The painful Vancouver layover: February 18, 2016; ugh

Apparently it feels pretty bad to sit in a restaurant, waiting for breakfast and my flight to Toronto, and hearing Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream".... just to cap it off. Ugh. Poor me!!!

I think if a parent has a crying baby on a 6-hour flight, maybe that parent should have another strategy to try and quiet the baby other than gently saying "Sh! Sh!" I had the crying baby literally in the row behind me for the flight. I know the parents probably felt bad for having the flight's noisy baby, and I assume they were trying their best, but I wasn't aware of any other things they were trying other than the "Sh! Sh!" method. Maybe your baby is hungry? Maybe you should see if walking a bit in the aisle works? Maybe your baby doesn't want to leave Honolulu?

I did sleep for the most part, though, so the overnight flight to Vancouver felt relatively short. More on my Hawaii trip later.

This is my last sunset (for now) in Waikiki. People sat and watched it and when the sun dipped below the horizon, people applauded! I might have been one of those people!!

Sunset in Waikiki. February 17, 2016 at 6:27 PM HAST. I
cheated a bit on this by lowering the exposure value, but nothing
done post. Click to enlarge, of course.

Oh, and before I left, I decided to test whether I could get served without a shirt. So I went to a 7-11 type store for some pineapple soft serve ice cream wearing just sandals and board shorts. It was not a problem. Hawaii is my type of place!

Proof that one can get served pineapple
soft serve ice cream without a shirt and
 wearing sandals. (Do they count as shoes?).
I also hit some retail stores to see if anyone
would say anything. I didn't go high end,
like Prada,  but I did more mid-level places like
Quiksilver (surf store) and Volcom (skater store).
No problem.

More later, including stuff I couldn't include due to not having an internet connection while on the ship.

A review of sorts of Hawaii: February 13, 2016; back in Honolulu

Back in Honolulu after a week visiting three other islands on the cruise. So glad to be back in Honolulu, though after walking around Waikiki tonight, it occurs to me that I'm over Waikiki.

It amazed me that Hawaii, outside of Honolulu, is very rural. The highways on Maui, for instance, and around Hilo on the island of Hawaii (aka the Big Island) have very few streetlights, to allow darkness for the observatories.

Pics from Kauai, click to enlarge:

Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii. Supposedly called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific,"
the earth is red from iron oxide in the earth but unlike the Grand Canyon, it's really lush
with vegetation. There's a waterfall in one portion of it, the picture of which I didn't include here. 

The Na Pali coast of Kauai on the north side of the island. View from the ocean.
This is supposedly the other side of the above Canyon.

More after the jump.

Hawaii: February 4, 2016

More exploring of Oahu today. I did a circle tour of the island and ended the day / night at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It's been a long day, so just some photos.

Click to enlarge.

Another sunrise over Waikiki. February 4, 2016 at 7:10 AM.
This will hopefully be the last of one of these I take.

More pictures after the jump.