Hawaiian Adventures Day 4

Big Island day 4

Today was scheduled to be a laid back day. We had no set plans. We planned to sleep in... you get the picture.
But apparently our family likes jet lag and we are going to keep on getting up before 6 am.. yes BEFORE... until we darn well feel like it :(  Grrr.
So the sleeping in thing failed.

Yesterday I stumbled across a brochure for a farm tour that looked really fun.. reservations were made.. so then we had plans for today.... lazy day? Not as much.

We found out the Big Island has the only Vanilla farm in the US, and the tour for today still had room - and we like a nice vanilla. The kids were game, so after a mellow morning with time to play in the pool, we headed out.

This is the official sign that its time for the pool... it happens by magic :)

Really nice pool... small, but we had it all to ourselves.

And I am taking this opportunity to chill out a bit :)

Our GyPSy wasn't useful on the way over as we drove against the grain... and the full island tour is "anti-clockwise" (anti.... really? [Editor's note: It would make more sense if the guide had a British accent, but he does not...]). But we passed the hour like the road trip veterans that we are. The last 2.5 miles were crazy - a one lane, winding country road up, and up and up and up... with the occasional bridge. If you are veterans of Disney's Animal Kingdom safari ride.. the bridges were reminiscent of a bridge on that ride. Eeks!
But we arrived with time to spare.

The farm is owned and run by a single family. They offer a number of options for learning more about vanilla, including a lunch, a tea, and the tour. The lunch people stay on after they eat and join the tour. The group size was nice. The owner gave the tour. We were allowed to walk or drive to the location which was appreciated.
Over all it was great! OH! it starts with a beverage... your choice of vanilla lemonade, vanilla iced tea or a mix, what he called a Jimmy Boy (I grew up calling this an Arnold Palmer, but this drink was sooo much better than any other mix of tea and lemonade that I have ever had, that I will call it whatever he wants).

Drinking our wonderful lemonade drinks. 

So the drinks were AMAZING! Best beverage of the trip. The vanilla added sooo much to a already good drink. Hubby and I were impressed. The kids both enjoyed the lemonade... our little lady drank slowly to make it last... very cute.
We got to hear how this family came to be vanilla farmers and why here. And a little about what it takes. Then we got to see some plants.. and some beans.
It was all wrapped up back at the start with some crazy good vanilla ice cream. And of course the opportunity to buy some stuff.
We did.
Cause again, we like a good vanilla. And this stuff was good. And well priced. It was definitely comparable to similar quality we have purchased elsewhere. So, if you find yourself on the big island with a half day to kill, you like vanilla and can drive up a one lane road... check out Hawaiian Vanilla Company.

This was given to the owner in Mexico when he went to do a talk. Its made from vanilla. 

The vanilla plant 

This one has some pods! 

After the tour we headed back to the condo. We were able to pick up some GyPSy commentary on the way back. Our condo time today was lazy.. reading, playing on tablets etc. We decided to dine out for dinner and save our last dinner in the condo for tomorrow night.

One kid is thrilled we are almost done with this island.. the other is sad. But we have two more islands to go, so I am not to worried about either of them.

Once again we head north

Not sure if it's the great exchange rate or a foolish sense of spontaneity, but we decided mid-morning to go to Canada.

On our way home to change clothes before we got on the road, we decided to pack some clothes and spend the night up north. Hubby got a great price on a room in the outskirts of Vancouver.

We grabbed some clothes etc, filled up the tank and headed north. Before we knew it we were crossing the border and the hotel was just a bit beyond that.

Our wait at the border

We checked in, threw our bag on the bed and headed back out.... Time to see them fishes! Vancouver Aquarium here we come!

Our cool room

more room pics

Even had a nice water feature outside

Parking was much much easier today than the last time we popped by. We did observe some protesters outside the aquarium. Three to be exact. They had signs and were yelling a bit. Not fans of aquariums apparently.

We were able to catch the tail end (no pun intended) of the beluga talk. Love the belugas! Then caught the talk about the porpoises. Really cute. Speaking of cute we also heard the sea otter talk.... Sooooo cute.

We haven't caught a keeper talk in forever and we all enjoyed the info a lot.

Now for the inside exhibits.

Jellyfish and octopus were highlights for me. No sea turtle today :(

With closing time around the corner and dinner starting to call we headed out.

Since we have room, we ordered spaghetti factory to go. Which allowed us to relax a bit more than dining at the restaurant.

After dinner we had some ipad time and got ready for bed.

Morning brought breakfast downstairs in the Holiday Inn Express breakfast area... they had a reasonable assortment of things, including a very interesting pancake machine... cool.

ipad time

We were hoping to hit the pool before checkout time... so we took a little time for our food to settle, then headed down to the pool. We weren't the only guests to have this idea. But it wasn't too crowded.

After the fun we cleaned up and checked out. We made two stops on our way out.
First to the Real Canadian Superstore....reminded me of a Super Target or the like. But they had some Joe Fresh branded things that I had been curious about, so mission accomplished.
Plus a few cadbury items... that we couldn't pass up.

Last stop before the border.... Tim Horton's, did you guess? It was surprising that I went this long without my beloved Honey Cruller... my willpower must be growing. But Yummm!!! Thank you Mr. Horton, I enjoyed that.

The border crossing was a little longer going than coming, but that isn't too surprising. It was apparently a holiday weekend up in British Columbia. We didn't notice to much in the way of crowds, but the aquarium was open longer, which worked out great for us.

Welcome home

Hey, wanna go to Canada for the afternoon?

This was roughly what I said to hubby this morning before Church. He pondered it for a few seconds before jumping in, with questions - when would we leave? where would we go? etc.

We pretty much ruled the whole idea NUTS when we realized there was a big.. BIG concert thingy today, happening in roughly the same place we wanted to be - Stanley Park. Granted we wanted to go to the Vancouver Aquarium and the concerts were in the park somewhere... they were planning on crowds and crowds mean traffic and time wasn't in our favor, so we dropped it..... mostly.

After church the notion hits us again. We are home earlier than we planned and it's a beautiful day - why not be spontaneous? So we change clothes, grab lunch to eat on the road, passports and the assorted Canadian change we had lying around - and we're off!

Estimated time of arrival at aquarium was 3:45 pm.
Our first hurdle is the border. When we left home it was reported to have a 52 min wait to get through the border - which means we wouldn't make it to the Aquarium. Because, while they are open until 5, they close the doors at 4:30.... now your seeing how nuts we are, aren't you?
A wait of that long would put the whole trip in jeopardy. But we watched the times and when we arrived our wait was about 15 mins. So, we are feeling very optimistic. Its a smallish aquarium, and while you can't see everything in an hour, it was enough time for what we wanted... yay! Now into town...... and TRAFFIC.

6 year old said this sign said "No Octagons" 

At this point it was like a roller coaster ride, We will make it! - we won't make it. The traffic was all over the place. The people of Vancouver were out in force today, walking, riding, driving, shopping, eating - people everywhere. We entered Stanley park at 4:10, we had 20 mins to make 1 mile, and at this point we didn't think we would. It was bumper to bumper concert goers. Volunteers in matching t-shirts directing the snail's pace traffic... to keep going. It took us 12 minutes to get to the Aquarium, and now we needed parking. The kids and I hopped out, leaving hubby to hunt down a spot. And we ran to the members entrance. Well, hubby had a spot and had joined us before the pass info was updated and our hands were stamped! We were in! Shocking, I know... but we made it and now we had a leisurely 35 minutes to explore - Eeks!

They have a new penguin exhibit.. so that was our first stop. Followed by the required visit to the Belugas. We had time to walk though most everything else and pause at our old favorites. The kiddos had mixed reactions to the hasty nature of our visit, but at dinner declared it was all worth it.

We dined at The Old Spaghetti Factory on our way out of town and enjoyed the drive out a bit more than the drive in. After dinner I was able to go to Tim Horton's, it's a favorite guilty pleasure and the closest ones are in Canada, so I don't indulge often. Then it was back to the border and home.

We got home about 10. The kids sleep walked to bed and now it's our turn. It was crazy, but lots of fun.