Philadelphia, Boston, Salem, and Maine

 As we continued on our drive up to Maine, we made another quick stop in Philadelphia for the famous Philly Cheesesteak. As always we didn't have enough time to really explore, though once again this is another city I wish I had more time for.

The big debate with the cheesesteak is if it should be made with cheese whiz, or with swiss cheese. We got one of each so we could be thorough in our taste testing. Turns out we both prefer the one with cheese whiz. Who knew?

The next stop we made was Boston. We happened to be downtown on a Saturday, which makes it a nightmare of a city full of traffic to drive in. Needless to say we didn't get to see much. But we did stop and see the boat in the harbor recreating the Boston tea party. I also got a lovely little tea pot. We did want to do some more exploring, but unfortunately with things that happened throughout the day we had to keep moving on and didn't have time to stay as long as we'd planned.

On we went to Salem, where we did get to walk around a bit. I really liked Salem Massachusetts. And had the best clam chowder of my life. I still think about that clam chowder. It was so good. We wondered through the town and saw some of the Salem witch sites that are there to draw visitors. It's an interesting little town to explore. It was a chilly and dreary day which seemed only fitting. 

We left Salem late in the afternoon for Maine. We got there in time for dinner, where I was able to try my first ever lobster roll. I could eat one of these every day for the rest of my life and be good with that.

Originally the plan was to spend the next day exploring Maine - seeing lighthouses, countryside, all that good stuff. But due to a personal tragedy that had been escalating since the beginning of our trip, I ended up having to fly out early the next morning to get home to take care of an urgent situation. 

While this trip was not the fun vacation I had planned on it to be, it did give me glimpses of a few other places I'd love to explore more. Hopefully some day we can get back there and spend some more time.

Driving up the East Coast

 

After DC we wanted to drive up the East Coast, with our end destination to be Maine. Along the way I wanted to stop at the Hershey Factory. It was only an hour away, I love chocolate, so why not? The drive was beautiful and the candy store was every bit as packed full of product as I anticipated.

The whole store smelled liked chocolate, obviously, and if I could have my house smell like that all the time I would. We didn't pay to tour the actual factory, or make our own candy bar. We were just passing through so only stopped to shop.

For some reason I wanted to buy everything in the store. Something about the chocolate smell and candy makes you lose your mind. We got some candy favorites, a few internal treats, as well as some other little things. Because we were flying home we had limited packing space. Probably a good thing because I could have done a lot more damage.

After the sweet stop, we continued on our way. We stopped an Gettysburg for a minute, and then wondered through some Amish country. We stopped and a store to see what they have and got a few souvenirs. 

We saw some beautiful farms and covered bridges along the way as well. I'm always looking for painting inspirations, and this part of the world is full of ideas. I hope to come back to this part of the country and spend more time one day. So beautiful.

Washington DC in March

In March we went back east to visit family, but also for a quick vacation from the boring every day life. We got lucky and were in DC just as the cherry blossoms were coming out.

The partner in crime has never been to DC, so we did all the tourist stuff we could fit in a day. Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian museums, and walking. So much walking around town. We popped over to see the constitution and even the Washington Monument. 

We didn't get over to Arlington Cemetery in time, but we caught a glimpse as they were closing the gates. We did get caught in some rather cold rain here and there but we kept on walking.

Sadly a lot of the museums I really wanted to see where closed on the day we were there. We made the bets of it, but it was still disappointing to miss out on them.

The following day we followed up our time in DC with Mt. Vernon. I went there when I was in middle school many years ago, and not much as changed. We spent another day full of walking and getting our muscles sore yet again. the weather was nice and cool and it's still a beautiful place.

Goodbye Oahu

 

It is always sad when a vacation ends. For me it's a double edge sword. On the one had I love being on vacation. I don't want to go back to my real life of work, adult responsibilities, and the boring day to day life that makes up a working grown up. It's so not fun.

On the other hand I do find I'm ready to sleep in my own bed, not have to eat out every single meal, and be able to have more options in what I want to wear for the day. Plus having access to everything I need and not just the bare minimum.

At some point all vacations end. The last night there we went and watch the sunset on the beach. The sunset on the ocean is always a show stopper. Afterwards we went for dinner, and then it was back to the hotel as our flight left at 7am the next day.

It's always hard to leave a fun vacation, but it was an extra miserable trip home. 

Because we had such an early flight, and we were told the airport takes a very long time to get through security, we had decided to get up at 4am and head over there so we had plenty of time. I woke up about midnight so sick. As in I haven't been that sick in a very long time. It was miserable - as in I was very sick from both ends. 

I spent the rest of the night in that scenario. Water would make me sick, so it was bad. And the thought of having to fly home was not something I wanted to face. Every movement, any smell, set me off to the bathroom for a good 20 minutes. 

I was ready to pay a ridiculous amount of money to stay another day and change out flight tickets, but my husband had not flown on a plane for 20 years and didn't know how to do that. I was too sick to be able to look at my phone, or explain to him how to do it, and his work really needed him back to work the next day. I'm a pretty tough cookie.

I didn't want to be putting people at risk being sick, but I was confident it wasn't covid. This was a full on stomach flu. I have no idea how I got it. The husband and I had eaten the same thing the whole trip and he never got sick like I did. I just caught some fluke.

But he has to do everything. He made sure all the bags were loaded and everything in the room we needed was packed. He had to check out, get the car, load it, and do all the navigation to the airport. It took me 20 minutes to get from the room to the lobby, and I almost lost it on the elevator. 

We made it to the airport, and it was a very long slow walk for me through the muggy heat. There was no AC, and I was struggling. We had to wear masks, which was a good thing because I'm pretty sure I looked like death. I almost passed out waiting in the security line, but didn't. As soon as we made it to the gate it was off to the bathroom again.

It was a miserable flight to Phoenix, then a 3 hour layover in a crowded airport followed by another long flight to get home. I have never been so sick traveling before. More than anything I wanted to lay down on the floor of the busy airport and just not move. But I didn't. I gagged at the smells, and prayed for the day to end. 

3 days later the stomach flu finally passed and I felt human again. It was a far too dramatic ending to a vacation that I hope I never experience again.

But Hawaii was beautiful.

More Parks and Gardens in Hawaii

 There was another park I wanted to stop and see while we were wondering around the island. I can't get enough flowers and trees and greenery from a tropical place. It was hot and muggy, and there were lots of people, but still a pretty place to spend the afternoon.

We did come across a snail that was huge (it's my husband's hand in the picture with the snail. He's 6'5. It's a big snail). I still believe dinosaurs are roaming somewhere along that island. 

Sea Turtles

I'm on a kick where I'm really into turtles. I don't know why, but I love turtles. I was rather excited to learn there are lots of sea turtles along Hawaii. 

Sadly the only way we could find to see them was to pay to take a boat ride, that would then stop out in the ocean where you can swim around and hope you see some turtles. 

Swimming in the ocean with 100 other tourists trying to see a turtle, which are probably running the other direction once they see the crown, was not something I really wanted to do. Plus it was really really expensive to do these 2 hour boat tours. It just didn't seem worth it. But I still want to see sea turtles.

While we were out on the boat to see sharks, one of the divers had mentioned that she saw turtles all the time. 

There was a beach she would go to after work all the time that no one was every at, and there were always turtles. I was rather excited and she was nice enough to give us directions on where to find this magical place.

The location is definitely not a tourist location. It was a smaller, less nice public beach that only the locals would know about. 

It's not as nice or picked up as the tourist areas are, and the beach is not huge or the greatest. There is also a section that is a hard rock shelf of volcanic rock. 

Needless to say most visitors are not going to jump to go out to this beach. (But really they should. It was never very busy so you could enjoy the beach and waves to yourself. Just not the best view of the island).

She described where to go to see them. It took us a while to find the spot, and neither of us were convinced we were in the right place.

We watched and waited and looked around for about 10 minutes until my eagle eyed husband saw then fighting the current in the water next to the volcanic rocks. The diver didn't like. There were turtles. 

We came back to this place 3 different times to watch them fight the surf and eat under the rock shelf. There were never more than 1 or 2 that we could see (and they are hard to see as they blend in really well to the rock surrounding), but every time we went we saw turtles. 

It is illegal to touch the sea turtles, and where they liked to hang out is not a place I would really want to get into the water. But because this rock shelf sat out over the water, we could stand on the edge and see them close up - as in they were only a few feet below us. 

I took a ridiculous amount of pictures and videos. I could easily hang out there all day every day, but my partner wasn't really sold on spending all his days on the Island watching turtles in this spot.

What can you do?

But I got to see my turtles. I was SOOO happy. And I will not tell anyone where we went to see them. As soon as word got out, tourists would rush to this spot. We all know people are jerks, so the habitat would be littered, destroyed, and of course there will always be those idiots jumping into the water to touch them and just be obnoxious. I'd rather not be a cause to decimating their nice little area away from the world. Plus, someone would turn this into a tourist spot and charge a ridiculous amount of money for people to even get into the beach area to see them. 

Let's just avoid that whole scenario and you can enjoy my pictures. My zoom lens on my camera is amazing in situations like these.

Polynesian Cultural Center

 I've heard a lot of great things about the Polynesian Cultural Center and really wanted to check it out. You can also be a part of a luau dinner (which is always a good idea in my opinion), and we were going far enough in advance that we had time to get tickets. 

This center sells out about 3 months in advance. So if you are interesting in going to see it, the sooner you can reserve your tickets the better. They also offer a 100% refund up until the day before, so if you end up needing to cancel you don't lose your money. It is a bit pricey.

The Cultural Center is kind of like a big outdoor amusement park, except there are no rides or concession stands. For all the different Polynesian Islands, they've set up different areas of this park to show a representation of what that culture would look like. 

They have Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, etc. Each Nation has a hut built in their cultural style. As well they have performers who will come out in their traditional garb and talk about the culture, what life would have been like, and some history of what happened to the Nation. 

It's rather fascinating to hear about the culture and history. Some spots show traditional music and traditional style drums. Other areas showed how they would start fire without matches, and climb coconut trees. It's a fun and interactive way to learn about this different nations and what influences they brought to the world. It's certainly worth seeing.

Did I mention it's beautiful? There is a river that runs through this whole park area and surrounding it on all sides are they different layouts for the different nations represented. 

It was a rainy morning when we got there, but it eventually it cleared and we didn't have to use our umbrellas. 

They layout is beautiful. When you walk in there is a section that's all tourist shops, souvenirs, snacks, tickets, etc. Once you get through that on the far side you can enter into the actual area after showing your tickets.

Each nation has what they call a "show" or "presentation" that lasts about 30 minutes. It is timed so that when one ends, another show at another location will begin in 15 minutes. They give you a map at the entrance that tells you where things are at and what time all the performances start so you can plan accordingly. It was lovely to see.

This area finishes up around 6pm, and for those who've paid for the luau seating opens in a separate designated dining area about 6:30, with dinner starting at 7. It is a buffet style dinner, but you do watch them pull the roasted pig out of the ground to begin the buffet. While you are waiting and all through dinner they had music and dancers performing on the stage. It was fun.

After dinner they finish up with an hour long theater show, complete with fire dancers. They do not allow pictures during the performance, but the story was a beautiful one about the birth of a child, his life growing up, getting married, fighting in war, having children, and losing a parent. Very beautifully told and full of both tears and laughter. 

I'm really glad we went and would certainly go again.