Hawaii trip!

Dave Siciliano

Final Approach
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Dave Siciliano
Well, the trip formally began yesterday when I picked my nieces up from Portage and we winged our way back to Dallas. Flew at FL180 and trued out at just under 200 knots as we had a little head wind (actually strong to begin with and they became light and variable as we got near Missouri.

Aloa all. The three young ladies in the pic are my nieces; the old guy is me and Mr. P-Baron is behind us.

Best,

Dave
 

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Looks like a great trip, Dave!! That P-Baron is really beautiful--do you have a full (large resolution) photo of it that you could upload? It has a very sharp paint job.

Jason
 
HPNPilot1200 said:
Looks like a great trip, Dave!! That P-Baron is really beautiful--do you have a full (large resolution) photo of it that you could upload? It has a very sharp paint job.

Jason

I'll try to get another when I get back to Dallas, Jason. I have some from when we purchased the plane, but we've really cleaned it up since then.

Best,

Dave
 
Dave Siciliano said:
I'll try to get another when I get back to Dallas, Jason. I have some from when we purchased the plane, but we've really cleaned it up since then.

Best,

Dave

I ran into your plane today out at Sherman (that sounds like I hurt it, that's not what I meant!) and have some pictures at http://www.whistman.com/blog/20060722.aspx

She's a beauty!
 
Thanks for the wonderful pics, Troy! That's my partner in the plane, Jay Sparkes.

Yes, we few to Honolulu yesterday and arrived about 1:00 P.M. local time ( 5 hour difference from y'all in Dallas. Long flight. We're staying in the Ala Moana Hotel which is near the beach and next to a wonderful shopping mall of the same name. My nieces have been very busy. All I have here is dial up and we haven't sat still much.

Ate dinner last night with my form Battalion Surgeon from my unit in RVN. Lot's of wonderful memories were shared. We're headed out for dinner again tonight.

Aloha all. For those of you in OSH, have a great time.

Dave
 
Well, we're off to the Pearl Harbor monument this morning. The girls knew I really wanted to go there, and their quite enthusiatic.

Lots of shopping yesterday and the girls hit the beech.

Last night, my former battalion surgeon, his family and us went to a real nice place on the coast for dinner. We're going to try to get up the volcano a bit later today, then have dinner again with friends. Tomorrow, it's off to Maui.

Best.

Dave
 
See if you can get a tour of Big Mo. My dad served on the Missouri in WW2, was on board for the signing of the treaty.
 
I think she thinks you are your partner, or he's you, or something like that...

...not sure if that's good or bad.

---

For future reference, Brook, Dave's the guy with the vinegar in his ice cream.
 
Here's a pic from today. Our group overlooking the Diamond Head area. Our hotel is on the far right. Waikiki is just to the rear.

The Pearl Harbor/Arizona Memorial was wonderful. As much as I've read and heard about this event, it was great to finally stand here. I could just envision my dad and how this changed his life. He had just turned 21 a few days before and enlisted in the Army shortly afterward.

Best,

Dave
 

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Boy Dave, do you know how to get a guy in trouble. The EXPENZIVE jeans all came with holes in 'em and they all looked pre-worn when the girls bought them. I'm kind of a fashion cripple. I just tell them they really look nice no matter what they wear just to stay out of trouble!

Best,

Dave
 
Sorry! I tried to edit the above to reword and correct spelling; no luck with the edit button on my laptop with dial up connection.

We're off to Maui about 1:00 today.

Said good bye to my Army pal, his lady friend and her granddaughter after a nice cookout dinner. We'll probably shop a bit this morning; then, catch the hop over to the other island.

Trip is going great and the girls are stoked to get to the new hotel on the beach where they can snorkel.

Best,

Dave
 
Have fun. We got back from Kauai on Sunday (and I'm sitting in a meeting in Washington DC right now). Had a great time.

What's with the tall neices? Looks like all three would make life difficult for you on a basketball court. :D
 
Well, we made it to Maui yesterday afternoon! Flew a B717 over; took about 20 minutes in the air after taxiing for more than that at Honolulu. Alamo car rental was a bit of a pain here at Maui. The folks at the car agency were fine, but the gaggle trying to get to the buses to the rental office and to get in line first was a mess. Lots of people pushing and shoving with carry on baggage.
About a 45 minute drive to the Sheridan, then, extacy. Valet parking the first night and quick check in at the curb. Everyone was presented a lai!

Rooms are great; view is wonderful. Water is very clear and one can snorkel right off the beach. Nice pool that meanders along the propery in a long channel with larger pools at each end.

Dinner can be an issue if one doesn't make reservations well in advance; of course, we figured that out when all the good places had long waits. Course, one can still find a burger or other quick stuff, but a nice sit-down dinner in a good place is tough without reservagtions.

Here's a pic of us standing on the balcony.

Sorry I haven't been able to read as many posts; we're staying pretty busy at any times the girls have their eyes open!!

Aloe from Maui,

Dave
 

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Here's a pic of the grounds from our balcony.

Dave
 

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Dave Siciliano said:
Here's a pic of the grounds from our balcony.

Dave

Dave, do you have a hurricane magnet in your shorts? I read about a big storm headed for the Hawaiian Islands in the paper recently? Hope it doesn't affect your trip.
 
Looks like fun...I'll have to try the Hawaii thing some day...Problem is I can't ride my motorcycle there.
 
...Jesse wants to meet Dave's neices...:D
 
wonderful, Dave!!

Jason, that photo is actually pretty high res. if you hover your cursor over the bottom right, you can enlarge the photo.
 
lancefisher said:
Dave, do you have a hurricane magnet in your shorts? I read about a big storm headed for the Hawaiian Islands in the paper recently? Hope it doesn't affect your trip.

Geesh! Guess I'll start checking the weather. Thanks for the heads up! We've been a little out of touch; finally have a DSL connection here, but am not getting much time to use it :D

Thanks Lance.
 
Ghery said:
Have fun. We got back from Kauai on Sunday (and I'm sitting in a meeting in Washington DC right now). Had a great time.

What's with the tall neices? Looks like all three would make life difficult for you on a basketball court. :D

Ghery:

Two of the nieces are from my in-law side of the family. Their Mom is 6 feet and their dad is a little taller. Britt, is my brother's daughter (he married into their family). Britt went to live with them in 2000. She's barely 6 feet; so, it may have a little to do with the angle.

I seem to be getting shorter and the other two are still growing.

Aloha,

Dave
 
Ghery said:
What an uncle. I hope they appreciate you. Enjoy your week.

Thanks Ghery! Can't tell you how wonderful it is to see these girls grow into young ladies and understand all the wonderful things one can do if one puts their mind to it.

I'm tapping away on a crunched laptop keyboard inbetween doing things: excuse me. Britt is barely 5 feet tall and I said 6 above. Even on a full sized keyboard, I'm finger challenged; this is overboard for me. I can see I didn't get the h in aloha above!

Anyway, the girls are having a great time. Tomorrow morning we're going out on a 50' Santa Cruise sail boat. Trying to introduce the girls to that so we can rent a bareback boat next summer if they like it.

Aloha,

Dave
 
Keep them busy! Well, maybe these girls are well behaved but I had a pal foist his teen daughter (16) off on me for a couple of months, wow - what an eyeopener (at least for a childless person like me). It was partly my fault for being so 'protective', I didn't want that kid to go home with so much as a hangnail and I was a nervous wreck at the start... Anyway, you all probably know they need to be shown a little trust....but still keep somewhat of a leash on them! Kind of the impossible balancing act.
 
Ghery said:
What an uncle. I hope they appreciate you. Enjoy your week.

Seriously! My uncle was much more like Uncle Buck. Which was fun in other ways.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Thanks Ghery! Can't tell you how wonderful it is to see these girls grow into young ladies and understand all the wonderful things one can do if one puts their mind to it.

I'm tapping away on a crunched laptop keyboard inbetween doing things: excuse me. Britt is barely 5 feet tall and I said 6 above. Even on a full sized keyboard, I'm finger challenged; this is overboard for me. I can see I didn't get the h in aloha above!

Anyway, the girls are having a great time. Tomorrow morning we're going out on a 50' Santa Cruise sail boat. Trying to introduce the girls to that so we can rent a bareback boat next summer if they like it.

Aloha,

Dave

IIRC there are some pretty good novice SCUBA trips available out of Maui. I remember seeing a wreck or two and petting some dolphins and a live Moray. I'll bet the girls would enjoy that (except maybe the Moray part).
 
Thanks guys. Two of the girls are very athletic and competitive: one isn't. We did a lot of snorkeling today. SCUBA is something the oldest would really like to do, but the others don't wish to. Same thing with the ride down from the volcano on bikes: one just isn't a good rider and doesn't want to go; so, we focus on the good stuff we all can do.

Sail boat tomorrow to see if they like that. Parasailing Friday, Luau on Saturday and perhaps to Hana on Sunday (or at least part way there). As always, there are too many good things to work them all in. The also just love to swim and shop.

If any of you come out here, book the traditional luau in advance. The most traditional one is booked until the end of August. Of course, there's always one you can get in, but two or three have a following and are booked pretty far ahead.

Aloha,

Dave
 
I showed my wife the picture from your balcony. I didn't say anything at all about where it was taken. The first words out of her mouth were "Awww... I wanna go back to Hawaii!!"

You're definitely making all of us jealous! Sounds like a good trip.

-Chris
 
lancefisher said:
IIRC there are some pretty good novice SCUBA trips available out of Maui. I remember seeing a wreck or two and petting some dolphins and a live Moray. I'll bet the girls would enjoy that (except maybe the Moray part).

Pool lesson and dive right off the beach at the Westin Maui two years ago. Great fun.
 
CJones said:
I showed my wife the picture from your balcony. I didn't say anything at all about where it was taken. The first words out of her mouth were "Awww... I wanna go back to Hawaii!!"

You're definitely making all of us jealous! Sounds like a good trip.

-Chris

Gee Chris, I'm sure not trying to make anyone jealous. Just to share what a special place this is so those that may have the opportunity to go somewhere can consider this. Since this is such a neat web board, I share a lot of family stuff I wouldn't dream of posting elsewhere. I really enjoy hearing about other folk's experiences before we go somewhere also. I received a weath of wonderful tips from other board members before heading out here.

Hope it doesn't come across wrong.

Best,

Dave
 
Ghery said:
Pool lesson and dive right off the beach at the Westin Maui two years ago. Great fun.

I went to the Westin last time out and it was great. Great pool. Would have gone there again, but when I began planning this trip, it was being renovated and we didn't want to take a chance it could run over a little and affect us.

Best,

Dave
 
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