Category Archives: Travels and Adventures

Places I’ve gone, people I’ve seen, things I’ve done.

Hawaii Vacation — Day 1

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Well, here we go on our 6th vacation to Maui Hawaii.

Yes, we’ve been there (here) a lot, but I really enjoy it. As I often tell people, it’s got the best of everything … it is a beautiful tropical paradise with just about all the comforts of home. Heck, there’s even a Costco. And for shopping we can go to Safeway where our Dominick’s fresh value card works (which I totally forgot on my key ring, which is at home … oh well, we can use our phone number).

Ginny and I are traveling with Steve … He’s fun to travel with and has a keen sense of adventure. He does tend to get obsessive about things though. Of course, if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be Steve.

I’m rather disappointed that Steve’s girlfriend Ruth couldn’t make it. I understand the reason … she’s newly in the independent contractor world and really can’t afford to say NO to a contract (she’s a contract trainer). It’s kind of sad, though, that Steve doesn’t have anyone to share Hawaii with (other than Ginny and I).

We’ll have a lot of fun anyway … That’s mandatory.

Right now we’re enroute … according to the air-traffic control channel we’ve just been handed off to Salt Lake City control. That’s about half way across the country. About two hours until we are feet wet (over water), and then it’s another 5 hours. That’s the only thing I don’t like about travel to Hawaii, it’s a 9 hour flight. Add to that we’re in coach (as usual), so we’re kind crammed in here.

This trip we don’t have any hard & fast plans … other than few items. We’re going up to Haleakala tomorrow morning, while we’re still working on central time … so we can wake up real early and go see the sunrise (more on Haleakala later). Other than that, we’ll be in Kehie for 10 days, then Hana for 2 (more on Hana later), then back in Wilea for the last two days.

I really wish we could afford property in Maui. If my MKS options are ever worth something, I think that’s what we are going to invest in. Get a nice two bedroom condo on the beach, rent it out for 50 weeks of the year, stay in it for the other two. Then, when we retire, we have a place to move to (or sell and use the proceeds to buy a different place).

Regarding Hana … every time we’ve gone to Hana before (it’s a very very long drive, along a two lane highway), we’ve gone only for the day. We usually leave somewhat early (8-9 am, early for us), drive the 3-4 hour trip, noodle around for a few hours, and then drive back.
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Business class is cool!

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We’re taking a long weekend trip to San Francisco on some freebie tickets that Ginny got. As an added bonus, we’re taking Steve along for the ride. He gets to finally take us to The Stinking Rose (which he has been singing the praises of for years.

To add sugar to the treat … we’re flying business class on United. Now I’ve flown First Class a few times … but it was a fluke … and usually because everyone on the plane was going to the same place (COMMON) and everyone ws booked into coach… so I would get bumped up to first class because there wasn’t enough room in the main cabin. Not that I complained … but I always figured that I wasn’t getting the real “First Class” treatment because I didn’t acutally deserve the upgrade.

Anyway, Business Class is very nice … lots of leg room, nice seat amentities, reasonable food.

I need to figure out a way to finagle that kind of upgrade on a regular basis (no, I’m not going to hold my breath on that one).

WiFi: Free or Pay?

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Note: I tried to post this on Friday, but IE crashed while I was in the middle of posting it … I’ve switched to Firefox at both work and home.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is running a very interesting article on Free vs. Pay WiFi in Seattle’s coffee shops.

Personally, I refuse to pay for WiFi at commercial establishments … it’s just far too cheap for the vendor … and the price that gets charged is far beyond what I would consider even marginally reasonable.

In Boulder, while we were on our road trip we found a cute little coffee house that advertised WiFi internet access. Both Ginny and I were kind of starved for a ‘net fix, so we wandered down there. I asked how much it cost to connect, and the owner said it was free as long as we were customers. So, we got a couple of iced teas, some turkey wraps, and some yummy cookies, stat down at a table and started munching and surfing.

In fact, while we were on the road trip, most of the places we stayed did have (or were going to have soon) WiFi access. Even the Alps had wired and wireless access available for free. It kind of surprised me that they would provide such access, as they are a pretty romantic place, but it kind of makes sense … they also cater to the business meeting and retreat business.

The only place we actually paid for WiFi access was the Homestead Suites in Salt Lake … and that fee was only token ($5 for the entire stay). I think they charge the fee simply to justify requiring a userid & password. Since they are very near a popular pedestrian mall, it makes sense. They want to provide the service for their customers, not everyone who is walking by. Of course, the userid & password were quite trivial… and I’m sure they don’t get changed much if ever. My ownly gripe with that place was they told us about the WiFi, but didn’t indicate there was a charge for it. When Ginny called the front desk she was informed of the charge … and we just had them put it on our bill.

Even the Holiday Inn in Grand Island Nebraska had WiFi … unforunately, it wasn’t working in our section of the hotel. Not sure why. I asked the front desk if they could have someone reset the access point, but nobody knew how to do it.

Of course, since I have gobs of internet access at home and work, I really don’t need it at coffee houses … but it’s nice to know that it’s there.

I really like the Penera Bread Company in Schaumburg … they have good soup, sandwiches, and coffee… plus they have WiFi for free. I only used it once, but it was nice.

It would be nice if I could get WiFi access at work … then I could use my PDA to access resources while in meetings… but they have legitimate security concerns. I also think that I’m the only person who would use it.