Ted Thorpe – Steps to Anywhere

Vancouver to Los Angeles

Posted on September 27, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

Our Monday boarding of the Emerald Princess involved more “hurry up and wait” than expected. Perhaps that’s because we followed the cruise line instructions to arrive at 12:30 for boarding. We usually arrive about 11:00 which often puts us near the front of the line. We were able to drop our luggage at the entrance to the terminal where the checked bags disappeared with a porter almost instantly. Gail and Jeff (Jennifer) sat with the carry-ons and waited for Dave and I to park his van. We made it to the parking garage easily but how to take advantage of prepaid parking remained a mystery. Dave was finally able to find an attendant and the riddle was solved. The next mystery was how to get back to where we had left Gail & Jeff. We guessed the wrong floor when we found an elevator. Asking for directions (sorry guys, I admit it) helped a little. Once reunited the four of us continued with the boarding process. The lines of passengers progressed slowly but continuously through the terminal, each stage bringing us closer to the ship.

It was a pleasant day, a little cool but bright. After finding our staterooms it was time to find something to eat. Easily done on a cruiseship. The remainder of the afternoon was consumed exploring the ship and, after luggage was delivered, unpacking.

We met Ivan, our first waiter, at dinner and he got us laughing immediately. When Gail ordered a caesar salad his questions was “would you like dead fish,” referring to the anchovies used atop a traditional version of the salad. Gail is not a “dead fish” person but Dave is. That was on Monday. Today, Wednesday, we encountered Ivan as our breakfast waiter and he was equally entertaining.

Our second dinner on the first formal evening was a visit to the Crown Grill steak house. The cover charge was a gift from our CAA travel consultant Laurie. We all enjoyed it and ate more than we should have. Gail and I were able to resist dessert, Jeff & Dave succumbed. We may find ourselves here again.

The first morning on board was beautiful. It was so sunny and warm that, after doing several laps around the deck, Gail and I spent much of the morning relaxing on the lounge chairs on the balcony. It was sun tan weather off the coast of Washington state. Our second morning was much different. We are off the California coast approaching San Francisco and the ship’s fog horn has been sounding since very early this morning. It is definitely not sun tan weather today.

And now for some pictures. Vancouver is one of the more picturesque cruise ship ports.

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Wrapping up the Journey

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

Our last dinner in Honolulu was at Tony Roma’s and it brought back memories of a birthday dinner in Burlington more than 20 years ago. Some of you may remember. For those who weren’t present here’s the short version. Dinner plans began with four celebrating my birthday and one other. It ended with a group of more than 20 in attendance as a result of contacts made throughout the day with friends who shared Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) as a hobby.

Our flight from Honolulu to Vancouver was delayed more than an hour because of a needed tire change on the Boeing 737 that was transportation. A task that should have taken half an hour, according to the initial announcement, took much longer. They seemed to have difficulty finding a suitable replacement. By the time the replacement wheel had been installed there were three wheels under the airplane, the original and two potential wheels that didn’t fit. After that, the trip was uneventful but we arrived in Vancouver about two hours later than scheduled.

The Culprit Tire

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After a night of sleep we returned to the airport for our flight to Toronto. There were no delays with this airplane, in fact we arrived in Vancouver 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. It turned out to be irrelevant as did our quick clearance through Canada Border Security thanks to NEXUS. The luggage handlers didn’t get suitcases onto the carousel for nearly 30 minutes. We did get lucky and our bags were among the first group to arrive. Kevin picked us up promptly and we started the drive back to Burlington.

We picked up our car from Kevin’s home, transferred our baggage and collected groceries for our next breakfast, however, we still needed to have dinner. A quick call to friends Chris and Marie found them ready to share a late evening table at Kelsey’s. The trip home continued after an enjoyable meal and once home the suitcases were virtually abandoned until the following morning.

We have no plans for another trip although I am nearly certain there will be another and when plans are made the journal will again become active.

Thanks to all of you who followed our 2018 journey we, Gail and I, hope you found something of interest in the commentary and posted photos. Another thank you for the comments made on many posts. I have now added the nearly 1000 trip photos and videos to the gallery which can be accessed directly at the link Australia 2018. You will also find the Photo Gallery menu item above and link to the photos from there. There is also an Australia 2018 link on the sidebar of this page. Not all of the photos are captioned but that should cause no trouble.

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Aloha Hawaii

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

The boarding passes showed a 7:15 pm departure but our actual departure was 8:20 pm because, they said, the airplane was late being delivered from maintenance. Now who, I ask, could complain about the airline wanting you to have a safe airplane? We were certainly not rushed at the airport. We arrived in the afternoon and discovered that Sydney Airport is essentially a large shopping mall with air service around three edges, road and rail services on the other side.

We did no buying other than food but I did manage to add a little excitement to the afternoon by walking away from a small case containing my laptop and Gail’s iPad. We were half way across the mall when the light went on as I glanced up to see a woman sitting at a table typing on her laptop.

We hurried back, hopefully, but when we looked at the last known location it was gone. There was a group of young men sitting in the area. We asked if they had noticed what happened to the case. They all said they had seen an airport employee pick it up and go that way (indicating by hand gesture). The first employee we saw wore a Qantas badge and we hit pay dirt. He escorted us across the mall to the security desk where he had earlier delivered the case with contents which were returned after I identified its contents to the satisfaction of the security staff. Time to restart heart.

The flight was uneventful, even the food wasn’t bad. We always have hopes of sleeping on a night flight which are only rarely realized. Perhaps one of the nine hours was actually sleep, most of the other eight were spent unsuccessfully trying to sleep. It was somewhat fortunate that the entertainment system offered a decent collection but it failed to create sleep like it does at home.

Our arrival in Honolulu was rather unusual. The airplane’s contents, nearly 300 people, were escorted to waiting busses and transported in groups of 40 per bus, to the customs hall where they joined other arriving international passengers. Our NEXUS/GLOBAL ENTRY status allow us to avoid the masses and arrived where our luggage had yet to be delivered. The carousel was far too small for the the load so there was staff offloading the carousel and placing it in rows beside. We were lucky enough to have our bags and get through inspection well before the majority of our flight. SpeediShuttle was waiting and a few minutes later we were at the Hawaiian Village. Although it was only noon the check-in desk at the Ali’l was able to find us a room. There was the bed and it was very tempting to just crash but we pressed on.

The air conditioning was not working in the room so that was quickly reported and we started our first lap around the resort. There are at least five hotel towers surrounding the resort. There are half a dozen pools nestled among the luscious tropical gardens with streams and pools populated with large koi and other species of smaller fish. There are lots of birds plus the usual doves, pigeons and gulls. Outdoor bars and restaurants abound along with clusters of shops and bistros offering a wide variety of food choices from asian to Italian to $150 steaks. After grabbing a couple of sandwiches that were far too big for either of us to eat, we returned to our room, poured a couple of glasses of wine then sat on the balcony. From there we got to watch the Aloha Friday Night Hawaiian music and hula performance around the Super Pool followed by a short but spectacular fireworks display from the beach. How we stayed awake this long we have no idea but we faded fast after the fireworks.

We awoke! It was light outside! It must be Saturday! It was!!!

Yesterday’s humid, hot, bright sun was replaced by less humid, warm, overcast with a forecast of flash flooding. Needing supplies for the next few days meant a walk to Walmart which took us through Ala Moana Mall. As we passed the food court I caught the aroma of a Cinnabon shop but we continued walking. With the Walmart stop complete and completely successful, we walked back through the Ala Moana centre again. It was near lunch time and Gail found some agreeable lunch time fare so once again I heard the Cinnabon call me. I swear I was only going to have a small one but then I saw the macadamia nuts and the caramel and it was too much. It was a total contrast. Gail with her healthy broccoli soup and orange salad; me with the macadamia, caramel Cinnabon and coffee.

We are officially spoiled. This afternoon we found ourselves walking in the beautiful lagoon, around the busy, glistening pools, along the beach sand, wading in the ocean and complaining. Well, not really complaining, just comparing. Here we find ourselves with thousands of people on a few hectares of beach compared with the Gold Coast with hundreds of people on thousands of hectares of beach; gritty, gravelly sand compared with silky fine sand; tiny, gentle waves bringing the tide up the beach compared with absolutely continuous one to two metre waves crashing onto the shore. We think it must be time to go home.

We first visited Hawaii in 1973. We have visited four of the islands on cruise ship visits numerous times and Honolulu about four times as a stopover point when flying between North America and Australia or New Zealand. On every visit we have passed the iconic Diamond Head, or Lē’ahi, but only today did we climb to the top. The trail is about 1.3 kilometres one way climbing 171 metres. From the top there is an expansive view of the shoreline from Honolulu to Kuamookane. That, I think pretty much puts an exclamation point on the trip and the journal posts.

The Climb

View toward Honolulu

View toward Kuamookane

We arrive home on April 12 and once the jet lag has subsided I will get the photos online. The final post of this tour will be to announce the final photos are on line.

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Good-bye Australia

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Ted Thorpe

We spent a very leisurely final full day in Burleigh Heads. After arranging transportation to the Gold Coast airport for Wednesday April 4, we grabbed a bus to Burleigh Waters, a nearby area. We had a quick lunch, picked up something for dinner then returned. My TRANSLink GO card had a balance of $5.23 and the fare was $2.60 each way. The plan was to end up with a 3 cent balance but they fooled me and counted our return trip as a transfer so I end up with a fine balance of $2.63. We spent some of the afternoon walking in the sand as the tide went out. The waves are quite unpredictable. One moment we were walking on wet sand. The next moment the wave can bring the water knee high then try to drag our feet back seaward.

Wednesday morning found us packing the final bits for the flight back to Sydney then collected the remainder of our groceries to leave with our hosts John and Ubon Thomas. By 10:45 all was ready for John to take us to the Gold Coast airport. John very graciously drove us to the airport where checkin at this pleasant little airport was quick and efficient. After a quick hamburger lunch we awaited our airplane.

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We were to board about 12:30 but were delayed until 1:30 PM because one of the cabin crew had become ill and required paramedic services. Of course a replacement had to be found. Our departure was about 2:00 pm and our flight was uneventful and we landed about 3:30.

There were plenty of taxis at Kingsford Smith airport so there was almost no wait. Unfortunately, the delay resulted in the trip being made during the beginning of rush hour traffic thus raising the cost slightly. After checkin at the hotel we ate at the hotel, not our favourite restaurant but the meal was adequate.

We recovered the large suitcase left in storage at the hotel and began repacking for the next leg of the journey. Packing was completed, more or less, on Thursday morning. The large suitcase now weighs half a kilogram less than the 23 kilogram maximum but will not need to be opened until we arrive home. The three smaller bags were packed for expected activities in Honolulu and, fortunately, we are able to check four bags at no cost on our Qantas flight.

We made another stop at a nearby pharmacy to replenish Gail’s diabetic supplies then zipped down to the opera house and found a t-shirt that interested Gail. After lunch at Circular Quay we returned to the hotel for a while then started our last excursion. The plan was to travel once again to Watson Bay by train and bus then walk another part of the cliffs. We expected to take a ferry back to Cockle Bay for dinner but our plans changed when we discovered that the Government Ferries stopped just after 4 pm and we missed it. There is always an alternative so we found a bus that brought us back to our hotel.

After dinner I checked in with Qantas and printed our boarding passes. Earlier we became somewhat confused about our departure time. One document had our departure time at 10 pm while another indicated 7:15. The boarding passes say 7:15 and that’s good enough for us.

Ready to go!!

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