What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…..

but what happens on Fremont Street winds up on the Internet! Case in point…..

Making new friends….

And then there was dancing….

All in all, a happy bunch on a Saturday night….

Well Howdy, ya’ll!

When we were waiting for our flight to Vegas we noticed a person in the waiting area wearing a jacket covered in NASCAR emblems. Considering that Victoria is not a hotbed of NASCAR activity that was noteworthy. When there were half a dozen people so dressed by flight time – that was unusual. Until the flight crew welcomed everyone who was heading for Race Week. Yes – we are in Vegas during the yearly NASCAR event held at the Las Vegas raceway. They are expecting 150,000 people at the event over the weekend. Lot of good old boys around here, I’m just saying.

Last night we went to the Monte Carlo Casino – they have a nice pub there. Turns out some race drivers were there signing autographs. You should have seen the lineup! Crazy. Fortunately folks weren’t sticking around so we had no trouble getting a spot at the bar.

The other thing we did was visit good old boy central, also know as the Bass Pro Shop. And in honour of the NASCAR event there were, of course, cars in the store:

But not before you are faced with these guys:

Yep, wrestling ungulates at the front door.

Over in the fishing session:

Schools of tuna. And a shark.

and of course an indoor shooting range.

The whole store is stuck onto the side of the Silverton Casino, so one is never far from the slots!

Wetting a line….

Wilf has been wanting to catch a fish on a fly line in Hawaii. Neither Kauai nor the Big Island presented appropriate conditions for fly fishing from shore. But Wilf had heard rumour that on Oahu there were flats where bonefish could be found. In fact, he got talking to Lester at the Lakestream Fly Fishing shop in Whitefish,Montana, and discovered that there were bonefish to be caught right in Honolulu.

Armed with advice from Lester we set out to find the beach on the back side of Diamond Head. It turns out that the main beach bus from Waikiki delivered us to the beach we were looking for. It is not a swimming beach, but there were spear fishers and divers poking around in the shallows. Out near the surf break we could see a man casting – was it Lester? A few exchanges of phone calls and we had a date with Lester, who spends his winters here in Hawaii.

Yesterday we went for a test – it was a lovely calm day and Wilf got himself ready to go:

He spent several hours wading and casting, but no fish put in an appearance.

And not to worry about me- I’ve got a great spot to watch from, along with my book and my knitting!

This morning Lester met us at the park and the guys set out to see what they could find:

Notice Diamond Head in the background!

Wilf had a bonefish on the line but lost it in the coral – but he did catch a mongoose fish. All in all it was a fun introduction to Hawaiian bonefishig.

Chasing the Lion

Its Chinese New Year! We only realized this last night. We were walking back from dinner and saw a large group of people in matching red t-shirts in front of a Chinese restaurant. They were standing around a pickup truck, and as we passed we saw that they had the head pieces of two lion dance costumes in the truck – they were there to bless the restaurant.

Back at our hotel I was talking to the desk clerk and saw a red envelope on the counter. I asked and he confirmed that not only was it New Year’s but that the lion would be coming to the hotel presently. He would come to the three hotels on our block. Soon we could hear the drums next door, so we settled into the lobby. People with red t-shirts began to arrive and discussions with the front desk ensued. Soon they began to head upstairs, which led the guy sitting next to me to say ‘Oh, they’re going to do Hula’s. We should go up there.’

And here is where I have to interrupt my story to tell you about Hula’s. We knew there was a bar on the second floor of our hotel – when we walk on the street we can hear people talking upstairs – but we hadn’t been up. We walked up – the doors were wide open, so in we went. A pool table by the front. Television screens all over, all tuned to the same station, sound off, commercial running. I figured it would be some sports event, but when the program came back it was ‘American Idol’. The volume came up and people were actually paying attention. Looking around – the clientele was mostly very fit, perfectly groomed young men. Yes, it turns out that the anonymous bar in our hotel is the gay friendly bar in Waikiki. So – what the heck, we ordered a drink and settled in to wait for the lion.

The lions are gorgeous with crazy LED lit eyes. They can blink their eyes and open and close the mouth, which is convenient because one must, of course, feed the lion for good luck in the coming year:

Yeah – like that!

Hah – that lion looks like he’s about to drink my gin and tonic!

There were two lions and they were very thorough – all through the bar, the kitchen, the office, everywhere.

So – that was an interesting way to bring in the Chinese New Year! Tonight we met up with another crew working their way through the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Shopping concourse – they were very busy in the food court, shaking their heads and winking their eyes and ‘eating’ red envelopes presented by the proprietors . In some cases a red envelope was taped above the door- to attract the lion’s attention?  Presented a bit of a challenge for the guy wearing the head, but he managed to pluck it down!

So - Gong Xi Fa Cai! and all the best for the Year of the Rabbit!

A tale of two islands…..

After two weeks on the Big Island we’ve moved over to Honolulu. And things are different here – this is the big city. But before we turn to Waikiki, a few more pictures from Waikoloa. Our family friends Mike and Betty arrived in Kona last week – here we are all at the Island Lava Java on Ali’i drive in Kona, enjoying the coffee and the ocean view:

The night before we left we joined a group of the folks from Vista Waikoloa for a sunset party on A Bay. We took our beach chairs, wine and beer and joined the gang:

But this is what we were there for:

A little cloud, so no dramatic drop into the ocean.

We were last in Waikiki two years ago. And frankly, things were not great. There were some tourists, but clearly not nearly the numbers as usual and not much shopping was going on. Lets just say – things are different this time around! The day before we arrived the first charter flight direct from mainland China had arrived (previous tour groups had come via South Korea or Japan), which had the local tourist board pretty excited.

On our first night we noticed the difference – it wasn’t just that there were more people on the street. After dinner we walked up the street and there was lots going on- the Waikiki Shopping Center had a show going on:

In addition to the guys blowing on shells there were musicians and lady dancers. Huge crowd. Out on the street there were musicians on every block. And it seemed like every hotel we went by had music and dancers. I don’t remember any of that  from two years ago.

The high end stores are all still here – the only people I see carrying Louis Vuitton shopping bags, though,  are pretty young  Japanese ladies. The western crowd is mainly carrying bags from the ABC Store.

Another day at the beach

Just up the road from us is Hapuna Beach State Park. It is a classic beach – big wide curve of sand, great waves. In fact the waves can be a bit much – the beach was closed last week due to bigness of waves. We learned to body surf a couple of years back at Hapuna, and a day at the beach is part of our routine here.

On our last visit to Hawaii we pulled into the parking lot at Hapuna and we could see the rescue helicopter hovering over the beach. That didn’t bode well – kind of hard to have a fun day at the beach if someone was in distress. It turned out to be quite something else – it was training day for the local rescue people. Lots of superfit supertanned young fellows in black swim trunks were jumping out of the helicopter, running up and down the beach, diving into the surf, jumping in and out of boats. It was quite a show.

Yesterday at the beach we had quite a different show. It was tree trimming day! A group of four men were climbing the coconut palms to trim the fronds back, cut off the coconuts and flowers and other stuff. When I say climbing I mean just that – they had spiked shoes  and would grab the tree and start climbing. Once they got to a certain point they’d fling a rope around the tree and clip it to themselves so they could then lean against the rope and use their machete to hack at the tree.

This guy was way up there and the tree was really swaying in wind. Took him a long time to get settled and start cutting.

In some jurisdictions there would have been traffic cones and a safety marshall and keeping people away. Not so much here – people were gawking right underneath the trees being worked on. We were out of the line of direct fire where we were sitting, but enough stuff was flying around that we retreated to the picnic tables.  After the cutting was done another crew came along to pick all the stuff – the usual story. A few minutes of cutting leads to hours of picking up.

That’s business part of the coconut plant – those are coconuts to be – only a few grow up to be coconuts.

Earlier in the week we were at the golf club for breakfast, and the trees were being trimmed there – one of the gardeners took a fallen coconut and cut the end off so we could drink the contents – doesn’t really taste like much- and then he cut it open so we could taste the inside. He scraped out a mild tasting jelly – didn’t taste like coconut, really.

So – it seems to be all about the coconuts this time around!

And here’s a gratuitous fish picture for you:

 

The most beautiful lemon coloured koi at the King’s Shops pond.

Turkeys? Really?

There are lots of beautiful birds here on Hawaii. Little rosy finch things, several types of cardinals, a form of dove that calls ‘woo-hoo-hoo’ all through the day. In the lagoon on the golf course are fish hunters that sit on the rocks all hunched up, looking, looking, waiting. Sitting there they look like old men in gray raincoats – shoulders hunched against the cold. And then they move and unfurl a great long neck – it is always a surprise.

The other morning, in my pre-caffeinated state I heard a bird call. My first thought was ‘Rooster’? Well, Kauai is over run by chickens, but no. Turkey? Surely not! And then, while we were having breakfast:

  

Not a great picture, taken from the third floor balcony, but trust me –those are a pair of Thanksgiving turkeys, on the hoof. Now I hear them most mornings, gobbling in the distance. Word is that they’ve always been around. Somehow we just managed to miss them for the past several years….