2013 Maui

    Wednesday, December 25. We arrived in Maui, local time 6pm (9pm to our bodies).  Received a Lei Greeting, just like in the movies!  Forgive me if this is old hat for you.  It's my first trip.  We picked up our rental car and drove the 35 minutes to our lodging:  the Makena Beach and Golf Resort.  We had a lovely late dinner, consisting of grilled shrimp and fruit salad appetizer, fried potato and lobster salad entree, and bouillabaisse entree, all shared between the two of us.  It was too difficulty to choose just one thing to try.

     Thursday, December 26. The next morning, we awoke to song birds and loud ocean waves.  We enjoyed fruit and eggs at the breakfast buffet.  We did a little shopping at the resort boutique, drove into town for lunch, then out to La Perouse beach for a few hours. The area is made up of the last lava flow on Maui (circa 1790) with black lava rocks, white coral, and a few smatterings of sandy beaches. After a short rest in the hotel room, we strolled the private beach until dark and then headed indoors for dinner. Dinner consisted of Caesar salad, sashimi, filet mignon with lobster, and creme broulee. 

Friday, December 27. We breakfasted at the in-house buffett again.  We had a snorkeling refresher course in the hotel pool.  Then we started the drive to Hana.  The Highway to Hana is considered one of the great scenic roads of Hawaii.  It takes about 2.5 hours to get to Hana from our resort, and a full day to go all the way around the island.  After about 1.5 hours, we decided against the full drive, considering the amount of time we had left on Maui and our essential dislike for driving.  We stopped at a roadside grill called Da Best, where the owners were "smoking" while cooking.  The food is served in a ti tree leaf with sliced bamboo stalks for chop sticks.  We laughed about the safety of eating there.  It is highly doubtful that they would pass any type of inspection.  They walked on mud and used a home grill for cooking.  No dishes were used, so we weren't worried about the cleanliness of the dinnerware.  On the way back, we had fruit from the Hana Highway Fruit Stand.  We bought alpha bananas and a papaya that they sliced for us.  We rested and showered, then participated in the reception fundraiser and had sushi for dinner.  The in house sushi restaurant, Rare, is only open for 14 days per year, so we were exptremely fortunate to be able to take part.  the sushi chef (Ivan) has a groupy type following and people came from all over the island to eat.  It was fantastic!

Saturday, December 28.   We started the day with a boat ride to a world class reef and nature preserve.  we saw some fantastic sea life, including a reef shark, moray eel, and the Hawaiian green sea turtle.  we took a multitude of pictures, but they werent worth much.  We might need to invest in a true underwater camera to get pictures worthy of the sights.  These multi functional ones don't quite do it justice, never mind the iPhone!

25th Anniversity Trip

I am writing this from the Phoenix aiport.  We left Denver at 1030 this morning.

Bret and I are now headed for Hawaii for our 25th wedding anniversity.  We had only a brief celebration in August because Bret was in town only for the day of our anniversary, having a fishing trip on one end and a business trip on the other.

Vagar

Olavsoka

This is a 3-day annual celebration of the conversion of the Faroe Islands to Christendom.  Never mind that it was done by force, and with the threat of death if you refused.  It is a grand affair with parades, singing and dancing.  They also have competitions and rides.  It feels a little like the 4th of July crossed with a state fair.  Most people wear the national costume if they have one.  Annika wore mine, Danielle wore a borrowed one, and Bear wore a modern variation, since the costume is expensive, will only fit him once, and we could find no male relatives with one to borrow.

My babies!

The Parade.

Getting ready for the speed boat trip.

Singing on Vagli (town center) at midnight.
The capital usually has 10,000 inhabitants,
but for Olavsoka, it about doubles.
The news stated that about 10,000 were
present here for the singing and dancing.

Gay Pride Parade

Friday July 20, 2012, we participated in the Gay Pride Parade to support family members and friends in their efforts to make gay okay.  After walking from the football fields to the town square (Vagli), we listened to several live acts and speakers.  Afterward, we had dinner at a pub, and dessert at a coffee shop.  The girls got caught in the rain, and showed up, completely drenched, just after we got to Beinta's house.  Thankfully, the rain had eased up a bit by the time we had to run to the bus stop to get back to Velbastad.  Ask me about my new favorite coffee next time I see you.  Called a Greenland Coffee, it sort of defies online description, but is highly reminiscent of the northern lights.

We Love Everyone

Koltur postponed

Koltur was postponed to Friday, and we have plans to go to the gay pride larade on Friday, so we will have to see if we can reschedule for next week. Not very much time left.

Suduroy

We left Langasandur at 7 am in order to catch the ferry to Suduroy leaving Torshavn at 8am.  The ferry trip is just over two hours each way.  We had a light snack on board, then arrived at Tvoroyri without a camera.  Apparently, something went awry when we tried to charge it in Langasand.  We checked in at Hotel Tvoroyri to order lunch, and got permission to charge the camera there.  We travelled through northern Suduroy for about an hour, using the phone for our camera.

In Sandvik, the northernmost village in Suduroy, we stopped at the place where Sigmundur Brestirsson came to land after his epic swim from Stora Dimun.  Then we stopped for ice cream in Hvalba and took a picture of the jaw bone of a sperm whale.

Then we drove back to Tvoroyri for lunch and to retrieve our camera.  From there, we travelled south Through Oravik and the tunnel to Hov and on to Vagur.  From there, we drove to Lopra and through two tunnels to reach Sumba, the southernmost village in Suduroy.  Then we took a tiny, winding road to the southernmost point of the Faroe Islands, Akraberg.

On the way back to Tvoroyri, We took a detour out of Vagar to see the WWII area at Skuvanos, where soldiers had radio towers and a canon, watching out for Germans flying overhead.  The area is locally known as Eggjarnar (the edges.)  After that, we detoured out of Oravik to Famjin for Faroese waffles before heading to Tvoroyri.

While at the waffle house, there was a special private party upstairs, with a special American guest.  Unfortunately, we were not permitted to go in to talk to him.  He had recently said on Utvarpi (local radio station) that the Faroese salmon is the best in the world!

We returned to Velbastad at 10pm.  What a long day, but beautiful trip.