Holiday in paradise and conference in Ottawa

In October and November, when my duties as Acting Director for the Institute for Teaching and Learning at an end, I took two weeks of annual leave, and another week to conference leave. For the first two weeks it was family affair in Waikiki. Ahh…
Then I went on to – wait for it – Ottawa for a conference. Quite a change in climate. Along the way I stopped to visit still other family in Hastings.
I am still learning about picture sizes, links, and the like. So this entry is pretty uneven.

Travels in October and November 2006.
Kate decided to celebrate my birthday in style this year and I happily agreed. She organized a trip to that Paradise on Earth which is Waikiki (not just Hawaii, which is good, not just Oahu which is fine, not just Honolulu which is better, but Waikiki which is best). As it is as close to halfway between Gwen in Florida, June, Kate’s mother came along, and Gwen made the trip. Kate also offered Julie and Martin an incentive to come. We were there for two weeks. Julie and Martin were there for the first week and Gwen for the second with one or so days of overlap. A good time was had by all.
Me, I just like being there. The balmy air and unfailingly polite and friendly locals, the having nothing to do but plan the next meal. The distaff side are all watery types so they bob and, clearly to be distinguished from bobbing, they also swim. This is a fine distinction lost on me.
Though we have been there many times before, there is always something new to see, do, or explore, and if that cannot be done (say, thanks to an earthquake) there is the balmy air and astounding sunsets, rainbows in the mountains when it rains and so on.
We flew Air Canada and bought the seats six months or more in advance to get knock-down prices for the three of us going: me, Kate, and June. Julie and Martin got the best price on Hawaiian Airlines,
and thought that would get them started on Hawaii
while flying there. It is ten hours from Sydney to Honolulu. Gwen came via America West through Phoenix and that took nine plus hours, so as I said about halfway.
Air Canada super cheap economy was a better ride than our nine hour Qantas Business Class flight to Tokyo in September 2006. The seats were of course small, economy size, about 17 inches across the beam but we three put the arm rests up and relaxed. What was better was the attentive service, plenty of water to guard against dehydration, and the food. We had hot two meals, one served within an hour of takeoff as dinner and a hot breakfast before landing. (On landing in Sydney from Tokyo on Qantas we had toast – fossilized toast, and that is it.) Kate bought some duty free gin on the plane and time passed – slowly when you are sitting, sitting, and sitting – we arrived at about midnight local time. We had an Avis car waiting, though we had to wait all of five minutes for the shuttle bus because we got in about twenty minutes early thanks to a tailwind, but the friendly driver came and we were in the car within thirty minutes. I had MapQuested the route but the Avis agent drew us a map which was better because MapQuest used Saratoga Street to approach the building and that it a large off set intersection that just does not permit the left turn needed; BeachWalk is the street that works. We made it to the apartment by about 1 a.m. local time, and once again discovered that we need tonic on arrival but that the ABC stores all close at 1:30 and I just missed it. We will have to figure out how to travel with tonic water need time. Get some on the plane?
We have been to Paradise several times before, starting in 1990. (I had been to a conference in a Waikiki hotel in 1989 and had stopped there twice on flights to the States.) Tom, Kate’s brother, owns a condo there and he lets us stay in it. This is probably the fourth or fifth time. It is called Waikiki Shore and is the last building on the Ewa Side abutting the Fort DeRussy park.
Katester brought along her new toy, a video camera and proceeded to work on her epic The Birthday of Jackson.
My birthday eve dinner was at the Royal Hawaiian hotel, that pink confection by the sea. When Kate laid down the law about Waikiki and I surfed the net looking for new things to do, and I found the fixed price, all you can eat seafood buffet at the Royal Hawaiian. So we did that. It was grand. Raymond the waiter was kindness itself and ended up giving me a corkscrew birthday present as well as steering the serenaders to our table for some singing. Many snaps were taken by Camera Boy (Martin, you should the gigantic yellow case he carries his camera[s] around in, you should not have to lift it, I know I did not), me, and Cecil B de Katester. Alaskan crab legs gave me a new insight into crabs – More! I ate Pacific oysters. I like oysters but Pacific oysters are usually flaccid and tasteless but not so this time. No rosé so I went for a woody chardonnay and that did us. A good time was had by all.
I sat around and watched the sea from the balcony, the sunsets, and read books while flipping the television. We also organized an expedition to Pearl Harbor (me, Martin, and Julie for perspective).
Here is a Google_Earth image of where we were.
We decided to do the USS Missouri. Big and complicated. We did the guided tour and went down three decks into some claustrophobic places. Here is Julie providing perspective:
The plaque on the deck marks the spot.
The Arizona Memorial. I have been on it before. While the memorial is moving, the crowd of cybermen I found on it put me off ever wanting to go on it again. Any sense of spirituality that the memorial imparts is blunted by the cybermen, tourists with video cameras stuck to their faces wandering to and fro. Rather than experience the memorial they want to capture it on film, and they do blunder about because they cannot see where they are going. So they do run into each other and me.
Among our many other accomplishments were repeated visits to the Temple of Doomed Credit Cards, aka as the Ala Moana Mall, the Japanese grocer at the Ward Center (where identified one of the unidentified eaten objects we found in Tokyo as myoga which is described in Wikipedia as Japanese ginger, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoga), visits to bottle shops to find new rosés, several pick up and drop offs at the airport for Julie and Martin and Gwen, and I dropped June and Kate off at the end because I was going on to a conference in Ottawa Canada. Julie and Martin took the car one day and drove around, well that is what they said, but I suspect they drove to the Temple of Doomed Credit Cards. On the first Sunday there was the earthquake, a Richter 6.5 followed by a 6.4. The shock hit Oahu at about 7 a.m. We were abed and it was like being rocked, except that the lamps and lights were also swaying. We hopped up and I tuned on the TV which blacked out before I could flip channels to news. We dressed and Kate sent me to roust out Julie and Martin and evacuated the building. Kate, mindful of the Indonesian tsunami two years ago keep an eye on the sea. We repaired to the Shore Bird restaurant next door for breakfast. They were selling what had already been prepared and could only take cash as the electronics were all gone for credit cards. Fortunately we were cashed up so we got eats. Many others did not.
Eventually we walked up the nine flights of stairs and sat it out. The power came back on about 9 p.m. We had cooked by candle light (acquired by Martin in a reconnaissance mission in the mid afternoon) and my Smarter Image reading light. When the earthquake shut down a power station on the Big Island (Hawaii) that tripped every other power station in Hawaii and they all shut down; this automatic shut down prevents the remaining stations from overloading and blowing up, but it is also means each station has to be restarted by hand and that is a long and slow process. I am just glad I was not in an elevator when the power went out; many people were according the local newspapers the next day. Martin, of course, now sports a tee shirt that details the experience.
It was a very good day not to be at the airport where everything shut down, including the toilets. I am glad that we got lucky and missed this. I was once on an Air France flight from Heathrow and while I was waiting for the shuttle bus one of the car parks at Heathrow collapsed. Hours later, I got a flight.
At Reyn Spooner in the Temple of Doomed Credit cards we bought Hawaiian shirts, skirts, dresses. I pursued the Spooner 2006 Christmas shirt for several days. Getting the right size proved to be challenge but it finally appeared after two false starts.
I got the New York Times next door most days and kept puzzling on. Kate also gave me a homemade cryptic crossword which kept me busy for days, well weeks.
In addition to the custom made crossword puzzle, Kate also gave me a personal stamp
featuring a detail of Plato pointing up to eidos (the ideas) which is from Raphael’s astounding painting the School of Athens. Images of it are easy to find with Google Image search. She also gave me 14 Sherlock Holmes films starring the incomparable Basel Rathbone, whom I once met when I was an undergraduate and he was on a speaking tour. Martin and Julie came up with another DVD, Calypso Summer, the West Indies first cricket tour of Australia in the 1960s when that Statesman of Cricket, Richie Benaud was a player. Sticking to the DVD theme Gwen had carted along nine Alton Brown Good Eats DVDs! He is an old favorite for his distinctive combination of ham acting, creativity, and lucid explanations. Plus while browsing in Barnes and Noble I cam across the 1962 season the Avengers, pre-Emma Peel which I gave to myself! Much viewing will be in order.
I did web research to find some better wine stores and we went to two so I could add to my rosé database. I also came across some old faithfuls including the Bandol Tempier
that sets the standard.
Despite our many previous visits we had never been in the Iolani Palace, though we had tried, but it being Tuesday it was closed. (An in-joke, when we drove around England in 2004, we missed a good number of sights because the one day of the week, or the one day of the year it was closed was the day we arrived. We had tried it before only to find it closed.
But not this time, despite some kind of mix-up when we bought our tickets. We got a guided tour, and what a place it is. The floors are clear and deeply polished wood, the Palace combines high Victorian with exotic Polynesian in a heady combination. No photographs were permitted inside, I am sorry to say. The public administrator in me wondered who had paid for it all back in those days.
The state capitol is also an unusual building, open to the air with a pond inside. You remember it from Hawaii Five-O.
We watched some Magnum PI before we went to get into the Hawaiian spirit. Tom Magnum is available on DVD, but Hawaii Five-0 never has been though we saw one episode on Nick at Nite while in Waikiki. The figure is Father Damian of Leper fame.
The two weeks ended all too soon and it was time to move on. I took Kate and June to the airport on night for the midnight flight home, and spend one more night in the condo before heading to the airport. I flew on United direct to Chicago (eight plus hours). I had bought economy tickets for this part but upgraded on the web site using points so it was tolerable. Then a leisurely change at O’Hare for Omaha for once. When I got to Omaha I was dopey. The oligopoly travel agent did manage to get car for me in Omaha but it was two door, anyway I took it, anything to get to the nearest motel and bed. There are several lessons here. When changing terminal at O’Hare use the shuttle bus because it is quicker than walking or taking the train. Quicker because it cuts across the runways, whereas the train goes around the perimeter. Quick also because it stays behind security, whereas walking or the train mean leaving and re-entering security and that takes time. When I checked into the Holiday Inn near Eppley Field in Omaha I got the last room at about 9:00 a.m. I think I had better start booking advance. In Omaha I think I have ever only bothered to book in advance once, but maybe I should start again.
I finally made it to the bed and I slept until noon the next day! Yep, the better part of 26 hours of snoozing. Boy was I beautiful when I awoke from that beauty sleep. I should also specify four doors full size sedan.
Then it was time to drive down I-80 again to Hastings. Fall was busy falling. I made dinner for my mother twice while I was there. I also went to the Wal-Mart Vasteria for the first time where I got fresh salmon, and so tomatillos and the like. It is vast.
Soon enough it was time to go north.
Back through O’Hare to Ottawa on United. I had a greeter at Ottawa who drove me to the hotel, the very grand Château Laurier across from parliament hill. It was warmer in Ottawa than Omaha on that day, but it got colder. I was glad I had taken along my top coat and the lining, and I was sorry I had not taken a scarf and gloves. I took two bags, one for Waikiki and one for Ottawa. The Waikiki gear went home with Kate, along with her other boodle.
I did conference stuff. I sat through more than twenty-four (24) presentations. Much was old news to me. Much was irrelevant, the technical details of Canadian legislation, which was fascinating to the locals but not to me. I did my talk and I kept it light, general, and short. My talk, “I, burocrat,” is posted elsewhere on this blog. Have a look. Every other one was serious, specific, and long. It served to confirm in my mind the continued relevance of Herman Finer’s and Carl Friedrich’s long running argument about accountability and responsibility.
For details of the conference go to http://www.cba.org/cba/cle/cle00/parl_06.aspx
I did escape Conferenceville long enough to find on Ontario Government Liquor Board store and sample some new rosés including one from Niagara, a sticky one from Anjou, and German from the Mosel in a novelty bottle that was supposed to look like a cat! Yep. I also walked about until I found a snow dome for She Who Must be Obeyed when she says bring home a snow dome Traveler.
I returned via Honolulu so I could use the ticket I had on Air Canada from Honolulu to Sydney. I did try to upgrade it but Air Canada, acting like Qantas, refused my custom, so I rode back on my own in economy. John Mortimer, a real travel agent, who had booked this private trip for us, put me in a middle aisle seat on the grounds that the middle seats in the middle section are always the last to be filled. It worked; I had an open seat on my right so I did not have to hold myself at attention for the ten hours return flight. Below is my last shot from the Best Western Motel at the airport back at the city of Honolulu. Waikiki is on the other side of the city and out of sight from here. The building is a tromphe d’oeil.

I tried to get the oligopolistic travel agent to book this motel for me, but she made it hard going and quoted me US$440 a night. I booked it on the web for US$150. This travel agent also made hard going to the rental car in Omaha and that is why I got the two door Cobalt with no head room. I have tried all three of the oligolpolist travel agents and none of the them match John Mortimer at Travel World, but they don’t have to because their client is not me but the University. As long as they deliver what the University want, I am irrelevant.
One highlight of the trip home was Captain Denny who flew UA079 from Chicago to San Francisco. He was at the gate on the PA welcoming us and making jokes. When we boarded he was at the door to greet all 291 of us. But wait there is more. Once aloft the cabin staff first distributed the Boeing 767 card which all the specs on the back
Then later the cabin staff distributed his card, notice the personal greeting on the back.


Did he write one of these for all 299 of us, or just the front end? He also stood at the door to see us out, too. I can hardly wait to fly with Denny again.
To close, believe it or not, there are still things we have not done. We have only been to one other island, Maui about ten years ago. The Big Island is the one with the volcanoes. We still have not been to the Japanese temple in the mountains to drink tea. We have been around Oahu twice. In 1990 we rode TheBus around the island for a dollar each. Last time, say in 2003 we drove around, stopping at a Dole Plantation to eat pineapple. Must be time to do that again so we will have to go back!
The holiday part of the trip we paid for, and the conference part was paid for by the host who invited me and by me, out of earnings from teaching off load. I had approved annual leave for the holiday part, and approved conference leave for the Canadian part.