Hawaii (Bellows AFS cottages)

Saturday: 14 April, 2012: We arrived at Bellows a little early but still in time to eat lunch at the Turtle Cove Café.  We were given cottage #239A which is about 50 yards to the water and a clear ocean view from our living room window and front door. 

We all met Suzie who was our housekeeper during our stay.  Daily, she would give us fresh towels and empty our trash.  This was a great service. We had to shop for groceries needed to cook in our bungalow for the next couple of days. Fruits, fruits and more fruits! I’m so glad that I have my personnel chef with me when we travel….Nori….you’re the best. Before we left Vancouver, I discovered that I failed to get one of my prescriptions extra filled for vacation to get me through the 3 months that we will be in the Philippines. We drove to Kailua and went to Longs Drugs to get my prescription transferred from Wal-Mart to Longs in order to get a vacation refill. They were very helpful. After a 30 minute wait, the pharmacy said that they could not get through because Wal-Mart was closed and that they will call me when ready. We noticed a Salvation Army store and were thinking that it may be cheaper to buy folding beach chairs there instead of renting them at $2 each per day.  Unfortunately they only had one and its leg was broken but we did find a retractable cane for my mother for $5 since she forgotten hers.

Sunday: Got up early to catch the sunrise and it was very nice.  Every day we are welcomed by beautiful colorful Hawaiian birds.

 After going to the reception lobby and using their free computer (30 minutes per session) Nori notices an Ethernet plug for computers close to the TV. Wow!  I just happen to carry one of those 3ft cables with me and we now have internet in our bungalow, how cool is that. I get the call that my prescription is ready and arrange to do the pick-up Monday. Later we just hung out at the beach, went to the small town Waimanalo to get meat and fruits and bought sweet corn from a local street corner vender. Can you believe that Nori can actually read and pronounce these Hawaiian street and city names.  She is just one talented gal and a keeper!  After Nori’s delicious dinner we planned the events for the next day and met out bungalow neighbors. Tammy along with her adult sons Nick and Nate from North Dakota were vacationing while Nick was attending Army sniper school.

Monday: We took our time with breakfast and got ready to go pick-up my prescription in Kailua. We noticed a Safeway close by and put in our memory bank. While we were in Kailua, we stopped at a ukulele shop, ate lunch and had some of Dave’s Ice Cream.

                           Nori his having an ube (purple yam) flavor ice cream.

 Nori and I took my folks back to the cottage and we returned to Safeway to get more groceries and goodies.   When we got back, we all headed down to the beach with our rented chairs to enjoy the view. There were warnings about a strong current posted so we decided just to wade in to our knees. It was another beautiful day in paradise.

   

Tuesday: I wanted to try a Hawaiian breakfast and this was the day. We got eggs any style, rice, spam and toast with coffee at the Turtle Cove Café.  Being that this was our last non travel day, we decided to relax with the great weather and later go out for dinner thus no kitchen clean-up. California Pizza Kitchen was great and our first time visit.

On the beach at Bellows.

Wednesday: 18 April, 2012: Our day of departure started with breakfast, showers, packing and lastly cabin cleaning. “De Plane” did not leave till 20:20 (that’s 8:20 PM for non military and non Europeans). After an 11AM check-out we headed to the city for lunch and a drive to the northwest side of Oahu. Since there is no Taco Bells in Canada, my folks wanted to stop there to eat and by the way, have you tried their new mango slush….man is that good! We managed to finish up the day with sightseeing and got the rental turned in and made it to the airport. We arrive home 6 AM Thursday. I’m writing this to you from Starbuck’s parking lot in Richmond, BC on Friday before Nori and I continue our travels to the Philippines on Sunday. We have just too much to do and we want to spend Saturday with my sister Lynn and her family. Our next blog from will be from the PI.

                 This may look like a sunset....it is actually a sunrise using the clouds and tree to give the effect.