Duane

Aloha Y'all! We are back home in the land of biscuits and gravy... We left Aulani around 10:00 on Tuesday morning to make sure we had plenty of time to gas up the Jeep and make it to the airport in time to catch our series of flights back home. In case I didn't mention it in earlier installments, the traffic from Pearl Harbor all the way to Waikiki at times is horrible and comes to a stand still in many places. Several occasions during our return trips back to Aulani from where ever we may have been coming from, we got caught up in some terrible traffic jams and today of all days I did not

On a plane somewhere between Oklahoma City and Tulsa at the moment, on our way home from our little excursion. Haven't had time to read any of the awesome TR's this week, but now that I do have time while cruising through the skies, I chose this one to start with... I have to say that Z is STILL the man! Kelly, you need to be working on a strategy of how to turn away all of the girls once he starts dating... Great TR as always, and I look forward to more of your adventures!

Aulani Room 586 Part II Continuing where we left off.... The main balcony off the living room... while we didn't get an ocean front room, the way these balconies were angled, we could still see the ocean with no problem. I have more views of that coming up. Let's not forget these little jewels... They seemed to get a workout during our stay... No fishing for quarters here. Let's step into the master bedroom shall we? Nice, comfy king size bed Mater bath... This place even has its own library... Now, lets head over to the girl's room The lit

Last day in paradise... It's a little after 7:00 in the morning, and already our flight back to SFO has been delayed almost 2 hours.... Oh well, there could be worse places in the world to be delayed... So since I have absolutely nothing to do, I will try to continue on. From what I understand, most folks who are staying on the hotel side just take a taxi or some sort of car service. They either stay onsite for their entire time here, or rent a car once they get here at the hotel. Alamo has a car rental desk here. I probably have more pics of this place than I would like to admit

Aulani.... AAAAaaaaahhhhh! When I left off, we had just finished our lunch at MonkeyPod. We loaded ourselves back into the Jeep and headed literally across the street to this... Since I am the chief cook and bottle washer of transportation and activities to the trophy wife, daughter and friend, pictures of our check-in did not occur as I was trying to keep everything moving in a forward direction. But before I get into that, let me give you a little info on the resort itself... The best way I can describe Aulani is that it somewhat resembles the Animal Kingdom with a Polynesian/Hawa

I'm trying... it seems that I have the most success at posting while the girls are getting ready to go someplace or early in the morning while everyone is sleeping.... You are absolutely correct Nacole, the airport served its purpose, and has done so for folks from all over the world. I guess it was not what I pictured in my head (which is not a pretty place sometimes), not just the airport, but the entire island. I will have to say, that this place has really grown on me and I will definitely be back! Dan, I remember that episode! You are correct, the flights here are not cheap, e

OMG that will not fit! Before I was abruptly interrupted to head off to the Luau, we had just landed in Honolulu... After we retrieved ALL of our luggage from baggage claim it was off to pick up the rental car from AVIS. Again for all of you who travel frequently know that when it comes to picking up that rental car, there are more than several ways that it can happen... In some airports you have to take a bus to an off site lot, you may have to take a train all the way at the other end of the airport, or the best of all, just walk out the door into a parking garage just to get into your c

I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco Well once again, it is the butt crack of dawn on Monday morning of our little journey. The next stop would be the Honolulu International Airport in the Aloha State of Hawaii. But before we could feel those warm Polynesian breezes on our faces, I had to get the troops up, get the luggage together, load up the transport and get our butts about 2 miles down the road to the airport. Like I have discussed before, I don't like to be late anywhere, and not wanting to take any chances, we were up and out by 6:00 AM. It looks like a great day for flyi

Once again, I am waiting on the ladies to get ready for our Luau, so I will try to get as far as I can with this... Its hard to believe we start home on Monday morning, so I need to step up the pace. Ashleigh hasn't been to SF since she was about 3. She and Claudine flew out to meet me on a business trip back then, so she doesn't remember anything. When she heard our plan to stop in SF that's really all she wanted to do is to try to find these houses. These are the houses shown during the opening of the show... The actual house front that is supposed to be the Tanner's is on anoth

It's still Sunday in SF and when we left off, we had just left "The Rock"... From there we headed over the the most crooked street in the US... Lombard St. Me and the rest of the driving tourists were out in force today to head down that famous thoroughfare... If there is anyone out there who has never heard of Lombard St, it is basically a very steep one way street traverses back and forth all the way to the bottom of the hill. Cars line up at the top to drive down it, while folks at the bottom walk to the top. I thought I heard that the residents wanted to close it because they were

I think its the slow slide of California into the ocean. We all knew one day it would happen... As the old saying goes, its a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there... Several years ago, and several pounds lighter, I got a "wild hair" and walked from Geary St all the way to Fishermen's Wharf... by the time I got there, my legs were screaming at me. Now I do love to drive there. Some of those hilly streets are really fun to drive on. I wonder if tequila would remove sunscreen stains from clothes....? Claudine would much rather have wet clothes than clothes stained

Today is Pearl Harbor day, so while the girls are getting ready, thought I would respond to you guys up to this point... Oh well things happen.. to me this is how memories are created and laughed about later on... I would love to say that this was the only melt down but I would be telling a tale if I did... Remember, we have to pack again and travel to Hawaii... Thanks for the compliments on the pictures... there are a bunch more to come. Next time it will be double bagging for us... Claudine had all of her large liquids packed in ziplock bags...I guess the seal was not closed

Okay, so when we left off, we were all sitting at RDU eagerly awaiting our the official start of our journey... At 7:55 we were heading in a westward directiion enroute to SFO via a connection in the tranquil little town of Chicago. Just about 20 minutes before we were to touch down, the pilot delivered some news that did not sit well with other members of our traveling party. "There is bad weather currently over the field and we are going to circle around for about 20 to 30 minutes more until it moves off so we can land". Now under the best circumstances, our connection time was going to b

Well it seems that my little travel party is taking their time getting up and at 'em this morning, so I will see how much I can update everyone with our adventures up to now... but first, I want to respond to everyone up to this point. So far this journey has been a blast... My motto is "Go early or stay home!" Dave, you must have the patience of Job... I can't imagine you getting all of your crowd moving in the same direction on time.... I only have to deal with 2 women... As Guy Fieri would say (if you watch, the Food Network) this place is "off the chain!" More on that lat

Aloha Y'all! Its currently 7:25 AM, Wednesday morning here in sunny and humid Ko'Olina Hawaii. I guess by now you have not heard of a plane having to ditch in the Pacific, so that means by the grace of God, and United Airlines, we made it! We arrived late morning on Monday and have been creating interesting things to tell... I just wanted to check in to let everyone know that I have not given up on this TR. Just finished uploading pics from the last few days into Photobucket and will be reporting them out when I get a chance... Some of the things to look forward to will involve, the b

Okay, now that you know what our overall plan is, its time to start the usual TR proceedings.... So prepare yourselves because I can't guarantee how this thing will turn out because this thing is pretty much happening live. I will try to keep up as much as I can in an attempt to repay all of the other awesome trip reporting Fiends who's reports that I have enjoyed over the years. This wonderful site along with a loud screeching sound greeted me at "O dark 3:40 AM yesterday morning... Yes kids, that is AM,as in the butt crack of BEFORE dawn... We had a 6:55 AM plane to catch and I was

Thanks for catching this Yvonne, it is a typo, it was late last night when I typed this... my body clock was still on EST. They will be nothing like you take, but at least you will get an idea of what we are doing... So far things have gone smoothly and we are having fun.... Thank for the well wishes! I AM from NC, so if you see something that doesn't make sense, by all means speak up! It certainly was typo... I will try to do better, but I was about worn out last night.. Hopefully with us stopping off in San Fran will ease our body clocks into the correct time zone. Hawa

Okay, might as well lay this whole thing out so everyone can join in on the fun! It turns out that 2014 is turning out to be one of those “milestone” years for the Miller family. I recently turned 50 years old, Claudine and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in December, our daughter Ashleigh just turned 18 years old yesterday, just graduated High School last month, and will start college in the fall. With all of these milestones behind us, around us, or in front of us we thought we should celebrate with a big trip while everyone could at least get on the same schedule. Claudine

Okay... Jason gets the "Fiend of the Moment Award". We are "going" to Aulani, but are sort of taking the long way there... And if today is like the way this trip is going to turn out, then it may take longer than I think to get there! More on that in a little bit. Jason is wise beyond his years... You won't have to wait much longer because I getting ready to spill the beans. Sherlock Jason has just solved the biggest part of this mystery... You know, we were trying to decide whether to go to Aulani or Memphis... and of course I wanted Memphis, but all the Fiend men know

Well Good Evening Mr. Dave, I would have thought nothing less of you being the first of my first.... (my first TR that is) Not a mystery for long... With me, and 3 women, who knows where this will lead... Okay, Yvonne is here, we can get this thing started.... Not quite yet... Hey Gwen, I'm happy you are here! Hey Nacole! Dang if I know...

Just sayin'.... more to follow! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyIJ2vMIuDg

We are DVC members (Shhh, but don't tell anybody) and one Thanksgiving, we were staying at Saratoga Springs. To take care of my Fort fix, I rented a golf cart through Disney for a couple of days, and came over to the Fort when I wanted and looped to my heart's content. When I had my fill, I parked it at the Outpost and drove back to SSR... Came back the next day and did it all over again....

I'm not a golfer, but just picked up on this regarding the former Osprey Ridge Golf Course while poking around on the web.... http://www.wdwgolf.com/2014/06/01/osprey-ridge-golf-course-now-four-seasons-orlando-tranquilo-golf-club/

When you walked through the straw market how many times did you hear.... "STEP INTO MY SHOP!" ? Which amounted to a fold out table. When we went several years ago, the straw market was under a large tent. I think the original had burned down and this was the temporary location... It was rows and rows of the same touristy crap, just laid out on a table a little differently.... I am definitely in the camp, "been there, done that, don't need to do it again"

I guess, according to my NC education that makes me third....!! Bring it on.