On Friday, we ventured into Ottawa to shop at the open-air farmers’ market, watch the Changing of the Guard on Parliament Hill, and try some traditional Canadian food.

Poutine is a common Canadian snack dish (originally from Quebec), made with French fries, topped with brown gravy, and cheese curds.

The group wanted to know if I was going to post a recipe for it. I suppose that if I loved the stuff I would do so, but frankly, I found it rather disgusting.

For that reason, here is the best I can give you as far as a recipe goes; Purchase a bag of frozen fries, a can of brown beef gravy, and a bag of cheese curds, which can be found at Whole Foods. Bake or deep-fry the French fries and heat the gravy, place fries on a serving dish, sprinkle with curds, then pour the heated gravy over the top. There you have it, Poutine, the favorite snack food of Canada. Enjoy!

I had expected the Changing of the Guard in Canada to be similar to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in London. Again, not quite so. There was still plenty of pomp and circumstance, maybe even more, but don’t expect the same sort of stoic affair.

These guards not only smile and speak, but they will also pose for pictures with you as well. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that they aren’t actually “guarding” anything. The photo above shows the Canadian Guard, while the photo below shows the British Guard at Buckingham Palace.

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Dave never left the grounds of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai during our four day stay. He loves laying out in the sun, swimming, and reading by the pool.

The “adults only” Palm Grove Pool was just steps from our patio door. His idea of the perfect oasis.

That’s our room, lower level, on the far right.

I did spend a little time out there, my heavily sunscreen-lathered feet are a testament to that! The pool, cruel harsh sun and all, was hard to resist, it was so quiet and relaxing.

Especially if you have fruity cocktails on hand! Yes, the cocktails helped lure me out there.

Other times, while Dave was sunning himself, I was inside, formatting photos and writing blog posts…

…or outside exploring the property.

This is a Grey Francolin. They are everywhere! With babies! Loved them.

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Our last night in Hilo, the night we went on the tailbone-damaging Lava Ocean boat right, we were too dirty, wet, and in pain to go out to dinner. Instead we stopped at Safeway and picked up wine, cheese, and crackers.  Then we spent the evening in our room.

After breakfast, the next morning, we loaded up the car and headed back to Kailua-Kona and the west side of the island for the final four days of our Hawaiian vacation.

It’s a whole different ballgame when you’re repacking your bags for a 2-hour “road trip” than it is when you’re packing your bags for an ocean-crossing plane ride. In other words, just toss everything together. Nowhere as carefully or neatly as you normally would when traveling.

When we pulled up to the front of the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka’upulehu, a bellhop was immediately there to assist us. He encouraged us to just head on into the lobby and he would take care of our bags. Our car was packed as if we were relatives from The Beverly Hillbillies. I’m talking used napkins, the little boxes from the Advil and Aleve, and even the doughnut cushion box, all just tossed into the back seat. A discouraging mess for such a nice place. We may as well have been the Clampetts clan pulling up in from of the Drysdal’s palatial home.

I was busy grabbing my computer bag, the Safeway paper bag with the remaining dinner from the night before, the beach bag, my purse, and my doughnut cushion. At the same time Dave was struggling to get out of the car with his computer bag and his cane.

We looked ridiculous as we stumbled into the gorgeous lobby – where a handsome gentleman with outstretched arms – held out leis to elegantly drape around our necks.

Timothy was our host. He led us to a pretty sitting area, pre-set with refreshing cold scented towels, snacks, and Mai Tais to sip on as we went through the check-in process.

As you may have already deducted, this was our first time staying at a luxurious Four Seasons Resort. At least now – I am privy to the knowledge – the Four Seasons is far too dignified and classy to have guests stand at a registration desk while checking in!

Unfortunately, instead of fully enjoying the relaxing process, I felt like a fool with all my bags and my Clampett-family ways.

Although I must say, my beautiful flower lei, Dave’s Kukui nut lei, and the Mai Tai did help take the sting off of my foolishness… more than a wee bit.

After the painless registration, the bellhop, Haku, came over and retrieved all my bags and set them on the golf cart. We loaded ourselves on as well, cane and doughnut in hand. On the way to our room, Haku gave us a tour and some recent history of the property.

We learned that after the ferocious tsunami, spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, slammed Japan’s eastern coast on March 11, 2011, the west side of Hawaii’s Big Island had about 12 hours notice that a tsunami would hit their shores.

Understandably, because the aftermath in Japan was so catastrophic and so many lives lost, with over 15,000 confirmed dead, the severity of damage to Hawaii went largely unreported. Although, mercifully, no one on Hawaii died, flooding and property damage were extensive in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.

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For our time on the east side of the Big Island, we stayed at The Palms Cliff House Inn, a B&B just north of Hilo.

Sunrise comes up early on the east side.

As do the Gold Dust Day Geckos.

How cute are these guys?!?

We enjoyed our breakfast on a lovely patio overlooking the bay. After breakfast, the first day, we explored the volcanoes and the tropical forests.

Including another tree tunnel – so gorgeous!

The east side is the tropical side of the Big Island and it receives over 125-inches of rain a year.

Hilo is said to still be old-style Hawaii – where the native Hawaiians live. More relaxed and much less touristy than the west side, where all the beaches and resorts are.

I can see that. I loved Hilo, but then again, I’m not a beach, white sands, sun and fun sort of person. There aren’t as many beaches on this side, the shoreline is often difficult to access. But it is so much more beautiful!

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I feel in love when we landed at the Kona International Airport.  It is the most charming airport I’ve ever been to. “Airport” and “Charming” – now that’s an oxymoron!

You step off the plane, down the stairs from the plane and onto the tarmac – like the good old days – it’s as if you’ve stepped into another world.

It almost made flying fun. I say almost, because by the time we arrived back home, we’d been on nine different flights, this was #5 of the nine.

But this particular airport, I could fly into and out of over and over. The relaxed attitude and the wonderful tiki hut-style buildings makes me smile.

Once we had our rental car, we began our drive on Highway 19 (Queen Kaahumanu Highway) from the west side of the island, up along the north side, and down to Hilo on the east side.

The first thing that you notice when you’ve left the airport is the desolate black lava landscape. I was amazed at how barren the land looked, almost nothing but lava flows. Most of the lava flows are from the last eruptions of Mt. Hualalai, in 1800 and 1801.

A few miles down the road you run into what I’d have to call lava graffiti. Thankfully, there is no paint involved.

Instead, white stones are used to write and make pictures on the roadside lava deposits. The white really stands against the dark black lava. At first I didn’t like it, but after several miles of more of the same, it began to grow on me.

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One of the coolest things we did while in Hawaii was to get on a boat and travel out to the lava flow. To the Kupapa’u ocean entry points, where the smoldering 2,200 degree lava flows into the unsuspecting and viciously crashing 70 degree ocean.

Earlier on the same day, we drove to the Jaggar Museum and the Kilauea Overlook in the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. This is the Halema’uma’u Crater. It has been erupting consistently since the crater became active again in March 2008.  The photo above shows what we saw during the light of day.

In the dark of night, it looks like this! We didn’t see it at night because we were busy breaking body parts on that boat out in the Pacific. More on that in a moment…

In many areas of the park, this is what it’s like when your driving around. Thick smog-like smoke from the eruption hangs in the air.

And steam vents. So cool! Too learn more about the volcano and about the park, with continuous updates, GO HERE.

This map shows how the lava flows. Click Here for a larger view and an explanation.

According to VolcanoNews.com, over 2 dozen volcanoes in the world are currently erupting. Who knew?

But, I believe there is only one volcano that has lava flowing directly into the ocean, and that is this one!

At sunset, we went out on this big metal boat with 22 other brave souls. Not brave to get up-close and personal with molten lava, brave to endure the boat ride out to see it!

Here is just some of what the Lava Ocean Tours website says about the adventure:

Conditions: High Speed open ocean touring along East Hawaii’s southeast coastline
Restrictions: Guests need to be 4 years old, able to climb a 10 ft ladder. People with any of the following conditions will not be allowed on tour, recent injuries, frailness, obesity, osteoporosis, pregnancies, back, neck, joint issues. This is not a powder puff adventure expect the ocean to be rough we cover 36+ miles of rugged inaccessible Big Island coastline during the open ocean tour.

Of course, as with all adventure activities, you have to sign a waiver, that you really don’t read, that basically says that if you are grievously insured or die, you and/or your surviving grieving family members will not sue the adventure provider.

Since I did not read, but instead just signed on the dotted line, I probably missed the paragraph that read;

“If you are a female and you sit in the front row of the boat, you will, in most all instances, crack or severely damage your tailbone on our unforgiving metal, thinly cushioned seats-from-hell, as the front of the boat lifts 8 to 12 feet out of the water and slams back down on the rock-hard ocean with the force of a Lear jet crashing onto a runway. This will occur over and over and over again until you beg whatever God it is you worship for mercy and relief! If you don’t worship a God, be advised, you soon will!”

“P.S. Kiss your ass goodbye. Ass meaning, the ass you have that does not hurt at this moment in time – yeah, that ass, kiss it goodbye!”

But once again, it was worth it! Although a cracked tailbone is painful and slow to heal, it does heal. Whereas, I may never have the opportunity to see this again!

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“Almost home” is what I meant to say.

I type this as I sit in LAX at 5 AM on Monday morning, at an empty gate, awaiting our 8:15 flight home. By the time this posts, I will have been home for a little more than 24 hours … but right now, I just want to get there.

Red-eyes are not fun, not the flights and not the actual eyes.

And I do have red eyes, as I did not sleep a wink on the Kauai – LA flight. I tried but it wasn’t to be.

Middle seat for a 5 hour flight – Ugg!
Stuck between two people soundly sleeping…with my eyes wide open – Double Ugg!
Injured tailbone and sitting on a doughnut – Damn! (more on that later)

It was all worth it though. Even if the only good thing that happened on the trip, was seeing dolphins in Kauai. It still would have been totally worth it. Of course, there were many other amazing things about the trip, just saying.

I have SO many photos like the ones above – that I’m grouping together – so you can see a small sampling of them.

There were literally hundreds of dolphins surrounding our catamaran on two separate occasions. Wow!

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While in Kauai, we tried to see as much of our favorite spots as possible. One of those has to be Wialua Falls. There are so many beautiful waterfalls on the islands, but Wialua is still our favorite.

You’ll see people all over the islands making baskets, hats, little animals and the like out of palm fronds.  There was such a guy at the falls, but this particular basket with the little cricket attached was just too cute to not get a snapshot of.

When you’re in Kauai, you have to drive down the Tree Tunnel!

Kauai’s mile long Tree Tunnel is located on the south shore, on Maluhia Road, on the way to Old Koloa Town.

We also had to check out the Spouting Horn.

“On Kauai’s South Shore you’ll find the spectacular Spouting Horn blowhole, one of the most photographed spots on Kauai. The Poipu surf channels into a natural lava tube here and releases a huge spout of water during large swells.”

A new stop this time was the Kauai Coffee Company.

We took the self-guided walking tour and Dave tasted some coffee …

… while I was busy in the store buying and having shipped home a box full of burlap coffee bean bags.

On our last full day in Kauai we took a catamaran out to snorkel, look for dolphins, and to see the spectacular Na Pali Coast.

The beauty of this place is positively breathtaking!

Photos can not do it justice.

We dropped anchor here and snorkeled for about an hour. It was hard to put your face in the water when you had all this to look at above water!

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We arrived in Kauai on Saturday, May 25. We were on our favorite Hawaiian island for three days.

The first time we visited Hawaii was in 1988. Marissa was just 1 1/2 years old. Dave’s parents kindly flew in from Illinois to stay with her for the week.

It was the first time I’d been away from my baby, so that trip started out stressful for me. But, of course, the Hawaiian culture and lifestyle has a way of washing those stresses away.

The next, and until now, the last time we came was with the kids in 1998. Both times, we only visited Honolulu, Oahu (where you had to fly into from AZ, back then) and Kauai.

So, Kauai is where we feel most home at. We know the island well, where things are, and what we want to see.

All three of the islands we’ve visited have wild chickens, but Kauai wins by a landslide with the most! Kauai is home to thousands of wild chickens, who have few natural predators. Kauai’s chickens originated from the original Polynesian settlers, who brought them as a food source. They have since bred with European chickens that have gotten free from farms during previous hurricanes.

You’d think the feral cats on the island would decrease the feral chicken population, but we saw the cats lying around while the chickens and roosters strutted about them, completely unfazed.

I find the chicken a charming part of island life, but I suppose if I had a rooster crowing outside my window every morning at 4:45 am, as we did at our B&B in Hilo, I’d feel differently!

One of our favorite beaches on Kauai is Tunnels Beach in Hanalei Bay. Tunnels is about a 4-mile drive from Princeville.

With the backdrop of “Bali Hai” and the protective reef, you won’t want to leave. Most days this location offers some of the best snorkeling in Hawaii. I say most days because on the day we were there, unfortunately there were strong trade winds and we didn’t have flippers. I was tossed around like a rag-doll.

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Along with taking “The Road to Hana” the best thing we did on Maui was taking a boat ride out to Molokini Crater. It’s a beautiful location and you could easily go snorkeling all day.

Molokini is a crescent-shaped, partially submerged volcanic crater that forms a small islet located in the Alalakeiki Channel between the islands of Maui and Kaho’olawe. Molokini’s crescent shape protects snorkelers and scuba divers from waves and the channel’s powerful currents.

There were beautiful coral reefs,

orange pencil (two photos above) and black sea urchins,

and plenty of fish.

After about an hour of snorkeling by the crater, we headed out to Turtle Town. Stupid name, but a great place to see the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle.

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