Dave & Meredith’s Travel Blog

It’s taken longer than I would have liked but I have just uploaded picture galleries from our trip to Mongolia. You can click here to see pictures from Ulaan Baatar, here to see pictures from western Mongolia (Ulgii and Tavan Bogd), and here for pictures from the Gobi Desert. As usual, the Photo Galleries page has also been updated with these links.

The pictures posted are a larger size than previous galleries which I think looks much better but download times may be longer. Please let me know if there are any issues.

I’m now working on some of the panoramas that I took on the trip and will post again when they’re ready. As always, feedback is welcome. Enjoy!

- Dave

My friend Maura posted a comment to the blog this morning saying she assumed we made it to Buffalo, but did we make it back to Boston? It’s uncanny how pertinent that question actually is.

The short story is that we are back in Boston, with my car, and we got to take Buffalo Grandma to lunch yesterday. Here’s proof:

Grandma wearing the muumuu we got her in Hawaii

The longer story is that we had a heck of a time getting back. I don’t know *what* my parents did to my car while they had it, but about two hours into the trip home, the check engine light went on and the whole car started shaking. We had a three-hour diversion in Syracuse to get it towed and fixed (the service guys at Burdick Audi stayed past closing time - they really went above and beyond). We were back on the road with a new ignition coil at about 8:00 pm, but by 11:00 pm, the light went back on and the engine started running really rough again. So, we stopped for an hour at the Lee rest stop on the Mass Pike to give the car a break, and then when we turned it back on, the engine wasn’t shaking. So, we took a chance and drove to the next rest stop. Basically, we stopped at every rest stop on the Mass Pike and rested the car for 10 minutes and we got home okay. At 3:00 am.

I think I’ll borrow Dave’s car some more until I get this little issue fixed. I have an appointment on Monday. Of course, my Massachusetts inspection expired in June while the car was in NY, so I had to take it to get inspected this morning. It passed. Good to know the test has such high standards that a failed ignition coil/misfiring cylinder won’t keep someone off the road.

- Meredith

We’re just trying to get to Buffalo so I can get my car from my parents’ house and drive it back to Boston.  We already attempted this on Wednesday, but thunderstorms crippled the whole airport, and our severely delayed flight led to a flat-out canceled flight (after already having boarded!), and then we ended up back home around 3:00 am (the original flight was at 4:45 pm).  Anyhoo, it’s Sunday and we’re back at Logan.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:05 pm.  It’s now 12:15 am (wait a minute, it’s actually *Monday*, not Sunday, now) and JetBlue is suggesting we may be able to leave for Buffalo by 1:15 am.

I’m sure Dave and I will be in tip-top shape to drive 8 hours from Buffalo to Boston tomorrow.  If we actually get to Buffalo.

Thank goodness Terminal C has recently been renovated, complete with a Johnny Rockets and a Wolfgang Pucks.  “Sweet!” I hear you say.  But it turns out that a) Johnny Rockets was out of ice cream (REALLY???  They might as well be out of ground beef!) so no milk shakes.  And, just as the Red Sox-Yankees game was getting good (as in the Red Sox were really taking the lead), the bar we sat in that was showing the game called, “Last call!” at 9:25 pm and shut off the TVs, so we couldn’t finish watching the game.  Now I know Boston is pretty conservative when it comes to bar closings, and it *has* been a while since I’ve been out downtown, but a 10:00 pm closing seems a bit early, don’t you think?

So…still killing time in the airport.  I’ll let you know if we actually get to Buffalo or not.  I really hope so, because we are taking Buffalo Grandma to lunch tomorrow if we do. 

- Meredith

We’re back in Boston again and looking forward to catching up with friends and family!

- Meredith and Dave

We spent two nights on Oahu so that we could see some of the local sights before flying out of Honolulu. At the top of our list was Pearl Harbor.

It’s hard for me to write about my experience at Pearl Harbor. I could write a factual account of what we saw, but that would fail to capture the meaning and emotion of the visit. I’m sure each visitor experiences something different at a place like this. I will try to tell you some of my thoughts without sounding overly sappy or sentimental.

One of the first things that struck me was the sheer multitude of visitors of every age, race and nationality. The National Park Service says that the USS Arizona Memorial gets about 4,500 visitors per day. I was very happy to see lots of families there, and though the youngest kids may not have fully understood what they were seeing, I generally got the sense that they knew they were someplace where they needed to be respectful, and needed to pay attention. The older kids certainly seemed to be interested in the exhibits in the visitor center, which I was pleasantly surprised at.

The visitor center and the USS Arizona Memorial visit was very well done, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that the kids were so engaged - I was too. One of the things that really made this a special visit was that they conveyed a significant amount of information through personal stories (not unlike Ken Burns’ “The War”, which was an amazing TV series on WWII and if you haven’t put the time investment into seeing it, I highly recommend it).

We heard stories from Pearl Harbor survivors on the audio tour (which was nicely done), and we read some other stories of both survivors as well as others who died during the attack. The park also has five Pearl Harbor survivor volunteers who work there at various times during the week. We met and chatted with one of the survivors named Everett Hyland. He has a fascinating story, and he was a delightful man to talk to as well. I am so glad to have met him and learned about his story. Click here to see a picture and read a short article about him - I thought it captured his story and personality well.

I am happy we spent extra time on Oahu to see the memorial. I expected that the visit would be moving, but I did not expect to be as engaged by the exhibits as I was. While we were there, we learned that there are plans to expand the visitor center and museum to include more personal stories and artifacts from the many families that have reached out to the park service after having been to visit the memorial themselves. It’s great to see people interested in preserving and sharing family memories so that others may learn about — and learn from — the past.

- Meredith

A family looks at the list of names of the nearly 1200 people who died on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Here is the view from our window at our last hotel in Hawaii across the street from Waikiki Beach on Oahu:

We stayed here for 2 nights.

- Meredith

Everyone says you roll the dice when you go to Hawaii to see volcanic activity. Sometimes there’s no action going on, and other times, people get lucky.

We were lucky. Kilauea and its major vent, Pu’u O’o, have been quite active lately. We started our volcano-packed day with a helicopter ride over the vent and the place where lava is currently flowing into the ocean. Here are some pics Dave took from the helicopter:

Above, our view of the Pu’u O’o crater vent from the helicopter ride.

Above, more vents in a line in the Kilauea lava field. The large plume in the background is where a lava tube makes contact with the ocean.

Next, we spent some time cruising around Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Half of Crater Rim Drive (the road that encircles Kilauea Volcano’s caldera) was closed because of toxic sulphur dioxide gas spewing out of the crater in the center of the caldera (sweet!). Despite this closure, park officials and Rangers had plenty of activities going on, and the Rangers were very eager to share information about how to get to the area where the lava is flowing into the ocean, even though it is outside the park itself.

We drove to that point in the afternoon. If we didn’t get info beforehand, I’m not sure we would have found it. We had to pass several signs that said, “KEEP OUT” or “ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK” as well as cross three stretches of road where older lava flows had wiped out the road (it was re-paved). We weren’t exactly sure what to expect except 1) there would be an area to park our car, 2) there would be other people there, 3) we had to bring flashlights if we wanted to stay after dark, 4) we had to be in by 8:00 pm and 5) we had to be out by 10:00 pm.

When we arrived, there were county workers helping to park cars, some enterprising locals selling water, coffee, flashlights and artwork, there was an EMT team waiting in case anyone got hurt, and there was a 3/4 mile path across a lava field marked with reflective posts guiding the way to the viewing area.

Being at the viewing area was a little like going to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. There were about 100 - 200 people there, tourists and locals alike, with cameras and their loved ones. And like a great fireworks show, it did not disappoint. In fact, it was better, because the producer of the show was Mother Nature (or Madame Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano).

While the sun was out, we saw rocks being thrown into the air against a giant steam plume. But as the sun set, the “rocks” began to glow red - they were actually lava bombs. What an incredible sight! Here are a couple pics:

Above, the viewing area with the crowd waiting for the sun to set.

Above, the plume created by the lava flow hitting the ocean.

Above, there were frequent mini-twisters that would drop from the plume down to the ocean surface. This picture shows two at once.

Above, once it became dark, the same lava bombs we saw earlier appeared redder and redder.

Above, a close-up of a lava bomb explosion.

Above, a long exposure shows the trails of the lava bombs.

Above, that purple splotch above the lava bomb explosion is a lightning flash which occurred frequently within the plume. You’ll see one of these near the end of the video if you watch closely.

We also got some video - it’s about 2 minutes long and goes from day time to night. To see the video in QuickTime format, click here for a small version (faster download) and click here for a larger version (bigger picture). Likewise for Windows Media format: click here for a small version and click here for a larger version. Enjoy!

- Meredith

While we stayed near Kona on the Big Island, I took an afternoon/evening to go scuba diving while Meredith relaxed back at the resort. One of the recommended dives in that area is a night dive to see manta rays. I admit I was on the fence before going. I felt like I could take it or leave it since I was really in the mood to relax but in the end, I’m really glad I went because it is one of the best diving experiences I’ve ever had.

I went with Dive Makai (hello, David, Trish, and Alison!) and was glad I did. We had a small group and everything was very smooth. We did two dives with the first one in the late afternoon. It was a decent dive with some colorful fish and several rays. We went back to the boat after an hour to chill out, dry off, and warm up. I’ve noticed that in the last few years I’m a little more sensitive to motion sickness and that combined with a small, rocking boat and a stomach still not 100% after the antibiotics I was given for my finger meant that, after an hour back in the boat, I was feeling pretty ill. We went through the pre-dive briefing for the manta ray dive which I’m sure took only about 5-10 minutes but by that point, I wanted to get back in the water so badly that it seemed to take forever. Luckily, as expected, once I was back in the water, I felt just fine in less than a minute.

So here’s how the dive works: there’s a spot off the coast south of Kona where someone has set up some spotlights on the bottom (about 35 feet under) pointing toward the surface. These lights attract krill and small fish. The krill then attracts manta rays who feed on them. And then the mantas attract the humans who sit/kneel on the bottom while the mantas swoop and fly around while they feed. They’re harmless to the people even though they come extremely close sometimes. The number of mantas is a bit unpredictable in practice. Supposedly two months ago they had about 30 manta rays at the site. When I set up the dive, they said that they’d seen only 2 the week before.

It was my first night dive and what people said was kind of true. They said it was like floating through space. The boat gives each person an underwater light (basically a waterproof, handheld flashlight) and if you’re not close to others in your party, you see just a bunch of floating lights. We dropped down to 30 feet and swam over to the site. When we got there, there were no mantas yet. The spotlights were on though and shining upward which made a beautiful scene. In a light blue column from floor to surface, schools of shimmering silver fish swam around. We waited about 5 minutes and one manta arrived. It had about a 6-7 foot wingspan and it was incredibly graceful as it swam around. I was amazed how close it came to the divers - sometimes within inches of them. After another 5-10 minutes, another larger manta showed up - perhaps an 8-9 foot wingspan. Both swam around and around. I’m not sure what I was doing right but, for much of my visit, both mantas seemed to circle around me, diving towards me and skimming past me. It’s an amazing sight when they open their giant mouth and come directly for you and at the last minute, they “pull up.” They continued to buzz me, sometimes just an inch or two over my head. There were a few times when I needed to duck and once one of their wings grazed me. I could have stayed for a much, much longer time and I was surprised when, David, our divemaster pointed to his watch to say we’d been down for an hour and needed to head back up.

Usually at this point I’d show you a bunch of pictures and video that I took underwater. The problem was that, because we went to Hawaii via Mongolia, I didn’t want to haul my heavy underwater housing gear around the world. (I took the housing to the Galapagos for the video I showed here on the blog and the housing alone is 5 pounds!) So, linking you to other people’s photos and video will have to do (it’s not legit for me to embed their photos in my site). The best still photo’s I’ve found are right here on Dive Makai’s page about their Manta Ray dives. The picture on the top left (including the bug-eyed diver and the ray an inch above his head) are pretty accurate for what I must have looked like. The picture on the bottom left is what a ray looks like when its mouth is wide open and headed straight in your direction. The bottom right picture is a typical view of the white bottom of a ray as they swim past you. The best video I’ve found is located on the manta ray dive page of a competing dive shop (it should auto-play if you load the page). It replicates very well how I saw the lights and the manta rays.

If you’re a diver and if you’re going to Hawaii’s Big Island, I can’t recommend this dive enough!

- Dave

Here is the view from our window at our B&B near Kilauea volcano:

- Meredith

As promised, the video of our helicopter tour on Kauai is finished, so…here it is for your viewing pleasure. It’s about 3 minutes long.

To see the video in QuickTime format, click here for a small version (faster download) and click here for a larger version (bigger picture). Likewise for Windows Media format: click here for a small version and click here for a larger version. Enjoy!

Also, Dave had his GPS thing on while we were flying, so if you’d like to see the route we took, check out the map and altitude chart below (people reading this via email will have to go to our web site to view it). The tour started in the southeast corner in a town named Lihue and goes in a clockwise loop:

- Meredith