James Sapara’s Personal Blog

Spent the day in Lahaina shopping. A few pictures to follow, but nothing overly exciting. Mostly a vegging day.

We ventured off to Haleakala today. The drive was somewhat similar to Hana, but with far less one lane sections (only one that I can remember actually). On the way down the mountain we went zip lining, which was very entertaining. We also wandered off to a winery on the way back, but nothing to particularly exciting there. Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant who’s name I’ve already forgotten.

Went shopping (oh yay!) in Paia. Bought some cat toys for my sisters cats. Hand some very very good curry food as well… mmm… curry. From there we headed home. I bought a new wallet at the near by mall and a christmas gift. We headed to Lahaina for a Luau.

Woke up early to get ready for the trip to Hana. We left nearly at the time we agree to leave at! So far the hi-way to Hana has been the highlight of the trip. Driving them was an enjoyable challenge (made me miss my car, because I could of totally taken those 180 turns WAY faster with it). The dodge avenger showed it’s complete lack of guts many times, but this isn’t the sort of road you need to go very fast on. My Maui photo set has over 100 pictures from the trip. Hana wasn’t all that special as far as places go. It was small, simple and quite.

On the way home we blindly looked for walmart for groceries. Everyone ended up buying everything but groceries. Mostly because the walmart lacked that sort of stuff. Ended up driving around looking for safeway on some very vague instructions. Dinner was nacho’s and cheese. Our first DIY meal of the trip… lol.

Day started off with some shopping (my personal favorite of course). I had to get some sandals, as running shoes are not the appropriate beach foot ware. Also got a surf top for when I’m snorkeling/swimming/showing my nipples. From there we went to the market, bought a bunch of food and then took it home. THEN we went to the rich people beach, where we spent most of the day. I’ll post some links and video’s which are of interest later today (day 4) when I get back from Hana.

YouTube Videos
Flickr Link for Today

Spent the morning deliberating about what to do and where to go to eat. We left the condo with an idea of going to a place near by, but we couldn’t remember it’s name and ended up driving about for 30 minutes. Eventually we drove to Kihei and found a place to eat. Got some groceries while there and then I misdirected us back home by heading to Kahului (the exit that would of taken us straight to Ma’alaea was closed for construction… and there wasn’t the usual U-turn lane every 2 miles.

Went to the Maui Ocean Center and saw many marvelous fish and related sea animals. I took over a 100 photo’s, so check out the flicker link. Did some shopping there and at the mall close by. After that my mother and I went snorkeling a on a near by beach.

Went for dinner at a near by restaurant. Had some very good butter fish that’s caught locally. A nearby patron passed out due to heat stroke while holding a small child. Caused quite the commotion, but my mother was there to save the day by applying basic CPR (aka, she’s not dead, settle down and give her room). Also, a note for those with children, you should not say the following “She’s dead!”. It kinda upsets them and probably traumatizes them for life.

Well after an additional hour or so of delays in LAX we managed to take off. Some sort of turbulence between us and Maui resulted in us being redirected around the ocean, so the light was nearly an hour longer. OH! The reason for the delay at the airport was a broken washroom on the plane. They wouldn’t like the plane take off, because it’s the washroom the pilots use and it would be a security concern if they had to walk by first class to use the washroom.

Anyways, get into Maui around 10pm local time. Go to rent a car and find out my mother has forgotten her valid drivers license at home. So change plans, Holly is driving along with me. There’ dispute over which car we reserved, but as it turns this Dollar rental doesn’t carry the car we reserved at all. We got a deal on a mini dodge charger, which is a very gutless car.

Getting to the condo was easier than expected. It’s very nice in side, I’ll try to take some pictures when it’s not occupied by stuff. I posted some pictures of my travels so far, but nothing very exciting.

Well I write this sitting in the LAX airport, but more on that later. Yesterday we drove to Calgary and made good time. Roads were not busy until we basically got on hiway 2 into Calgary. Hotel was close to the airport and quite (some sort of Hilton hotel).

This morning we caught our flight without any major issues. Amazingly customs didn’t stop me like they did last time to ask 20 obvious questions. Incidentally, my mother forgot the piece of paper containing the address/directions/code for the condo we are renting, which caused much panic.

Once in LAX getting to our connecting flight was easy and much faster than my mother made it sound like it would be. Unfortunately, our early arrival to our gate was rewarded with a 4 hour delay in departure. Apparently in the pre-flight checks they found a component failure. Honestly, I’d rather they find that before taking off than after; but, some people seemed really pissed about it…

So, while hanging around the air port my mother forgets her purse full of cash in a walkway between terminals. Initially, when I asked she said “yes” to her passport being in there… which would be a fairly big problem. As it turned out, just her money, phone and lipstick were in there. Oh, and the directions to the condo we retrieved again by phone.

In the end, the purse was returned by three guys who were already late for a flight. Turns out everyone in the U.S. isn’t evil/dishonest. Not that I thought that, but when it comes to travel my mom is something of a pessimist. Now we’re still waiting for our flight, which in theory boards in an hour. I payed $9.99 USD (what’s that, $9.60CND?) for an hours worth of internet access. Hopefully they fix our plane and get us on our way on time. It’s gonna be a long day if it doesn’t…

truth

Unless of course you faint while giving it, then you get to keep it.

So after years of not qualifying to donate blood I finally found myself able to donate. Ralph and myself decided to go down to the blood bank and do our duty. It’s not all that hard to give blood. There’s some initial paper work and some not so challenging questions. Eventually they poke you with a needle and let gravity do the work. My experiences in the past with letting blood have not been all that great. On many occasions I’ve done blood work at a lab and ended up feeling ill. For whatever reason, I forget that happens to me… Not only that, but they take a lot more blood at this place than any lab does. One thing led to another and I nearly passed out from the fun. On the up side, I got nurses being all worried for me. The attention sure felt nice, but I felt like I let the system down… I was encouraged to try again. So I probably will. This time I’ll eat a big meaty meal first, because that apparently helps.