere nearby a mast.  Speedtest from San Francisco gave ~15 Mbit/s down, ~20 Mbit/s up, which was pretty good IMHO.  The download speed could have been better but the LTE's upload speeds are just amazing.

Our carriers use mainly the 1800 MHz frequency and there is space for wide 10-20 MHz channels, making it possible to give the 50-100 Mbit/s speeds people are seeing.  The AT&T and Verizon's ~700 Mhz LTE is better for the coverage (our carriers will be doing 800 MHz (this/next year?)) but the channels are typically narrower.

My guess is that I'll be impressed by the LTE coverage in the US and less impressed by the speeds.

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## Petri

> It will be interesting to see what your opinion is.



I'm surprised Verizon's LTE exists here on Lanai as well, and way faster than the interweb Four Season offers (for free, $20/day gets you better interweb for multiple devices although I had no trouble registering multiple devices to the free service either).

But the product management for the prepaid service gets some rap.  I wanted to see how much data we have used so far on the 3GB/month plan.  Trying to register to My Verizon results; "We're sorry but you cannot register your tablet on My Verizon.  Please set-up your account information on your device."

Eh?   Some googling VZ forums and their customer support has responded to someone with a similar need:

"I understand, exactly, how important it is to view and keep track of your device usage and not only is it important but convenient when you can do this all online. The 4G VZ Jetpack that you are using at this time can not be viewed online. Customers using this device must call in to our 24 hour customer service line to view all usage and make payments. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."
.. and it turns out the customer support doesn't really know much about the prepaid service either and the only place to get the real information is the technical support with it's 30+ minute waiting times.

L used the MiFi to access interweb at the HNL airport and asked why don't we use it all the time (the interweb at the hotel in Honolulu was pretty slow and bad WiFi coverage).  I had to tell her about the concept of data caps..

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## Petri

Language barriers

Most of the time our names get spelt wrong, which isn't really surprising.

If I say my first name the way I say it in english followed by spelling it letter by letter, it usually results something like "Patrick".  We were thinking how should I say it to get it written properly and "Pee Tree" might work, but it sounds a bit funny.. (or Tre really, no double i's at the end).

One hard word is "water".  Years ago I said the wrong way and eventually learnt the proper british pronunciation.  Now we've learnt that no one really understands the british way of saying it here.. but usually pick it up from the context (ice-, sparking-).

We are slowly getting along with the "how are you" but the "did you find everything ok" and "do you have questions on the menu" are still slightly surprising..

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## LindaP

Actually, I thought " pee tree" was the way to pronounce your  name! :)
are you getting the " how ya doin" ? Or " What can I get ya"?.......
where do you travel to next?

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## Petri

> Actually, I thought " pee tree" was the way to pronounce your  name! :)



We pronounce exactly the same way words are written, so if one imagines how it would be pronounced in italian or spanish, it gets pretty close.  Abroad I've used a version between "Pee Tree" and "Patrick", which kind of explains the Patrick -thing..  but as the spelling doesn't seem to help here, we started to wonder how to get it right.





> are you getting the " how ya doin" ? Or " What can I get ya"?.......
> where do you travel to next?



Coming from a "I tell you if I need anything" culture, all the questions, oh well.. :)

We will finally leave HI in a couple of days and have something "interesting" booked, after that we might do a sidetrip to Belize before actually starting to look at the US temperature map for >=70F places.  Not exactly the US tour we intended yet, no idea how we managed to so stuck here on the islands either..

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## Hawke

Petri, if you are going to Belize stop in Hopkins. It is a small Garifinu town that my son worked in. If you are there spend an evening at the drummers performance. A mix of Africa and the Caribbean.

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## Petri

Thanks, will look into it!

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## MIke R

> Thanks, will look into it!




do you dive??

amazing world class diving there.... the Blue Hole is amazing

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## Petri

Ah, the brilliant idea of staying at the airport hotel for a good night sleep instead of taking an red-eye flight.

Too bad after a very nice Four Seasons in Lanai one ends up in the worst hotel I can remember, Best Western The Plaza Airport hotel in Honolulu.

On the positive side, one can see the airport but not hear it.  Because the highway next to the hotel makes a way more noise.  More 24h noise than the ear plugs can handle.  And it's f'king freezing here.  When we walked here, we thought they had left the window open.  Hadn't.  I even checked if we could change our tickets or if some other had a last-minute price.  Thought that one night would be fine with the ear plugs.

Now I should sleep fine on the quiet plane, though.  I'll recoup the $170 for this dump from the future tips.  If the hospitality industry doesn't care about me, I don't care about them.

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## Goooner

Which Four Seasons were you at in Lanai? The one at the beach or the one up in the hills?

Did you get to play golf at either of them?

By the way, when swimming there, for some reason my "shark-dar" kept going off.  I repeatedly had an uneasy feeling that there were big fish in the water.
Ironically, it happened much more there than off Wailea, where there were actual attacks shortly before we were there.
Strange feeling.

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## Petri

We were staying at the FS on the beach (Manele Bay) but did have one dinner at the Lodge as well.  But our favourite restaurant was the new Nobu at Manele Bay.  We got a decent deal with their own 5-night-for-4 deal combined with Amex's free breakfast and room upgrade benefits.  Unlike the other places on Hawaii, they didn't charge any resort fees and their oceanview was real.

We had sunshine for most of the time but on the other side of the island they were less lucky, causing our trials for 4WD driving to fail as the roads to the more interesting places were closed.

Unfortunately we don't golf (nor dive) although I've thought that some basic skills on both could be useful, just to enjoy some places a bit more.

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## Goooner

That is also where we stayed. We also enjoyed a meal at the Lodge.

I wasn't as wild about Lanai because other than golf, there did not seem like much to do.

We did play the course at the Lodge. I'm a terrible golfer, but we enjoyed the views from the course. Plus, we were there on business and it was one of the few times that my wife and I could hang out together without anybody bothering us.  Getting four hours of peace was a great .

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## Petri

Agree, there's pretty much nothing to do on Lanai.  They could open some hiking trails and add some more activities, or perhaps the weather is a common issue.  We saw quite a few hunters on our way out.

We heard that there is a plan to open a third, more upscale resort on the island, as part of the Ellison's plans to make something out of Lanai.

I think we enjoyed Lanai more than usual because the weather had been unreliable over the previous week(s) and plenty of small quirks en route, especially with the accommodation.  One started to think that "aloha spirit" is all about the ways you can be fooled..

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## Goooner

By the way, the flight from Honolulu to Lanai was ten times worse than the flight from St. Maarten to St. Barth on a bad day.   We bounced like crazy going both there and back and it seemed like a relatively long flight in context (45 minutes?).

The airport at Lanai was terrible and of course our luggage was lost (Vickie's -- luckily FS is amazing.  They helped her stock up on some of the basics to get us through the night until the bag arrived the next day).

The resort is nice enough, staff is amazing (typical of Four Seasons), and the beach is decent.  We could imagine going to the islands for 10 days and putting Lanai in for a day or so just to play the courses.  They are really beautiful to walk.

Of the places that we've traveled to for her business -- Aruba, Lanai, and Costa Rica, it was in the middle.  I will never complain about spending time at any Four Seasons, but again I don't see us going for more than a day or two.

Not to digress, but the Four Seasons in Costa Rica is really beautiful.

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## Petri

I think the flying time from Honolulu to Lanai is about 20 minutes.  But Island Air and Go! do make anything feel like it takes forever.

I enjoyed the Lanai airport, felt much less like a ruin like all the other airports in Hawaii.  No services, though..   and I can sympathize for loosing the luggage, never fun, especially in a place with no options to get the necessities.  I once had luggage delayed on BA flight to NYC and the worst part was that it took two days for the bag to arrive from JFK to the hotel.

We spoke with some people and staff on the islands and most people tend to spend very little time anywhere, or just visit a single island.  Plus the amount of corporate events here -- at the Fairmont on Big Island we were amazed how ignorant the staff was to us as we were not from Japan nor part of a corporate group.  I'm mostly concerned about getting value for money but when she noticed the service, it's pretty bad.


I'll try sum up Hawaii in a few days..  we're back on the continent and even our car speaks mostly spanish :)

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## Goooner

You may be right. It may have been 20 minutes.  It seemed far longer.  

My recollection of Lanai's airport was huge waits (arriving and departing), and I can't remember why.  Part of it was the missing bag but I seem to recall actually waiting in some line.

The other funny thing about trip, and I don't know if was a bad day or if it typical for the island-hoppers, but the bar in the Honolulu airport waiting for the flight to Lanai was right out of Casablanca. Flights were delayed, and the conversation was like "Will the 3:00 flight ever depart?" "Perhaps we will be on the next one. . ."

The FS resort itself was on Lanai very nice, and that was typical of FS. We were there with a group and were treated well. In Maui when we went alone we were always treated extremely well.  We never had any negative experiences at hotels in Hawaii, but again, we chose FS.

----------


## Petri

The waiting area for connecting go! flights in Honolulu was great fun.  People who check-in at HNL come to the plane from a different gate.

The security person joked that there aren't any facilities here any longer, not even restrooms (one had to walk to the area where Hawaiian Airlines flights depart).

Our (delayed) flight to Big Island departed before another flight to Big Island, which was originally scheduled to leave earlier.  The monitors were showing the scheduled times only.  Somehow go! reminded me of Winair in the caribbean..

A quote from american passenger at the gate, "Nobody here knows anything".   Which was kind of understandable as the only staff member in the area was the security guard and airline employees only appeared to open the gate door when a plane happened to depart.

And people complain about SXM :)

----------


## Petri

Next port of call..  literally.  This was inspired by spending a month in Hawaii.  We just couldn't resist going full monty, eh, I mean doing a full experience.

DSC03453-small.jpg

Made in Finland so there's a good reason to be onboard on this particular ship.

----------


## Grey

Petri, I look forward to your report on the cruise experience.

----------


## KevinS

Interesting choice.  Eastern or Western Caribbean?

----------


## MIke R

oh my God, you have my blessings....

you ll need them

here are a few tips....do room service breakfast and spend the extra money to eat in the regular restaurants....

----------


## Petri

Thanks, one evening seems to be fine but not sure how I feel after 6 more..  not bothered with being on a ship yet :)

A lot of people from Europe and Asia, more than expected and the average age is well below retirement.

From american perspective this feels a bit like "Freedom of the Seas"; booze is flowing, quite a few drunken americans, people can smoke in bars, etc.   They certainly try to get you drink more.

We do plan to order breakfast to the room every morning, although it wasn't that good in quality.  The Junior Suite is quite fine, the finns know how to design these things :)

I booked in advanced four dinners in different $ restaurants (no plans for buffet, perhaps we'll check it once), they seem to be ok from the information I gathered.  We had late lunch at the tapas place, bought a above-your-usual-daily-wine-price-range bottle to go with, and it was quite decent in quality, portions 4x compared to Spain.  We were a bit late for some dinner snack and it was mostly bars open; ended up buying a Veuve Cliquet from the champagne bar, being the only customers chatted with the bartender from the philippines and he kept bringing us food "because no one should be hungry on a cruise ship".

KevinS, we're doing the Western Caribbean.  Our choice of ships was obvious (Oasis or Allure) and I rather go to countries less interesting on a cruise ship; even knowing that I won't be seeing much of Haiti, Jamaica on Mexico this way.

----------


## Petri

It's amazing how easily all the ~5000 people can disappear on the ship.  At the Labadee, Haiti, beach resort one realized how much people there's on board.

Went to the fence, the locals waved behind it -- took a photo of some school children on RCI shirts and haitian license plate.  Now in Falmouth, Jamaica, walked through all the hasslers to the quieter parts of the town where the locals didn't try to sell anything any longer.  Reminds us of Cuba, the buildings, rhum, music, quite a bit like Santiago de Cuba which isn't that far away.

Enjoying the ship from engineering perspective a lot more than anything else :)  All Access tour tomorrow.

----------


## Petri

It's always a great surprise to receive a letter from the captain himself.

"Dear Allure of Seas Guest,

 During this sailing, there have  been a small percentage of guests onboard who have experienced  gastrointestinal illness, thought to be Norovirus. ..."


9Y7A3761.jpg


Also while on the jogging track got "captain's order" to throw my shirt away and replace it with a golden-green one.

I was wearing an All Blacks shirt.

----------


## JEK

When are you getting off that silly boat and coming to DC?

----------


## MIke R

you have got to be out of your mind.....

wana talk to my wife about the norovirus???

we just did that happy dance, complete with a hospital ride at 3 A.M.


drink heavily.I think it kills the bug

----------


## andynap

> you have got to be out of your mind.....
> 
> wana talk to my wife about the norovirus???
> 
> we just did that happy dance, complete with a hospital ride at 3 A.M.
> 
> 
> drink heavily.I think it kills the bug



stay in the room

----------


## MIke R

actually if you just go to the pay extra  wait staff serviced restaurants I believe you would significantly reduce your chances of getting the bug as opposed to being in a room witha few thousand people all handling everything

----------


## MIke R

when I had to go with my  Mom...we did room serviced breakfast....lunch in town in whatever port we were in....and dinner at the pay extra restaurants, and that really minimized the pain for me

----------


## Goooner

They objected to a rugby shirt?

One more reason to never go on a cruise.

----------


## andynap

> actually if you just go to the pay extra  wait staff serviced restaurants I believe you would significantly reduce your chances of getting the bug as opposed to 
> 
> 
> being in a room witha few thousand people all handling everything



I disagree. The more you go out and are exposed to the air and touch things tbat sick people touched you are more likely to get sick.

----------


## MIke R

yes we are agreeing...Im just saying its less exposure in the pay for restos.....not be all end all...just less

----------


## Petri

> They objected to a rugby shirt?



It was the wrong team :)   Golden-green shirt is for Ozzie's Wallabies.  I don't know a thing about rugby but All Blacks has a great branding.

Last cruising day tomorrow, we'll head to Key West next.

I think DC will be on schedule for June.  L liked the idea of chilled VC..

----------


## Petri

Hmm..  really should trip report something but there seems to be lack of spare time on the computer :)


Belize required a bit too much planning where exactly to go so as the US government prefers us to leave for a while, we decided to head to the Caribbean.

We'll be heading to St. Lucia, Bequia and some other places in that area before returning to the US.  Not exactly the US tournee we thought but at least we're still in North America and we can always blame the weather.

Here in Miami we did some bicycling with alligators at the Everglades National Park -- quite fun.  

DSC04021.jpg

Also did some purchases for our return to the US so that we get actually something done.  We could have bought the annual pass already in Hawaii but well.. didn't.

DSC04035.jpg


The plans for St. Lucia didn't go as well as planned.  I noticed a full board rate on Expedia/hotels.com at Anse Chastanet.  The location and with the meals it was quite a decent deal, so I made a booking.  The next day I noticed from the confirmation that there was no mention of the full board and on the booking site everything looked different for the hotel; and my rate was room only without breakfast.  Tripadvisor reviews seemed to rank the food not worth the price unless on a meal plan.

I e-mailed the hotel to check my reservation and they said it was for room only.  I called Expedia, explained the situation and they called the hotel -- will not cancel the reservation without charging the full amount as penalty.  As it wasn't my fault the booking information was wrong, I offered to stay half the time.  Again, the hotel wouldn't allow change of the reservation.  

As I still had the false booking information on a web browser, I faxed a copy to Expedia's department that handles booking engine errors.  I also sent the same information to the hotel.  I wanted someone to take responsibility for their error.  I wish.

Eventually I changed my position that I want to cancel the reservation and have a full refund and after three days of calling around with mostly promises to call back I managed to cancel the reservation without penalties.  That was how far anyone was willing to admit there had been an error.  So we won't be staying at Anse Chastanet (or Jade Mountain) -- ever.

----------


## Petri

I'd like hotels to consider internet access as basic as power outlets.

We have been in quite a few (read: a lot of) places with a stupid, mandatory "Resort fee" that includes things like beach towels and usually internet access (which would otherwise cost $15/day).  Our previous hotel went even further, they did charge the Resort Fee but the internet access was only in the lobby -- in-room WiFi was still extra $15/day -- which I resisted at check out and they did remove the charge.

Just now our Verizon MiFi device stopped working.  Instead of connecting anywhere it's giving the Mobile Broadband registration page that fails.  I have no idea what's up, perhaps we have managed to use our $180 prepaid credit in just three weeks -- as there's no way to check how much data we've transferred.  

Need to visit a Verizon Store somewhere tomorrow.

----------


## george

> ...as the US government prefers us to leave for a while...



Petri, I'm sure you know but you can get B-2 visitor visas (6 months) instead of 3 month ESTA. It requires an appointment at US embassy thought. With B-2 you can apply for extension of stay (I-539) while you're here... up to a year I think...

----------


## JEK

> I'd like hotels to consider internet access as basic as power outlets.



 One of my biggest complaints with hotels is that the more expensive the hotel the more likely they are to charge for internet.

----------


## KevinS

> One of my biggest complaints with hotels is that the more expensive the hotel the more likely they are to charge for internet.



 +1  :thumb up:

----------


## MIke R

Tourism 101

or

Wealth +  Vacation Euphoria = Sky High Price Resistance

or

the more they got...they more you can take...because they really dont care

is a no brainer.....and the first lesson I learned when  I entered this biz 40 years ago...:eagerness:

----------


## Petri

I never thought I'd be happy to see "Free parking".

I don't know if it's the generally short vacations in the US or what but the Tourism 101 Mike mentions seems to be more prevailing here than anywhere else in the world.  Not that they want to sell the banana you in other places, too, but here they want you to buy the apple as well.


The car rental agency tried to sell us the Sunpass toll device for 8$/day plus the toll charges.  I went to the grocery store, bought a device for 25$, loaded some money on it and registered the rental car for it (one can define start/end date and time and there's a tick for rental).

I do enjoy avoiding the "scams" of various type :)

----------


## Petri

> Petri, I'm sure you know but you can get B-2 visitor visas (6 months) instead of 3 month ESTA. It requires an appointment at US embassy thought. With B-2 you can apply for extension of stay (I-539) while you're here... up to a year I think...



It's easier to leave the country than apply for the B-2 Visa.

Now at MIA airport, ~1 hour from Miami Beach hotel through car rental center, check-in and security but still can't help wondering if 4 hours is enough for the return flight with connection here.  The "work harder, not smarter" atmosphere is amazing at this particular airport.

----------


## george

> It's easier to leave the country than apply for the B-2 Visa.



In most cases it is, but make sure you understand the 90-day rule when leaving temporarily and then re-entering. Just letting you know, because friend of mine ran into this problem when returning from Mexico thinking re-entering was going to automatically reset her 90-day stay which wasn't the case. If your current 90-day period expires while you're away, you should be fine...

_VWP travelers who have been admitted under the Visa Waiver Program and who make a short trip to Canada, Mexico or an adjacent island generally can be readmitted to the United States under the VWP for the balance of their original admission period. See the Department of Homeland Securitys Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website for additional details. Also VWP nationals resident in Mexico, Canada or adjacent islands are generally exempted from requirements to show onward travel to other foreign destinations. Learn more at the CBP website._

----------


## Petri

Hmm..  interesting.  We didn't indeed go through immigration when leaving to the Caribbean.

If we had gone to Belize, that wouldn't have been "adjacent island".  Let's see if the US Embassy in Finland answers to e-mail and has a recommendation.  Re-entry to the VWP seems to be an option in some cases.

The other option is to a do a stupid trip to Panama or Belize, our schedule is getting pretty limited though.

----------


## Petri

The US embassy from Helsinki told to contact the embassy in Barbados which doesn't seem to answer e-mail.  As we'd have only 2.5 days there to work it out, I think we'll be spending the visa money for flights to Belize or Costa Rica.  Less trouble.


What are the odds for another finnish couple to arrive to this 34-room hotel?  85% of the clientele has been youngish american honeymoon couples.

----------


## Petri

Just flew through Barbados to Mustique to take advantage of the Firefly's Best of Both Worlds offer.  So far very convenient place :)

----------


## Petri

Mustique seen and experienced.  Now on Bequia, the options for the transfer were ferry from Mustique to St. Vincent followed by another ferry to Bequia, or flying the first part and taking a 30 minute taxi ride from the airport to the harbour.  Being a flying nut I figured out there's also a flight from St. Vincent to Bequia and we booked that one; Stan didn't know that such a flight existed.

Definitely something different here.  We had a single boarding pass for the flight with just 'x 2' written on it.  The person at the St. Vincent airport security couldn't read our destination from it but they certainly did a very extensive security check, x-raying all the electronics and cameras one by one.  

Firefly Bequia looks very nice, so did the local town.

Also booked the "exit US" flights to Belize later this month..  there's still some debate between the ocean and the jungle.

----------


## LindaP

Petri,
We stayed at Firefly Mustique , and were curious about their property on Bequia ......please post pics and let me know how you liked it. 
As for Stan not knowing about the flights, I don't find that surprising,he's a little out there. :cool: 
BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....

----------


## Petri

> BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....



Macaroni Beach was our favourite, too.  We rent mountain bikes for our stay and went there about every day.  Saline and especially Colombier are our favourites on Sbh.  Unfortunately we arrived to Mustique when Firefly was full and "had to" stay in Seashell.  Not that we spent that much time in the room.  Quite an unreal island really.

Luckily here on Bequia we got the best room.  Feels like a real island, the rooms remind me a bit of some places in Asia.  I may have to double check the numbers but the best of both worlds deal feels like a pretty good deal with all the meals.  We got additional day on both island and the extra day on Bequia is just $300 (full board).

There's also Firefly in Zermatt.  We thought first it was just a joke as there was a blackboard with the temperatures (-3 C in Zermatt) for the three places..

Photos do exist and one day I'll start to report more of the trip.  I think the trip reports are still at Maui and that was two months ago :)

----------


## Goooner

How easy is it to get to Bequia? Seems interesting and off the beaten path.  Is it too far off the beaten path such that getting there is extremely difficult?

----------


## Goooner

> Petri,
> We stayed at Firefly Mustique , and were curious about their property on Bequia ......please post pics and let me know how you liked it. 
> As for Stan not knowing about the flights, I don't find that surprising,he's a little out there.
> BTW, Macaroni beach reminded us a lot of Saline .....



Linda, how does Mustique compare to St. Barth?

I'm still searching for a place where I can really escape. No cities, no traffic, just an island where I can sit on a beach and eat fresh fish and local fruit and vegetables.

----------


## Petri

> How easy is it to get to Bequia? Seems interesting and off the beaten path.  Is it too far off the beaten path such that getting there is extremely difficult?



One can fly to Bequia from St. Vincent or Barbados, or 30 minutes by ferry from St. Vincent.  Liat and SVGAir fly to St. Vincent from a number of places.


Compared to St. Barth, if you remove the french influence from an island, add some british, and demolish all but the very best and largest villas you're getting quite close.  I believe all the villas come with a chef and driver, plus other staff for maintenance.  Firefly Mustique is the low end.

When we asked Stan how is the Firefly Bequia different, he said that Mustique is a country club, Bequia is a real island.  Very true.

What has been nice is that neither property had no check-in procedure.  They knew we were coming, we never gave passports to anyone, filled no forms, and we haven't signed a single receipt (apart from cc slip at checkout).

----------


## JEK

> What has been nice is that neither property had no check-in procedure.  They knew we were coming, we never gave passports to anyone, filled no forms, and we haven't signed a single receipt (apart from cc slip at checkout).



We found that in Australia at a couple of places. One place had no keyed locks and another the key was in the drawer if you wanted to use it. Nothing to sign except at checkout.

----------


## LindaP

Good descriptions  Petri.....I think we would like to try that best of both deal. Mustique is like nowhere else.... I felt there was like being on a place where it was over the rainbow ! 
Loved the mules to drive, did you go to Basils bar? 
I hope to see pics ! Have fun!

----------


## Petri

I thought about going for motorized but we "went crazy" and had just the bicycles..  with the hills on the island and the climate, we never felt "clean" enough for a lunch at Cotton House :)   .. but ordering lunch as a beach picnic worked like a charm.

We had just lunch at Basil's.  Some other guests were there but it was pretty quiet, low season and everything.  We spent a few days as the only guests in Mustique and all the other guests left Bequia today as well.  We had Macaroni Beach for ourselves most of the time.

----------


## Petri

Any advice for the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce national parks?

As we're going to Belize for the visa (never got anything back from the US Embassy here in Barbados) reset, we're bit short on time.  We have 6 days before Belize (compared to two weeks originally) and we could fly back to LAS after NYC (and skip Washington, sigh) and continue the parks, add Yosemite and head back home from SF.

I looked for Zion accommodation and they are very booked already in May.  The 4+ hours of driving (e.g. LV to Bryce, or Grand Canyon to Bryce) are practically full day driving.  I looked into the Bryce Narrows hike but the water is pretty cold and we don't really have gear for cold things with us, the limited number of permits a day, etc.  I have the Lonely Planet guide for the parks but it's pretty useless for actual planning, fine for getting an overview with the details.

If I book just two nights near Zion, and two nights near Bryce, is that just going to disappoint us for lack of time?  In the worst case we could just drive the road (or take shuttle) and figure out a few dry, simple half-day hikes around.  I'm not a fan of sightseeing nature with a car.

PS. Absolutely loved Bequia.

----------


## amyb

Bryce is one of my favorite parks. Also there in early May Lovely, but cool

----------


## george

Different topic Petri... news from Helsinki:
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...-past-finland/

just saying...   :evil:

----------


## Petri

> Different topic Petri... news from Helsinki:
> http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...-past-finland/



Friends on Facebook have been saying "go away, we're playing ice hockey here" -- to the finnish team :)

----------


## MIke R

go to Moab....do some biking there...Bryce is gorgeous but I cant help you with lodging as we stayed with friends in Park City.....whenever we went to the Grand Canyon we stayed here http://www.usparklodging.com/grandca...FegWMgodIBsAJA  and we loved it..close to great hiking too

----------


## Petri

> Friends on Facebook have been saying "go away, we're playing ice hockey here" -- to the finnish team :)



Looks like the Swedes are performing even worse.  So it's a win for us!


Mike, thanks, I'll check out Moab.

----------


## george

> Looks like the Swedes are performing even worse.  So it's a win for us!



yeah and the french beat russians today... wow!

----------


## Petri

> yeah and the french beat russians today... wow!



ank Team GP W OTW OTL L GDF GF:GA PTS
Rank Team GP W OTW OTL L GD1


1 FIN 6 4 1 0 1 +8 20:12 14
2 USA 5 4 0 0 1 +8 20:12 12
3 RUS 5 3 0 0 2 +9 18:9 9
4 SVK 5 2 0 1 2 0 13:13 7
5 GER 5 2 0 1 2 -1 10:11 7
6 FRA 5 2 0 0 3 -5 10:15 6
7 AUT 6 1 1 0 4 -7 14:21 5
8 LAT 5 1 0 0 4 -12 9:21 3 




We've got just fin-aut left, usa has ger and svk left.  But Switzerland and Canada has been playing pretty well in Stockholm, too, so no celebrations booked yet :)

----------


## Petri

Yet another totally unreadable invoice from our hotel in Barbados.  With the service charges, taxes and whatnot's on top of the actual charge it's pretty much impossible to know what charge is what.

Consider how many times I've spotted double charges or extra minibar charges on the bills over the years, I wonder if hotel billing is reaching a point of being a "scam"?

For our next hotel many of the TripAdvisor comments recommended to check the bill as there has been a lot of extra charges.

Is there an App for keeping track of hotel charges? :-)

----------


## Petri

We just arrived to our new destination!

9Y7A4312.jpg

Is there really any better way to travel the US?   First Hawaii, the to Florida for a cruise, followed by Key West, and now in Las Vegas!  It's so amazing that one can do so much of Europe in one city -- Paris, Italy, just all of Europe!  And we can see the real Eiffel tower from our balcony, try that in Paris with all the crappy buildings and parks blocking the view..

Ok :)  Enough..  just about to rent a car so that we can leave to Bryce and Zion National Parks. Contact Zion Adventures for some gear.  Amazon just delivered Go Pro Hero 3 Black and Olympus TG-2 Tough.  I had a necessary hair cut.  I fell in love with Moab on the interweb and we might back here after NYC to see Moab, Mono Lake and Yosemite (or whatever is out while heading towards SF).  I blame the cold weather for our itinerary and as we finally after all the trouble got some light tan there's no way we'll let it go :)


My good old Tumi that has seen all the seven continents and travelled around the globe so many times couldn't handle the 5 minute flight from St. Vincent to Bequia.  It's falling apart and just did the final flight.

9Y7A4309.jpg

and I just bought a new Rimowa Salsa today.  This time I'll see how the famous german engineering works although it says Made in Canada.

The other Tumi is having zipper problems as well and we'll probably dump it after Belize.  Rimowa luggage is a lot cheaper in Finland than in the US so we might try to find a cheap outlet Tumi instead.


Meanwhile back at home the dawn starts before 4am for a nice sunrise before 5am, and it doesn't go down until 10pm nor get dark before 11pm.  Miss that.

----------


## MIke R

Im telling you..Moab is the bomb...just do it...you wont regret it

and Vegas is fun....enjoy...nothing no where like it...

get an IN and Out Burger before you leave

----------


## Petri

> yeah and the french beat russians today... wow!



Well done USA, bronze medal well deserved.

----------


## george

and hats off to switzerland for well deserved silver...

----------


## Petri

How do you know you're back in Las Vegas?

There's bowling in your underwear!


LV is even more weird place after all the quietness of Zion and Bryce.  We wanted to rent something different and had a Merc E-class cabriolet for the national parks.  Mental note; never rent a special car from LV.  Less than 1000 miles and there were some weird red lipstick marks on the A-pillards and dried strawberries on the back seat..

I've been coughing over three weeks now, since Mustique, and making some weird breathing noise while sleeping.  We stopped at Mesquite for lunch and accidentally noticed a MD's office that was open.   After some signatures for liabilities and photocopying my driver's license the MD figured out I had streptococcus in my throat.   Took about a second's look..

No wonder walking across Bequia to the beach every day and all the hiking in Bryce and Zion was a bit harder than usual :)


I think we got new entry stamps to the US when we returned from the Caribbean (the lady was a bit confused after scanning my passport and asked if we'd been transiting through the US before -- I told her about our travels and she did a new arrival stamp) but to be on the safe side we're heading to Belize tomorrow.   6am flight to Dallas, sigh.

The return fight from Belize is to New York City through our favourite airport for international arrivals, Miami.

----------


## Petri

Any suggestions for a place somewhere in Napa that would have accommodation and a good restaurant in a winery?  We'll be driving to SF from Yosemite and I thought we could stay for a night in Napa "en route".  We've done a day trip to Napa in the past but one could drink more if staying there :)

----------


## JEK

This is a great place -- very comfortable and a winery next door!

http://www.southbridgenapavalley.com

Tra Vigne for dinner!

Map_web30.png

----------


## JEK

Check out the Model Bakery in St. Helena -- homemade English Muffins are worth the trip!

http://themodelbakery.com

----------


## Petri

Thanks, I'll check them out!   

A week in Belize was superb (I couldn't imagine seeing the start of a rainy season in a jungle could be such a pleasure!) but the interweb wasn't reliable nor fast enough to do much.

----------


## Petri

A reminder: never ever book a "soft opening" hotel.


Need some miracles or plenty of champagne to get a decent NYC stay.

----------


## Petri

Change of room (with a minor upgrade, still noisy but liveable -- we both miss the jungle with the most laud land animals and amazing thunderstorms) and free prosecco at the lobby.  I doubt I'll join all the five star reviews on TripAdvisor but more than one star for sure.


Meanwhile around NYC..

"What is your name?"
"James T. Kirk"
"I'll put just James here"

DSC_0377.jpg

@ Starbucks.   One day it will work out.

----------


## Petri

DSC06176 copy.jpg

A friend toured a bit of the 1 Infinite Loop, and shared his employee discount for some purchases..

----------


## Petri

Forgot the noise cancelling headset to the fitness room at Four Seasons Lanai and they disappeared.  My fault, no idea if it was the staff or guest who thought they were keepers.

I left the Verizon MiFi thing on the dashboard in the car and while it was valet parked here at Grand Hyatt SF overnight, it was gone.  That's pretty stupid thing to steal, it had a prepaid account with just ~2 weeks of capped data left and I would assume I can report the IMEI code to Verizon so that it will stop working for good, like one does elsewhere if a phone is stolen.


From this perspective it's more fun to travel in less developed countries.  They care about their precious jobs so much that they won't even consider stealing, their job is their lottery win.  In North Korea even the lighter I intentionally left behind was still on the same desk when I returned to the same hotel and room a few days later.  And if something gets stolen, it's a piece of clothes or something that someone really needs (we've never had anything else stolen on our travels).

----------


## andynap

I must apologize for the ugly side of your stay- thieves everywhere. Of course I wouldn't leave anything valuable in an unlocked car in SBH either.

----------


## JEK

I don't leave anything of value, or anything that indicates value, in view in a locked car. Too tempting.

----------


## Petri

When we checked out today, the MiFi device was on the seat..  perhaps because I asked about it yesterday and was pretty sure it was left in the car, or perhaps it was there all the time..

We don't usually leave anything visible to the car either, own or rental.  In fact I'm quite surprised how little we have lost over the years, just a few clothes.  I think we have forgotten more things.

----------


## Petri

The feeling when you wake up in the morning, you can see sun is shining from the window and you feel like you've just had a nice 8 hour sleep.

Then you look at the clock, it's 4am and you've been asleep for less than 3 hours.

----------


## Petri

DSC06459.jpg

Picked up this one from the airport the other week.  Not exactly the same that got damaged on JFK-BOS-LAX flight but considering that the old bag was 1) old, 2) we almost dumped it in New york, and 3) might have dumped it in California anyway, great service from American Airlines.

I haven't ranked American Airlines very high and it's not an asian airline, neither is anyone in Europe, but they did serve us well during our flights in North America.  Even TSA did a decent job, I still smile when I think about our return flight, my carry-on filled with a few Canon lenses, couple of external hard drives, a Mac Mini, a bunch of cables and below everything else a stone Mayan calendar.  The agent wanted to re-scan the bag and lifted it, "what the h* do you have here?".  I told her the truth, a stone..

----------


## Petri

Oh no..  burned some miles.

Flight number:       AY0839
From:                Helsinki Terminal 2
To:                  Heathrow (London) Terminal 3
Depart:              22 Sep 2013 14:05
Arrive:              22 Sep 2013 15:10
Cabin:               Business
Operated by:         Finnair
Booking status:      Confirmed

Flight number:       BA0061
From:                Heathrow (London) Terminal 5
To:                  Nairobi
Depart:              22 Sep 2013 20:50
Arrive:              23 Sep 2013 07:25
Cabin:               First
Operated by:         British Airways
Booking status:      Confirmed

.. but I will summarize our NA trip this week :)

The above is a one-way ticket and I haven't booked anything else yet (come on, still 90 days to do something about a ~9 month trip).  But the plan is to land in North America again spring 2014.  I hope a flight from Colombia and/or Venezuela is not a red flag in the US..

PS. Where's the Africa forum?

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