…my nose in a bookFood, research, yoga and music. . . is there anything else?

So my flight was suppose to leave right now from Honolulu International Airport to take me back to Vancouver.  It has been a relaxing time with @nachoman, and we have watched most of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Games from the comfort of shaded lanais.

Tsunami Alarms, Finding Emergency Groceries & Water

At 6am this morning (the DAY we were scheduled to leave – Saturday Feb 27th, 2010) the Tsunami Sirens began to blare out over all of Waikiki beach.  Any of the beachfront hotels and residences within the Civil Defense Tsunami Evacuation Zones for Oahu were evacuated quite quickly and efficiently.  While the ABC grocery stores remained completely closed all along the Waikiki Beach Blvd, there were a few 24 hour convenience stores about 6 blocks inland that were open.  The grocery stores were packed, and there were 2 case limits to purchasing SPAM.  There were no bottles of purified water available even at 7:30am. Everyone was calm and civil, even though there were half an hour long waiting lines to pay for purchases.

Road Closures

By 10:00am all the streets within Waikiki had been shut down, with police car patrols using loud speakers to direct people back into their residences or to the temporary shelter at the Elementary school (which happens to be right beside our hotel/apartment). A rare occurrence, Waikiki beach cams were showing that the beaches were completely empty. The only thing visible on the water was waves and one or two surfers trying to catch a wave. (Extremely silly and dangerous of them).  The Honolulu Fire Department helicopters had an amazing response time in announcing to all the surfers or beach-goers that they should leave the water.

If people are residing within the evacuation zone they would have to leave their residence, hotel or workplace.  Luckily we are WAY out of the way, all the way beside the safe are of shelter.  On the map you will see Jefferson Elementary School, which is right in front of us.

Weather, Waiting & Wave Watching

At 11:00 am, the highway cams were showing police blockades and not a civilian vehicle to be seen otherwise.  On occasion from looking out of my condo window, I saw a stray car trying to leave but getting redirected by the police back to their home. Since we were supposed to be checking out an hour ago, we have a delay on our check-out since there is a vertical evacuation in effect for our area (we are not in the flood plane, and are in the safe evacuation zone). Upon the tsunami alerts being lifted, we will be moving ourselves over to the Aston Waikiki Banyan Hotel across the street (Our current hotel does not have any available rooms). Every hour, the tsunami alert sound rings through the city of Honolulu, bouncing off of Diamond Head, creating an eery echo in combination with the empty streets, and the lack of hustle and bustle of vehicles.

11:15am Waiting for the announcement about what is happening in Hilo. The weather in Waikiki has changed, the sunshine has vanished and clouds and a lack of rain has emerged.

11:30 I have been watching the tsunami television cams document the ebb and flow of the water in Hilo Bay.  There has been drastic and visually breathtaking inhales and exhales of water along the beach shores, yet there has not been any severe waves as expected.  While the forecast for the initial wave was for 11:05am, only about 20 minutes off was the visual beginning of the effects of the tsunami.

12:30 Watching KITV Breaking News on Channel 4 in Honolulu, their video camera just showed two people trying to ride the surf.  While the waves this morning would have been ideal for some amazing surfing, it really isn’t worth someone’s life to catch a great wave! The weatherman/surf reporter on the KFVE news on Channel 8 is an avid surfer and refused to announce the surf conditions this morning, Good for him!

12:45 It has been a continual day of telephones and email.  Telling family and friends that we are alright, and that everything will be fine.  Oahu has put into effect something like 30 Million dollars of tsunami awareness and preparedness recently. (So, Mom, see I will be just fine!).  We have called our travel agents, insurance companies and transportation to arrange our getting back to Vancouver, though nothing can be done until the Civil Defense department lifts the Tsunami warning.  At this time, Civil Defense is still stating that there still is a Tsunami warning, yet the effects of the tsunami don’t seem to be as extreme as initially expected.

Some Cars Moving, Things are Looking Better

So, as of right now, we are just playing the waiting game, watching all of the cars on higher ground begin to move down the hills.  It almost seems like the city is once again waking up from a complete freeze.  Our flight of course has been delayed, and we will have to wait for the announcement by West Jet that we will be able to catch a flight, but in the meantime, we will be up on the pooldeck of the hotel, relaxing in the cloudy & windless stillness that seems to have enveloped Waikiki.

Aloha for now. Keep in mind if you are trying to get ahold of a loved one or friend out here, the cellphone networks are pretty much down.  We are even getting busy signals from AT&T out here.  Our hotel phone lines are intermixed with the sounds of the radio signals.

It is currently 1:02pm, the tides and waves are relatively low right now, it looks like things are going to be okay.  Of course, I will be continuing to listen to the Civil Defense Department and the National Weather Service.

I will keep you updated. We are safe and doing wonderfully.  If you have any questions, email me at dccp@me.com!

~Deanna

Waiting for the Tsunami Alert to be lifted - In a Safe Zone

As I noted a couple weeks ago, I have planned a trip to Hawaii during the two weeks of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  Aside from getting away from the grid-locked traffic, the excessive tourists, and the basic hectic insaneness that comes along with the Olympics, I feel @nachoman and I deserve some time off. We are heading out to Waikiki/Honolulu in Hawaii, which has its own masses of tourists, shopping and traffic, but at least we will be able to retreat to the beach, surf, and enjoy the hot weather.

The biggest problem with flying into another city to enjoy a vacation is the late night flights.  By the time you get off the plane, get your luggage from the never ending carousel of black bags, finding the sign with your name on it for your transfer from the airport to the hotel, and then finally checking in at the hotel front desk, you likely are famished and tired. Since we need to be careful about allergies, its not like we can just order a pizza to the hotel room at 2am, in fear of a vegetarian pizza having pork products on it (finding a hospital in a foreign or different city can be difficult when you don’t know where to go). So what am I going to do about it this trip? I made sure our hotel has a FULL kitchen, with rice cooker, microwave, stove etc.  But if we are arriving at the hotel at 2am, where am I suppose to find groceries? Problem Solved. I will do the same thing I do back in Vancouver, have my groceries delivered (sadly they wont all be organic and local – there goes my trying to only buy food within a 500km radius).

The Aston hotel chain in Hawaii has a partnership with a local grocery delivery service - Island Grocery Service.  Not only am I ordering my groceries ahead of time, when we arrive in our hotel room, we will have our fridge and cupboards fully stocked with the groceries I have ordered.  I can’t think of a better way to start our vacation.  Not only will I have my favorite snack foods available to munch on once arriving at the hotel room, I will be able to make a full breakfast of eggs, toast, waffles and orange juice without having to trek around the next morning looking for the grocery store. Yep, I would say paradise.

Hopefully it all works out. I will keep you posted after I return.

Mahalo for reading!

Aloha!

Deanna

Oahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian islands, and known as being one of the busiest vacation spots. I personally prefer Kaua’i for its lush tropical greenery and quiet solitude, but when planning a vacation on a budget I can’t be too picky.  Finding a decently priced vacation with flight and accommodations included can be quite easy when searching in the Waikiki area.

So this February is the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in our wonderful city of Vancouver, BC.  While I am extremely excited over the 2010 Olympics, I would much rather watch the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, though that won’t be happening. Okay, so in Vancouver it is a HUGE deal that the Olympics are here.  You cannot go anywhere recently without finding road closures, Olympic signs, and notifications about all the lovely road and parking closures to accommodate the large influx of travelers from all over the world.  While I think it is a wonderful thing for vacationers, tourists and sports fans to come to our fantastic city to witness the 2010 Olympics, I personally cannot handle the crowds.

As I do not want to brave the vast amounts of tourists which will incite a claustrophobic frenzy on my part, and @nachoman does not want to wake up at 3AM each morning to get to work on time, we have made an executive decision – get out of town!  Now while I considered speaking at some conferences I was invited to in Florida and Cincinnati, my health just hasn’t been up for it, so I started researching vacations.  (Yes! A REAL Vacation, where I wont be on a laptop – too much).

In researching vacations, I considered Air Canada’s Japan Flight Sale that was going on for the first couple weeks of January, though after much thought I felt that 2 weeks in Japan would not be enough.  I then found Jubilee Travel (a.k.a. Travel Best Bets) had a wonderful 12 night Bali trip including sightseeing for $1499 each from Vancouver. While that sounded great, I had to consider that @nachoman and I both have allergies, and that pork and MSG will run rampant in most Asian countries we go to.  Hmm. . . what oh what to do. I know! Hawaii! I just had to find a cheap hotel with a kitchen to cook our food.

O’ahu, Hawai’i has been a longtime favorite of mine.  I prefer some of the smaller islands for the quiet and calm, but O’ahu not only has the hustle and bustle of Japanese and American tourists, it has small secluded areas of peace and fantastic uncrowded surfing.  Waikiki is synonymous with busy, noisy and touristy, yet that is part of its appeal. So how does one find a hotel, motel, condo or accommodation that won’t break the bank, but won’t leave you itching with bed bugs or insomnia-tic from the noisy neighbors. Well, you research REALLY well. (Knowing the neighborhoods helps too – which luckily I have a bit of an idea of where I want to find a hotel).

Finding a cheap hotel in Honolulu with direct beach access and chairs is pretty much impossible.  From my experience (and snooping), the best mid-range beachfront hotels (for your $$$) are the Aston Waikiki Beach, the Outrigger Waikiki & the Hilton Hawaiian Village Rainbow Tower (Of course I don’t suggest booking directly from them unless you want to pay double what a travel agency, tour operator or online travel website will charge you).  Now of course I personally don’t care about being directly on the beach, since how much time do I really spend in the hotel when you’re that close to the surf. It is worth your while to book at a hotel that is 2 or so blocks away from the beach, book yourself in a room on the higher floors to get a view, and then go to the beach when you want the ocean!

In the end, I used Travelocity (the US version) and West Jet Vacations (Canadian) to finalize my flights and accommodations.  After much deliberation of hotels in Waikiki, I needed ones that had a FULL kitchen (not just a kitchenette with a microwave and mini-fridge).  Be careful when booking a hotel that states that it has a kitchen.  I considered several hotels in Waikiki that on their websites said they had kitchens, only to find out that a “kitchen” meant a hot plate, mini-fridge and rice cooker.  If you are on a budget, working with allergies, or just trying to feed a family, you want a FULL kitchen with utensils, plates, fridge, stove and potentially luxuries such as a can opener.

I finally decided on a condominium-style property called the Aston Waikiki Sunset (3+ Star) that has been recently renovated (it has 1 or 2 bedroom suites that have a full kitchen and a furnished lanai).  While I found a couple bad reviews about the hotel, they typically were pre-renovation and were calling for an updated feel.  A interesting side note to remember when booking at Condominium-style hotels is that some of the suites may be privately owned, so you will want to make sure that the suite you are booking is owned by the hotel itself.  By doing this, you will assure that there is some level of cleanliness and amenities to your room.

The room that I have booked is the 1-Bedroom Superior, which has been renovated with new fixtures, furniture and a new tv.  It is a roomy 560 square feet, with its own separate bedroom.  While I cannot tell you what it is like yet, I have my fingers crossed that it is clean and that the service at the hotel is above average.  I will keep you posted on whether it meets my expectations.  My advice for finding the best deal is to hop from site to site, and then call a travel agent to match or beat the price you found online.

I found an amazing deal for 12 nights accommodation, flights between Vancouver and Honolulu, and was able to book it all from the comfort of home.  I simply called the travel agent at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, and told them the deals I had found on West Jet Vacations and on Travelocity.ca.  The helpful travel agent answered my questions about the hotel, noting that one of her colleagues had happily stayed there. Upon hearing this, I told the agent to book the trip ASAP.  She took down my info, navigated through the travel sites I’d told her about, and booked me for 2 return tickets to Oahu and our accommodations, in a matter of minutes. Within seconds I had my itinerary in my Inbox!

We leave in a few weeks, so I when we get back, I will tell you how it was.

Mahalo for reading today,

~Deanna