Trip Tidbits

* Well that slideshow thing seemed to work real well but it used up a quarter of my allotment so I don't think I will avail myself of it in the future. I'm not going to post any more pictures since they are all there now.

* As for security while traveling, everything was the same for domestic flights within the US but when we went through US customs and immigration here in the airport in Montreal, we were forbidden to bring any carry-ons and forced to check them. Then after going through the security checkpoint, everyone had to be patted down in a second checkpoint. Here's the thing though. They pat you down everywhere except the crotch. Lame! That's where the guy hid the explosives. Wasn't that the whole point of the patdown? To prevent crotch hidden items from getting on the plane?

* A couple days before we left LA, I bid on a room near the airport since we had an 8am flight out to Hawaii. I scored the Crown Plaza for $43. Then when we checked in, the girl had a dyslexic moment and gave us room 1121 which was an occupied room. She should have given us 1112, an unoccupied room. The occupant was pretty surly when we barged in on him. When I went back to the front desk, the girl was so sorry she comped our parking and breakfast.

* We had a pretty long journey going to Hawaii as well. There was a 4 hour layover in Honolulu after a six and a half hour flight from LA. We took an island hopping flight to the Big Island. Then we took a cab to our hotel. A thirty minute ride was $95. The most expensive cab ride we've ever taken. At the end of our stay on the Big Island, we took a shuttle back to the airport which ended up being a private car anyway for 2/3 the price of a taxi.

* Did I mention we were both sick going to Hawaii? We were on a steady diet of throat lozenges all day and I could barely speak. It wasn't until we went swimming in the ocean and we gargled with the seawater that it started getting better. Still, if you have to be sick somewhere, paradise isn't such a bad place.



* I felt fatty the whole time since I'm still not used to this new(ish) non-smoker body I have. I was convinced I had put on 10 pounds during the trip but when I got home, the scale said I lost 2 pounds.

* When we toured the Big Island, we visited the Mauna Loa macadamia nut processing plant. We tried some chocolate dipped squid which is very popular with the Japanese tourists. Remember this. If you're ever having sweets or desserts among the Japanese, beware, because there's often fishiness involved. We bought a couple cans of nuts and ate them during the trip. Then yesterday when I looked for them at the market, I saw that they stopped carrying them here.

* When we got home, my Magicjack was waiting for me. I ordered it before we left and after setting it up yesterday, it works pretty darn good. I picked a Socal phone number but it looks like I can call anywhere in Canada and the US for free. (Okay, not free since the device is $50 a year, but still.)

* As I mentioned before, we really tied one on the last night in Honolulu. (At the end of the slideshow from the last post, there is a video of us getting ready to go out that last night.) At the karaoke bar I sang Urgent (badly) and Serge sang a Karen Carpenter song. You know the one that starts out "Long ago....." I have a video of that one, but I've been admonished not to post it.

* It was a great trip all around. There were good meals with family and friends, a couple of hikes, plenty of relaxation on the Big Island and the Disneyfied excitement of Waikiki. I was ready to come home though and yesterday I had a poutine as a homecoming treat. Now I've got a month straight of intense working and then in March we're off again. More on that to come.