We've arrived...

...in California! We've yet to find a free wireless Internet connection for our laptop, so for now, no pictures. But I hear some people have been monitoring this to check in and make sure we're still safe, so I wanted to post something. More later!

We made it to Omaha!

We're halfway through our trip. Here is some photographic evidence to prove that Scout is a good traveler after all:

Today we traveled through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, then just into Nebraska. As you can imagine, we saw corn. Lots of corn. Here's a picture from I-80 in Illinois:

And here is a picture of sunset in Iowa:

We found Iowa pretty in a way that Ohio, Indiana and Illinois weren't. It's surprisingly wide open and not flat at all: Iowa undulates. I'm still glad I don't live here, though. More tomorrow night!

Ohio!

We have completed leg 1 of 4 in the great cross-country trip of 2007. Here's Scout testing the bed at the Boston Heights, Ohio Comfort Inn. (For the record, she only spent an hour and a half complaining in the car).

Jungle Waterfalls and Puka Dogs (or, Why We Love Kauai)

Welcome from the O'Hare Airport Admiral's Club, where I will attempt (despite sleep-induced delirium) to finish up the honeymoon portion of this blog once and for all!

We spent our second day on Maui at Wailea Beach. Nothing much to report except that the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea has a very fine poolside restaurant with very fine mojitos. This is as close as we will get to staying there, since for the rooms overlooking the parking lot they charge a respectable $440 a night.

The following day we went on a Kona/Big Island farm tour. First we visited a Kona coffee farm, where Stacey geeked out on coffee production and I tried to pet a wily little dog. This is a coffee tree with coffee cherries on it:

Then we went to a chocolate farm. And THEN, after a sweltering two-hour drive, we arrived at this strange and wonderful little family-run vanilla farm in Paauilo. Aside from growing and selling vanilla and various vanilla products, the family produces a vanilla luncheon served on the premises. The wife cooks everything, the children (ages 5-13) serve and sing and the father/farmer talks about the farm. The food was amazing: subtle vanilla lemonade, a salad with vanilla cornbread, Hawaiian beef braised in local ale and vanilla, served with noodles in a vanilla cream sauce and vegetables from their own garden. For dessert we were served house-made vanilla ice cream with a vanilla brownie, vanilla caramel sauce and a toasted vanilla marshmallow. Totally worth the two hour drive, even with the weirdest and most boring tour guide in the world.

The next day we docked in Kauai, which quickly became our favorite island. It is smaller, greener, lusher and less commercialized than the other islands we visited. On our first day, we went on a kayak tour down the Nawiliwili Stream, past mangroves and ancient burial caves and a fish pond stalked by mythical Hawaiian menehune (dwarves).

Then we hiked (somewhat treacherously, I might add) through the jungle to two waterfalls. One for photographs:

And one for swimming:

There was fruit everywhere: mangoes were dropping from trees, and our guide picked lilikoi (passionfruit) and taught us how to bite off the ends and suck out the seeds, warm from the sun.

On our second day in Kauai, Stacey and drove to Poipu for a swim at what turned out to be a very overrated beach. Tired of the crowds, we headed to a nearby shopping center to buy souvenirs, and happened upon one of the best finds of our trip: the amazing Puka Dog. Essentially, this is the best hot dog stand in the world, as far as I am concerned. A hole ("puka") is pierced into a freshly baked bun-sized loaf of bread, into which go a freshly grilled Polish sausage, a creamy spicy garlic-lemon sauce, your choice of tropical fruit relishes (I chose pineapple, Stacey chose mango), and mustard (we had to go for the lilikoi mustard). The whole thing is sweet, salty, savory, creamy, spicy, and tangy. I am a little glad there is only one Puka Dog, because if I could I would probably eat there every day.

From Kauai, our ship sailed back to Honolulu, passing Kauai's northern Na Pali Coast on the way:

Oh, and hey! We've been married over a week! Here's a picture of us on our week anniversary, halfway through a bottle of champagne:

It is just before 6 AM Chicago time, and we are getting on our final flight to Boston soon. Wednesday we plan on heading out to California, exhausted but ready to get it over with. We'll keep you posted!

In Which Stacey Loses Her Cool

If you've driven the Road to Hana, you'll understand. On our first day off the ship, Stacey drove us along sea cliffs, over one-lane bridges, and around hair pin turns in the rain.

Our reward (besides natural beauty): lunch at the Hotel Hana Maui on an open air patio overlooking the ocean. I had an open-faced braised Kalua pork sandwich on grilled sweet bread with spiced papaya and garlic aioli. Oh, yes, and we visited a black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park.

Yup, it's really black.

Back in civilization, we drove to Iao Valley State Park...

...where we received a phone call from my dad saying that our movers don't have a driver for our truck. Trouble in paradise!

Malasada Madness!

We know you've missed us. Turns out the overpriced wireless Internet access on the Pride of Hawaii is (like many things on the Pride of Hawaii) not all it's cracked up to be. Since the connection was too slow to handle complicated tasks like uploading, the blog has had to wait. But we're back in the Admiral's Club (Honolulu Airport) with a honeymoon update.

We began our first morning in Hawaii early, when Stacey woke up at 4 AM (10 AM Boston time). This enabled us to get to Leonard's Bakery by the time it opened at 6 AM.

For those who aren't in the know, Leonard's is known for their malasadas: deep-fried, sugar-dusted balls of Portuguese sweet bread brought to Hawaii in the 19th century with Portuguese laborers. My limited research indicates they are also popular in New Bedford, MA and on Cape Cod (where they are called "flippers") but I have not been able to verify these facts. At Leonard's, malasadas are available plain or filled with custards: chocolate, coconut, plain, or a special flavor of the month. We bought a half dozen: two each of the chocolate, coconut and plain custard filled. They were still warm, and Stacey made me wait until we got back to the hotel to eat them, where we ran to our balcony and dug in. You know we ate the whole box.

When we recovered from our sugar coma, we noticed our cruise ship coming into port:

Then walked off the calories on Waikiki Beach, which is much more tolerable when the tourists are still asleep.

This is Stacey on Waikiki Beach. The pink hotel in the background is the famous Royal Hawaiian. Please note the rainbow in the sky: this is Homoakela, the Hawaiian god of the gays.

After a trip to the mall (as my suitcase was making a tour of the continental US) and a very long line, we boarded the Pride of Hawaii and went to the buffet lunch. Insanity. Imagine most of the ship's 3,000 passengers knocking each other out for the next shot at the soft-serve machine. Lesson learned: just because nacho cheese sauce is readily available, does not mean it is an appropriate all-purpose condiment.

Many of you may have heard about a little storm called Hurricane Flossie. Between Flossie and an earthquake, the Port of Hilo was closed and we spent our first day of the cruise at sea instead. We novice cruisers enjoyed the seven to twelve foot swells on the open ocean, which we attempted to soothe with alcohol and sleep. Since we were also suffering from massive jet lag, sleep was the more effective option.

Upside: we sailed past the eerie, beautiful, mist-shrouded cliffs on the northern coast of the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

Stay tuned for our trip to Maui...

We make it to Hawaii; digital photos roll in...

Two flights and seventeen hours of travel later, we've arrived in Honolulu. Waikiki Beach is a noisy, crowded zoo of tourists. There is ukelele music everywhere and it smells like fried food. However, we did get upgraded from a Ford Focus to an Audi A4 Cabriolet at Hertz, and then were upgraded at the Marriott from a city view to an ocean view. We arrived in our room just in time for the sunset:

I was hoping to see Dog the Bounty Hunter out nabbing criminals, but so far we haven't spotted him. I did see April from America's Next Top Model (Cycle 2?) at LAX. She was unremarkable. I suppose, when it comes down to it, most people are.

Here we are leaving for the airport many, many hours ago:

And a photo from the wedding:

Newlyweds!

I've created this blog to keep family and friends posted on Stacey's and my journey to and new life on the West coast. It's a journey that begins with our wedding last night, which was a darn lot of fun for both of us (I don't think we were the only ones enjoying ourselves, especially once Stacey's brother John made it to the dance floor). Pretty amazing to have all your favorite people in one room at once, and then to be hugged and kissed and complimented and generally treated like a rock star for six hours. The brownie sundaes didn't hurt. Oh, and there's that marriage thing, too: wife and wife are legal now, currently lounging in the Admiral's Club in the American Airlines terminal at Logan Airport (Dave: "Be frivolous") en route to Honolulu. Flossie or no Flossie, we've got massages booked for tomorrow morning and a hankering for tropical libations and Hawaiian doughnuts. Check in later for pictures and updates...