Goin' to Hawaii... (now with pictures)

Okay, the trip was fucking awesome. Hawaii was beautiful, the hotel rocked, and I packed as much activity into my week as I possibly could. Let's take a look, shall we?

Here's the pool of my hotel. It was 3 tiered, with a waterfall seperating each tier.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=15276


Here's the view from my balcony. If I turned to the right, I had a sweet ocean view.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=15277


Took a helicoptor tour of Maui and Molokai. I'd never been in a helicoptor before- it was great, but a little scary at times too, especially when we'd dip and your stomach would be left 40 feet above you. Still, the sights were awesome, especially Molokai- most of the moutains in Hawaii are above cloud level, and we'd see waterfalls thousands of feet high that seemed to be emanating directly out of the clouds themselves. It was haunting.

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Of course, no trip to Hawaii would be complete without a luau, including hot hula dancers and guys doing wacky shit with fire batons.

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I also took a moutain bike tour down a 10,000 ft volcano. It was rough- we had to meet up in the lobby at 2:45 AM and catch a bus to the top of the volcano. There, we hiked another 100 feet to the very top. The air's thin up there so it wasn't easy. Anyway, at that height, we were above the cloud level, and at that point we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=15279

From there we rode bicycles 38 miles down to the bottom of the volcano. The roads were paved and completely downhill all the way- we coasted at speeds of 30 MPH nearly all the way down. Lots of sharp turns and there were a few that, if you missed them, you went off a fucking cliff. Crazy, but exhilarating. We had to dress warmly, in layers, because it's pretty damn cold at 10,000 ft. But as we made our way down, we peeled off layers until we were in shorts by the bottom. There, we had breakfast, went back to the Ritz, hit the pool and drank some Lava Flows.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/a...chmentid=15284

Plus, I went Scuba Diving twice. It's amazing. One of these days I have to get around to being certified.

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As a fun little bonus, I was inked by an octopus! :) There's the little fella jetting away from me with an ink trail behind him…

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And we'll leave off with a nice shot of the cliffs near the hotel, off to the left of the beach. Nice view, huh?

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Oh man those are fantastic pics - nice camera man. What model? I think my favorite pic is the one of the cliff coastside with the stormy looking sky. Nice man very nice.

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How I long to see those beautiful Hawaiian valleys and waterfalls. I really need to plan a trip back sometime soon. I actualy plan oin living there some point of my life.

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Originally Posted by ElCapitan

How I long to see those beautiful Hawaiian valleys and waterfalls. I really need to plan a trip back sometime soon. I actualy plan oin living there some point of my life.

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A lot of the people I talked to had actually recently moved there. Both of my Scuba instructors (if you're not certified you have to dive with one) had moved there within the past 5 months.

God I need to get out of Houston, I feel like shit here.

Nice picture taking. I can't sit in a plane for 9 hours. I'm a wuss.

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Originally Posted by station82o

Oh man those are fantastic pics - nice camera man. What model?

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Sony DSC-P100. Kano recommended it to me a while back and I love it. Those pics were only taken at the camera's medium resoultion mode (2,048 x 1,536).

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/P100/P1A.HTM

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I think my favorite pic is the one of the cliff coastside with the stormy looking sky. Nice man very nice.

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Thanks. The second pic you posted was actually taken from the helicoptor. I'll post some more pics in a little while. I took, like, 300.

BTW, why'd you edit 'drop the mask'...? ;)

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Originally Posted by toxic

Nice picture taking. I can't sit in a plane for 9 hours. I'm a wuss.

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Dude, it was HELL. 2 1/2 hours to Chicago with an hour layover, then 9 straight to Hawaii, making for a total of 11 1/2 hours flight time. It just never ended.

Coming home was much better- with the Earth's rotation and the tailwind, total flight time was just 9 hours total.

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"Bastard better not jump on my back for a 1up like those other tourists."

I reiterate my jealousy of your trip. I'll have to add Hawaii to my list of places I should see.

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Originally Posted by Cowdisease

"Bastard better not jump on my back for a 1up like those other tourists."

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ZING!

I'm planning on going at some point, but I have to get expenses figured out at some point. Would $800 make it?

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Originally Posted by voltz

I'm planning on going at some point, but I have to get expenses figured out at some point. Would $800 make it?

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You mean aside from air fare and the hotel? $800 would be rough. I don't think you could do it.

Actually, I ended up spending about $800 out of my pocket myself, but a lot of the stuff I did was free. The Helicoptor ended up being $200 (for an hour, plus an extra $30 for a DVD recording of the flight), the diving was $75 a pop, but the volcano bike tour was covered by my buddy's company (I think it was supposed to cost $190). The luau was covered, too.

The company gave us each an allowance of $30 a day in room credit (to be used for food or whatever), plus there were several fancy, company-paid dinners and breakfasts (including the luau). In addition, there were several reps from various companies there who were trying to get business with my friend's stockbroking firm, so they treated us to dinner at really ritzy resturants a few nights as well (and holy shit, did we clean them out when they did). Also, my friend's boss treated a bunch of us to dinner at Maui's finest resturant (according to Zagat's) one night and the tab easily came to three grand (including 10 bottles of wine at $100 apiece).

Basically, I just paid for the helicoptor, the diving, and some food and much drinking. Oh, and of course souvenirs for the folks back home. It all came to about $800 but if the company wasn't footing so many of the bills it would have come to a hell of a lot more.

In addition, we each stole several $120 terrycloth Ritz Carlton robes. :D