Hawaii vacation blogging - memories are made of this · Monday January 19, 2009 by colin newell
My sister, Toni, just asked me…
“What were some of the best memories of your Hawaii vacation?”
Good question.
For starters…
-eating a simple birthday dinner on the lanai watching the
Sun go down… Hale Kona Kai condo – Kona, Hawaii
-making breakfast every morning; granola, fresh papaya, and an omelette
-snorkeling with brilliant tropical fish
-sitting on a patio surrounded by coffee plants… while drinking the
coffee from the plants – Blue Horse Kona Farm near Captain Cook, Hawaii
-drinking beer at the Kona Brewing Company and eating pizza while
a mongoose mooches the table
-self guided tour at Greenwell Farms, surrounded by Avocado, Grapefruit, lemon
and breadfruit trees…
-drinking coffee at Island Lava Java on Alii Drive, Kona
-Eating shave ice at the North Shore of Oahu
-Eating at a Shrimp cart in Oahu
-Enjoying a plate lunch at a dodgy Honolulu bar and grill
-Eating a plate of nachos at Charters Marina pub next to the Illikai Marina, Waikiki
-Standing in line waiting to get into the Wailana Coffee House – a “Denny’s” on steroids,
4 times the size of our Denny’s talking to Canadian snow birds from Swift Current, Saskatchewan
-Watching a tropical thunderstorm
-Flashing the shaka hand gesture at a complete stranger
-Waikiki trolley tour… pretty much any part of it.
-Walking Bishop’s museum, Honolulu
and my favorite…
-Finding Andrea 13 minutes after getting lost in downtown Waikiki…
Moderately terrifying, but a satisfying reunion.
Hawaii vacation blogging - Return - Home is where the heart is · Tuesday January 13, 2009 by colin newell
For the last 3 or 4 days running, I have been waking up in Hawaii – even though I have been home for over a week.
It is as if I left something behind…
But what could it be?
This was the most wonderful trip ever. And I did connect on several levels that I did not before. And I met the most incredible collection of people.
Like Demetria Oster and her husband Joachim (photo above right) of Blue Horse Kona Coffee. They lived in Manhattan, New York until the early part of the 21st Century until circumstance brought them to Kealakekua, Hawaii – the Big Island as we call it. They brought their daughter to a New World, like explorers of old. It was quite the departure, from one of the riches cities in the World to a virtually unknown belt of agricultural land that produces the bulk of specialty coffee known only as Kona Coffee.
And if you didn’t know what a coffee plant looked like, you could very easily pass through town and not see a single plant – even though you were surrounded the entire time.
As my wife Andrea and I walked around the Oster’s farm, Joachim and Demetria’s commentary added a dimension to the tour that I was not expecting; humanity. passion. transition. hope. stoicism.
A coffee farm, any farm… and the terra firma that it is planted on tolerates your presence… sometimes just barely – I speak from experience. But if you are ready to give enough and love enough, then maybe, just maybe the land will yield – and reward your efforts with another year of survival.
For me, having the Oster family open this window was a significant piece of the coffee puzzle falling into place. Part of this trip was about my coffee journey and thinking about writing the next chapter. The connection has been made.
And as I have been waking up at 3 AM every night, I am sure a part of me was left behind… with a whole bunch of work to do.
In fact, I traded a piece of my heart for a basket of coffee farm soul. And there is no cure other than returning for some more.
Colin Newell lives and breathes coffee – on the green planet Earth and hopes one day to have a better understanding of it all.
Summer fun food and drink - flowers and travel · Tuesday July 8, 2008 by colin newell
If you are like me, and living in the month of July… ah, like me. You are probably wondering what you would like to do this summer. Better get on it now. Because summer… for some of us… is here.
And let me just say this: Summer in Victoria B.C. Canada is a pretty subtle thing. It arrives… gradually. Sometimes by surprise. And it is a curious thing… because Victoria B.C. Canada does not actually experience seasons. I would hard pressed to explain how there is much difference between night and day.
Photo above – Took this (last night) with my Canon EOS-30D dSLR and a F2.5 55MM Macro Lens at Government House, Rockland, Victoria B.C. Canada
Seasons (and summer) is a funny thing here. On any given day in June, July and August, it might average 22 degrees © for 70 something (F). It is a rare thing indeed when the temperature rises to 30 – and when it does, it too arrives in a subtle way – like overnight. One day it is 22… and then it is 30 for a couple of days… then it is cool again. Anyway. I am getting off track.
If you live here you are busy planning your get-away. If you are a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, (for example) where the average temperature during the day is about 325 (F) then you have your sights on Victoria as a destination. Because Victoria (compared to Arizona) is the equivalent of stepping from a blast furnace into a mountain stream.
And as you can see from the top photo above, the flowers are insane here. This was one of dozens of different kinds of roses that were fully in bloom. I think I saw every color of rose except for Green and dark blue. I saw every other web safe color in the Government House garden. Click on the photos above for a mind-blowing enlargement. Mind blowing. Hmm. Showing my age with expressions like that. Let’s try this. The green in Victoria is dope and if you stay in Phoenix this summer you are, like, whack. There. Better.
Hey. Quick piece of travel advice if you are flying from anywhere in the U.S. into Canada – particularly Victoria B.C. Canada… and you are wearing a T-Shirt. Many people wear T-Shirts right? Make sure there is a pleasant and non-violent message on your T-Shirt. Examples:
-Anything with Kittens, Puppies, Flowers (like the ones above), American flags and pictures of Jesus are good.
-Things like guns, rifles, grenades, and Peace signs are definitely a no-no. Go figure. Cartoon characters like Transformers: Bad! Especially if they are holding ray-guns. Ray-guns bring down airplanes you know! Here is the T-Shirt in question.
Also. Avoid words on your T-Shirt like Boom, Bang, Attack, Peace or any script in any language other than English… because if it ain`t English it looks like Arabic to the TSA.
So. Play it safe folks and silk-screen one of my flower pictures onto your travel safe T-Shirts.
And Bon Voyage!
Uhm. That means Safe Travel for those that do not understand Arabic.
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Air travel rant #4 way up in the sky in my beautiful balloon · Tuesday June 17, 2008 by colin newell
For those just joining us… who paid for their pleasure or business flights some months ago… relax, the sky is not falling.
For those pricing out that Christmas vacation or trans-continental business trip, hold onto to your in-flight queasy bag real tight because you are going to need it.
Because it is not like the sky is actually falling – it is just that everything about air travel (and I mean everything) is going up, up, up…
Buying your ticket is the easy part.
Thinking of a flight to Calgary from Vancouver? Ok, that is easy.
$300 for starters.
Fuel surcharge? Could be anything from $75 to $300 depending on how far you are going? Baggage? You may by paying $25 and up for each bag in the near future. Toss in a security charge, an airport improvement fee and a wild and cryptic assortment of mystery fees that would take one worried looking travel agent an hour to explain (and that could cost you by the minute if you call the 1-900 help line!)
It is like the perfect storm – a few thousand feet below the stratosphere… somewhere in the jet stream. Except in reality, the real trouble is on the ground – In America… where millions are fed up with the TSA shake-downs, the illogical levels of security and paranoia. 40 million fewer domestic air trips in America in the last 2 years. American visits to Canada are down 65% over the last 2 years. These people are scared to death and are staying at home where they are safe from the bogey man… and the in flight entertainment.
Sigh.
My wife and I just finished paying for our tickets away this Christmas – and we figured it would be ever so slightly more expensive just to be done with it and just buy the freaking Plane… or the airline which might be possible at the rate at which they are sinking…
Bon voyage.
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