Home sweet sweet home

Thanks to the wireless, my time at Portland airport flew by. Flight to Amsterdam was very nice and peaceful. Probably one of the best flights I've had in the past 10 years. Plane was less than half full, 75% of people did not have to share their row with anybody (well, not the whole row but the seats located right next to each other I mean: 2+4+2 seats in a row and 3 people sitting in one row only). As I was quite up front I got all the luxuries one can imagine, 2 seats to myself, electric outlet, personal TV's/entertainment center and so on. There was very little turbulence and again I managed to get few hours of very good sleep on the plane. Although it was a tough decision to sleep as there were many good movies to watch :)

Amsterdam airport - well free wireless is really nice of course, but it is truly useless if there are no electric outlets by the most sitting areas. I found one plug, but none of my cords fit in there and the adapter was in my checked in luggage :( Flight to Tallinn seemed to last forever. Plane was not very full, which made it a bit better, but oh the minutes were just dragging by. After 2 long flights and 12 hours of sitting at the airports I was really anxious to be done with flying. And my luggage did not make it :( they forgot it to Portland and will be delivered to me later :( My coat was packed in there though :) so run to the car was fast :)

My family was there to greet me at the airport - with flowers and birthday songs :) Thank you!

It is always nice to return home, no matter where one comes from or how long one has been away. Although I really would not have minded to stay in Hawaii for couple of more months :)

As always, I'm getting great ideas already about my future travels. Plans are forming in my head, ideas are there and my imagination is running wild. More on the subject in couple of months - stay tuned!

Thank you for visiting, reading and comments. Take care and spread the love (suggested by my boss on Valentines :) ) - hang loose!

21.02-22.02 Getting home

My plane from Honolulu left at 23:40, I sat down on my seat and fell asleep immediately. I did not open my eyes once during the 5,5 hour flight :) I did regain counsciousness couple of times but then fell back to sleep almost instantly. I have never been able to sleep on a plane, seems that I'm learning slowly, I even managed to have dreams this time!

Now I'm just trying to pass time by in Portland. Luckily here they have wireless internet coverage throughout the aiport - wohoo. But they do not have any good shops here :( At least the food court is decent. I keep myself busy with updating my blog, uploading pictures and watching movies. I still have 3,5 hours till my check-in, ugh, I guess another movie coming up :)

See you all in few days, some sooner some later. I'll try to manage another long flight and then I'm almost at home already :) Lots of hugs!

20.02 Hawaii: Oahu

Getting up at 5 am was more painful than ever, I guess last nights tough packing just wore me out :) I don't know why have hotels not thought of a packing service - so that they pack the suitcases for you :) ? Anyways, got up, showered, ate as much breakfast as possible as there was gonna be lots of food left behind and headed to the airport. Our first flight from Kahului to Honolulu went 5 minutes apart, me flying NW and others going on United. It was a short flight, just about 30 minutes in air. Once at the airport we rented a car and headed straight to Pearl Harbor.

As Pearl Harbor is still an active military base then the security is quite intense there - no bags or purses or camera bags are allowed in the area, had to check all that into luggage check. First stop was the movie theater where they gave an overview of what happened in Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, year 1941 and why it all happened. From the theater we were taken to the memorial of Battleship Arizona across the bay. Memorial was built on top of the sunken ship called Arizona and it lay in the middle of the water, we went there by ferry. This was a bit depressing to say the least, we were instructed to keep our voices low as many lives were lost and they still lay beneath the surface.

Once back from the boat ride we wondered around in the museum. Now the museum was quite good, it was well documented and organized, had lots of detailed information and photo material as well as scale models of the ships and plans of attack routes. From the museum we decided to go to Battleship Missouri - we were taken there by shuttle as it was all the way on Ford Island where the base is situated. Now the battleship was enormous. I wonder how many marines actually got lost in there during their first weeks on the ship :)

Once we were done at the ship, it was after 3 and we were all dying of hunger by then. It was decided to head to Honolulu city center to find some nice place to eat. We ended up having one of the nicest meals yet by an enormous shopping center right next to Waikiki beach. After dinner we took a quick detour and walked to the beach for a bit. Then back tot he airport where we had good 4 hours to kill.

I liked it here in Hawaii a lot. loved it! It seems so entirely different from the rest of the US that it is even hard to believe it is part of this big country. History of Hawaii is so rich, the culture goes back centuries, they have their own native language, nature is gorgeous, people are friendly and most enjoyable of all - everybody is so relaxed and happy, hang loos' :) It is a wonderful place to be. Although I have to mention that it is a bit on a pricier side as a lot of it built up on tourism.

This was definitely one of the best holidays I've had. Mostly thanks to a great Spranget family. At the airport the inevitable had to take place - saying goodbyes. It is difficult to say farewell to people dear to you. Sometimes I wonder how have I gotten so lucky to have so many such special people in my life. And it is definitely amazing to reconnect with people who you were once inseparable from. I hope the future is good to me and I can keep in close contact with all those dear people even 30 years from now. I will do everything in my power to make it happen.

19.02 Hawaii: Hana trip

Today's main (and only) activity was trip to Hana. The tour was organized this way that we departed from Kahului heliport around noon, helicopter took us all the way across Haleakala to Hana and from there we took a scenic road back to Kahului by 5 in the afternoon.

After watching the introduction of where the first aid kit is and how to evacuate the machine we took in line and boarded the helicopter. For seating we were distributed by our weight, computer did all the magic and allocated us as evenly as possible. I got to sit on the front seat! The ride was great of course :)

We started from Kahului, climbed all the way to the top of Haleakala, looked around the crater and then started to descend. On the way down we flew over the rain forests of Maui where it rains every day, this in turn creates lots of waterfalls throughout the valley. Saw many waterfalls, some as tall as 200 meters. It was great how the pilot flew by the waterfall and then made a sharp turn to fly by so that that the people on the other side could see the beautiful waterfall as well :) When approaching the city of Hana we were flying alongside the coastline - that was fabulous. Dark rocky coast, bright blue water and pure white waves crashing at the coast. After about 30 minutes we landed in Hana international airport and were guided to our next transportation vehicle - limo van.

Our van driver was a local guy who seemed to know everything about Hawaiian culture and history. He had many great stories to tell throughout the ride. First we ate lunch by a beach and then started our drive. Along the way we got to stop in many scenic locations and took tons of pictures. Scenic road means 50 km and 617 sharp turns, the speed limit was mostly about 15km/h :)

As it turned out the van driver had been to Tallinn just last year :) Although he was the 5th person to point out that I'm the first Estonian he has ever met at Hawaii. My surf instructor said the same thing and then added a note that us Estonians must not get out that much :D

At the end of the "scenic road" I started to feel sick of all the turning, luckily shortly after that the curves stopped and we were able to continue driving with 70km/h.

All in all the day was pretty much better than any of us could have expected. Once Gene picked us up at the heliport we heard that the road to Lahaina had been closed all day due to a big accident on the road, so he was stuck at Maalaea the whole day. While we tried to make our way back towards Lahaina we were still struggling in the traffic jams that still had not cleared up due to the closed road. It took us 2 hours to drive back.

Now I have all my stuff packed and I'm all ready to go to bed. Tomorrow morning we are taking an early fight to Honolulu and will spend a day at Oahu island, visiting Pearl Harbor. In the late evening we are all flying out to mainland US, me through Portland and others via Los Angeles. Then comes the most difficult part - 48 hours at airports and on flights. I'm not sure if I have any internet access in any of the airports to update my blog and upload the latest pictures. If so then you will see tomorrows news this week and if not then you have to wait a bit longer. Either way, lots of hugs to all of you!

18.02 Hawaii: Surfing, cocktail cruize and whale watching

Today had 2 highlihts: surfing and whales. In the morning we got to sleep in till 9, then got ready to head to Lahanai for early lunch.

My surfing lesson started at 12:30. This time I had a private instructor, no need to do the whole 30 minute instruction on the sand first and no need to stand around by the buoys waiting for your turn :) Also, this instructor got a bit different apprach on how to get up on the board - oh was I glad, as the last instructors guidelines were just so complicated that getting up on the board seemed impossible and took forever. Todays lesson was not about getting up on the board anymore, now it was all about getting up fast and manouvering. Oh it was great. I got so much background information on how the waves hit, how to time the glide, pointers on what I'm doing wrong, how do the rules go on catching a wave and so on and so on. During the breaks when we were waiting around for the waves we were just chit-chatting about life. It was great time, very informative, yet relaxed and fun. Also, the instructor, he was a real eye candy :) I wish I could sqeeze one more lesson in :D, but unfortunately our time is all booked and we are leaving the day after tomorrow already.

Mostly the experience is gathered by being in the water of course. Also each location is different, surges and drafts are different, waves form differently and so on. When surfing at a new location then the best bet is to follow the more experienced surfers and perhaps get somebody to explain the waters and help a bit with lineup. I guess the first time should be with an instructor if possible and then try to go out on your own couple of times.

In the afternoon we had scheduled a cocktail sunset cruize. Cruize was organized by Pacific Whale Foundation again. We got to see many many whales very close up, doing surges, flips, sprinkling water and going for deep dive. As the captain said we are swimming around in a whale soup :) There was a mommy teaching her calf how to jump out of the water, they did it couple of times - mommy first and then the baby followed, they were real close to the boat while jumping :) Then there was another one, little baby, who was clearly trying to do some sort of flip or go for deep diving, but did not manage and only had his tale stuck out of the water. Some people on the boat were joking that it is doing a head stand :)

Hawaiian language is great, they have all kinds of long and funny names. For one example is the state fish of Hawaii called "humuhumunukunukuapua'a" :) Street names and peoples names are funny like that as well.

17.02 Hawaii: Molokini and Turtle Arches, Wytni's birthday with Luau

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROOMIE!!! It was first week of January year 2008 when we moved in together in Fulton dorm :) That was a looong time ago - 11 years! Oh I feel old :)

Unfortunately we had a very early morning today, got up at 4:30 to get to Ma'alaea where our tour started from. Got boarding passes and initial introduction at the Pacific Whale Foundation office. Next we were guided to the ferry, handed out fins-masks-snorkels and the tour started. First stop was Molokini crater that is an extinct crater and is now designated as a State Marine Life and Bird Conservation District. Ride over there was quite rough and lasted about 40 minutes. Apparently there have been very strong winds for the past few days and they have not even been able to do the tour. Winds eased down later on and by the time we headed back there were barely any waves at all.

Snorkeling by Molokini was amazing. I jumped in from the boat, stuck my head under water and got scared the hell out by a little brave fish that was right in front of my nose :) I also got a digital underwater camera to take pics of the sea life - that was a good choice, it was great to click away at the little fish down there.

As I mentioned this time of the year is the peak time for Humpback Whales mating season. Whales come to Hawaiian islands for the winter to mate and then swim all the way back to Alaska for the summer time only to be back here the next year again. There were quite many of them jumping and flapping their tales in the distance. At the end we got to see some great jumps quite close up as well.

From Molokini we were taken to another snorkeling location by Turtle Arches. While the guide was talking I kept peeking underwater and noticed a turtle chilling on the bottom of the water, I freely let the guide know and soon he was down there pointing at the turtle so that the rest of the group would notice it as well :) Turtle was just chilling there, later we saw another one at the surface. Turtles can hold their breath for about 40 minutes and then they need to come to the surface to breathe. The way they move is amazing, they just flap their legs once and then glide :)

Our guide also suggested to dive under water in order to hear the singing of the whales, I was the only one to do it - the song was beautiful. Later on the boat they were able to drop a underwater microphone into the water and we heard singing of the whales over the loudspeakers as well. As they said they usually don't do it on the snorkeling trips, one has to be on the whale watching trip to get to hear them, but they figured to give us a bonus :) If any of you would like to hear them, go to this address, you will get live whale singing from the very same bay area.

At the boat they were telling us all sorts of information about the fish and the marine life. For an example, you are not suppose to feed the fish since they eat the seaweed off the reef and keep it clean, if you feed them, then the reef would get covered with seaweed and simply die out. Also there is a type of small fish that other fish don't eat since they are providing the bigger fish a service - they clean their skin :) Apparently at times the bigger fish form a line like in the car wash to get the skin cleaned by the small fish :D, cute huh?

In the evening we had Luau scheduled. The show was great - lots of dancing, humor and eating. Each dance told a story, they were danced to authentic music and by local people. Just like traditional shows everywhere. It was done quite well and show was definitely good.

Another thing I wanted to write about was the flower in the hair tradition, at the Tropical Plantation our guide explained the following:
- behind the right ear if you are married/taken
- behind the left ear if you are free
- on top of your head if you are clueless :)
- behind your head if you should be followed no questions asked ;)

16.02 Hawaii: day full of sports

After a loong looong time, well after 3 very long days and sleepless nights, I finally got to sleep in. And guess what? I was up a bit after 7 :D So ironic. Also this was the first morning when I had time to go running on the beach! Oh it was great. All the way down the beach and back was exactly a 30 minute jog. Next time I will have a chance to go running on Wednesday I think, then I will try to go all the way down and back one way and then the other way as well, that should come to at least 45-55 minute run.

The whole time I was running I stared at the water trying to spot some whales. At the time there is whales mating season. For them it goes this way that the females pick the males so males are jumping and wagging their tales and doing all sorts of tricks to impress the females. I did not see any in the morning, but in the evening when the sun was setting we were playing with the waves on the beach by our hotel and then we saw quite many whales cruising by and sprinkling water up in the air. Some of them jumped all the way out of the water and flapped their tail as well. Hopefully on Wednesday we will see them up close from the boat when we will be on the cocktail cruise.

Allright, back the day. So after running we got ready to head over to Lahaina where we had scheduled a surfing lesson to start at 12:30. We were divided into groups and each instructor got from 4 to 6 people. We were provided with special shoes and shirts. Headed over to the beach, each got to carry their own board from the car down to the beach. Apparently the bigger the board the easier it is to surf, makes sense to me only up to a point. I get it that it is more stable, but isn't it also more difficult to maneuver it? Anyhoo, each got a board and carried it over to the sand. Whole course lasted 2 hours. First 30 minutes we spent on the sand going over the moves, rules and theory. All sounded quite simple, not too many rules and all sounded pretty logical. To the water we go. First we paddled to an assigned spot by the buoys where our instructor got us one by one and headed out the sea to catch the waves. As you might guess the theory is lost quick when trying to do it in practice. Well but we all got up from the board and glided almost like pro's (some more and some less :D ). I absolutely loved it, although my balance is horrible on my two feet :)

Since there were 4 of us and only one instructor we had to stand (or I should say glide) around in the water quite a bit. We were in the water about 1 hour and 15 minutes I'm guessing and we got to ride the waves 4 times. Rest of the time we just paddled around and watched others. Since I absolutely loved the whole thing, being in the water in general and of course riding the waves, I arranged another lesson for Wednesday. This time it is going to be only me and the instructor. Today the instructor chose the waves for us and sometimes gave our board some speed by pushing, he would also shout of when we would have to push back on the board and get up on our feet. I'm hoping that next time when I have the lesson I'm gonna learn to choose and catch the waves all by myself, so that in the future I don't need any more assistance and can just rent a board and head out the ocean :) Wish me luck!

In the afternoon we just had nice late lunch, did some shopping and then headed back to the hotel. Spent some time on the beach, in a hot water Jacuzzi by the hotel pool and that was it. Nothing more for today :)

Tomorrow is Wytni's 30th birthday! In the morning we are scheduled for some snorkeling and watching turtles as well as visiting couple of places by the boat. Activities start at 6:15 in the morning and are over by 13:00. In the evening we are going to Hawaiian luau. Paarrrtyyyy!!!

15.02 Hawaii: Haleakala, Tropical Plantation and Iao Park

Hawaii - Aloha state :) That is what is written on car license plates here. So Aloha then! And another word you hear a lot here is 'mahalo' :)

First event of the day was watching sunrise at Haleakala summit and then ride down from halfway of the mountain on bikes - I was booked on Haleakala sunrise and biking tour (others decided to sleep in). So my day started at 2:30 this morning :D Tour bus picked me up at 2:45 from the lobby. By 3:15 we had all the needed people picked up from the hotels and we headed over to the breakfast area somewhere by Haiku. From there we still had about 70 minutes to go until we reached the summit of Haleakala volcano crater (which actually does not qualify as a crater at all as we were informed). We were at 3055m above the sea level.

Sun was going to rise at 6:49, we got to the summit an hour in advance. It was absolutely freezing there, also the wind was so strong that it was difficult to stand up straight. Temperature was -8C accounting wind speed as well - juuust freezing! Luckily there was a viewing platform in a building as well which was heated. Wait was long and it was basically impossible to take photos as the wind was so strong. Of course the colors that formed in the sky were absolutely beautiful and sun rise was magnificent. It was described as watching the sun rise from up above and that it really was. There was the crater in front of us as a dark dark hole, around the crater was soft cloud carpet and on the horizon there were intense red and yellow colors. At 6:49 a bright dot appeared on the horizon, it grew with every second and soon the whole golden ring of fire was visible :) Yeap it was great.

Next we drove half way down the mountainside and put on our biking gear. Now, just look at the pictures and try not to laugh. We got very robust and extremely heavy bikes that were fixed at the first gear. The brakes were weak on purpose so that you had to press both levels fully down to come to a complete stop. We were given wind proof jackets, motorcycle helmets and gloves. Good thing about the ride was that throughout the 45km ride we needed to pedal only for about 100m total :D The rest of the way we just tried to slow down and keep the distance between the person in front. We were given very strict rules of not looking behind us, not passing, not getting too close, not breaking with first break only and so on and so on. But the ride itself was fabulous! Bikes were a bit difficult to control, but after a bit I got used to the behaviour and rolled down the windy road merrily :) We stopped on the way quite many times to take pictures, let the cars pass or have a lunch break. Wonderful part of the track was passing through eucalyptus tree forest - bit of aroma therapy :) The whole ride on the bikes down the steep and narrow road was a real adrenaline kick!

I was back at the hotel by 11:30. As Wytni and Diane had gone for a walk on the beach I decided to lay out in the sun for a bit. This was the first time during the trip that I was tanning outside - oh that felt good, to roast myself in the sun.

For afternoon activity we were heading over to Maui Tropical Plantation. First we had lunch at Ma'alaea Grill and enjoyed wonderful views to the marina. At the plantation they offered a tram ride that would cover the whole area as a guided tour. We learned how the sugar is made of sugar cane, that pineapples take 2 years to grow, how to crack open a coconut, what are the 3 different stages of coconut and how to recognize if coconut is eatable or not, that macadamia nuts are self harvesting, how banana trees work and how bananas grow, how does coffee harvesting work and so on and so on. It was very interesting and now I can't wait to get my hands on coconut to test out the tricks shown on opening the thing :)

Before heading back to the hotel we drove up to Iao National Park. This is a very scenic location that apparently is the most photographed location in the whole Hawaiian islands. Opening scene of Jurassic Park was apparently filmed here as well, the rest was filmed on another island (can't remember which one). Anyhoo, the views were gorgeous as promised.

14.02 Hawaii: Kaanapali and Lahaina

HAPPY VALENTINE'S TO ALL OF YOU!
Valentines day in Hawaii :) Will be best Valentines day yet!

First thing in the morning we went to activities and tours overview session held at the housing premises. We are staying at Mahana resort in Kaanapali area. They gave a wonderful overview of all possible activities - the lady presenting the information was very lively and funny. After an hour we realized that there is simply too much to do in one week :) Initial schedule looks promising though! Here is a glimpse of planned activities:
-Sunday- watch sunrise at Haleakala volcano which is 3055m above the sea level and later bike down 45 kilometers, apparently there won't be whole lot of pedaling :)
-Sunday- visit to pineapple plantation
-Monday- surfing lessons, they promised us that we will be standing up on the board by the end of the lesson! can't wait to see that :)
-Tuesday- snorkeling in Molokini and Turtle Arches to see the underwater sea life
-Tuesday- famous Hawaiian Luau party
-Wednesday- sunset cocktail cruise to see the wonderful sunset on water as well as do some whale watching
-Thursday- helicopter flight over Haleakala Crater and view of dramatic waterfalls, landing in Hana, luxurious limo-van trip back to Kahului

I guess we'll see how the schedule will work out, but that is the initial plan. On Friday we will be taking an early flight to Oahu island to spend a day at Pearl Harbour and fly out a bit before midnight.

Today, after the activities briefing, we put together our schedule, took a 40 minutes walk on the beach and then headed over to Lahaina. On weekends there is a local craftsmen fair under the largest Banyan tree in US - so we headed there after wonderful lunch and drinks at Kimo's. Banyan tree was once brought over from India and it just keeps growing more and more branches and expands like mad :) Crafts fair was great, many artists presented their paintings, jewelery, ceramics, cosmetics goods and other sorts of hand made decorations. Later we wondered around the numerous shops on the main street. By 6 in the evening our feet refused to move and our stomachs were requesting to be filled with food. Quick stop at the grocery store, quick stop at the mall and bookstore and then we were ready to head back. Dinner consisted of wonderful pepperoni pizza and then back to the hotel.

The ocean, oh, it is marvellous! All hues of green and blue are present in the brightest ways possible. In the distance there are couple of islands rising out of the water and in between the sailboats cruise slowly by. Air is warm and sun is bright - everything is perfect. Locals are very laid back, reggae music is everywhere, food is delicious and drinks are strong. At night time the stars shine brightly and ocean waves crash the shore with measured out hum.

But now I gotta go and get some sleep as I will be picked up at 2:45 at night to drive up to the summit of Haleakala volcano to see the sunrise :)

13.02 traveling from Minnesota to Hawaii

Friday the 13th was not a good day. It started off just fine: got up at 4:30 and took a quick shower. Kids were gonna come with us so we got them woken up and ready to go. Older boy was so qute - he was tired but he kept telling that I will go to the airport and will fly on a plane. I guess he really did not understand that this means I'm flying away. We headed out at 5 to drive to Duluth airport. Roads were fine and we got there quarter after 6, farewells followed. Colten was left sitting in the car with the most confused face when I said that I'll be leaving now and I'll be back in couple of years - he fell all silent.

At the ticket counter the lady could not figure out all the flights I will be taking. I asked her to book me all the way through, but she was unable to do it, claiming that she sees me only on one flight?!?! Finally we got so far that she checked my luggage all the way at least.

So I get to Minneapolis just fine. At the check-in they announce that as they are overbooked they are looking for volunteers to change flights. I was suppose to fly from Minneapolis to Honolulu and from there to Maui. Now they were offering to go directly to Maui via Seattle - I understood that in Seattle I don't even need to get off the plane, great I thought, so I decided to switch the flights. Now that was a big mistake. They did give me a voucher that I can't most likely use up within a year though. Anyhoo, but what they did was that they only got me a seat up till Seattle and then they did not book me on the next flight. This I found out only in Seattle of course :( So I was about to get stuck in Seattle because the flight to Maui was overbooked! Argh I was so upset. They had also messed up bookings for one family where 2 people out of 4 had seats, so those 2 came off the flight and I got on. I got to Maui just fine, flight was awfully bumpy though. Wytni found me at the airport and even my luggage made it!

By the time we had gotten the rental car and got the the condominium we were all dead tired and headed straight to bed.

11-12.02 Minnesota: Virginia and Ely

The SPA treatment on Tuesday was wonderful! First they scrubbed my back, arms and legs with salt+wild rice+spices scrub. This made my skin hot hot, just like your mouth feels after eating a hot pepper :) After the scrub I got to take a bath and then a 40 minutes massage followed! It was great!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I just stayed at the house. It snowed the whole afternoon, I went for a walk and just relaxed - watched movies and read my book. I'm getting all rested and ready for Hawaii. Last night we were invited over to Ryan's parents place for cake - it was his dad's birthday on Monday. Afterwards we stayed up quite late chatting with Nikki, talking about home decoration and dishes and travel and dreams and relatives and kids and education and world economy and China and all kinds of things :) I miss having her in my life and it is so extremely good to see her again after 1,5 years.

Today, on Thursday, Nikki had to go to Ely for work tasks so she picked me up from the house and we drove up together. It is about 1 hour drive, very nice drive I must admit. It has been snowing for the past 24 hours so all the trees are covered with thick layer of snow - another winter wonderland. We had lunch at a lodge overseeing a lake, food was very good and place was like on a postcard. After lunch Nikki went to work at the city hall and I got to wonder around the town. It is just a small town with one major street. I was here last time when visiting as well so many places were familiar. Luckily there is a caffee with free wireless so I get to read through my e-mail, update my blog and upload some photos.

Life is slow here, even the snow is falling down slowly :) And this brings a sense of peace, life is good :)
Tomorrow early morning, at 7am, I will take a flight from Duluth to Minneapolis. From there to Honolulu and then late at night last flight to Kahului. I will meet Wytni and her family at the airport. Hopefully I'll be able to come online the day after, on the 14th. All the best to all of you!

9-10.02 Minnesota: Virginia

Monday was a day at home. Slept in, ate, watched 2 movies, read the book, ate some more :) That is what I call a vacation. As Nikki and Ryan had their honeymoon in Hawaii, same island where I'm going to, we went though the pics and travel notes they made. There were there in February as well, it all looked so nice and inviting.

Today, on Tuesday, Nikki left me her car and I navigated to town before noon, following the given instructions as close as possible. Yesterday the city of Duluth was closed and lots of schools in the area as well since an ice storm was suppose to hit. Temperature is close to freezing and it is raining, so once it hits the ground it forms into ice very quickly - this makes the roads very slippery and the cities are closed. Today the situation is pretty much the same, in the afternoon it is suppose to get colder, making the situation even worse. Here the cars don't have winter tires or anything, so in a way it makes sense to just keep the people off the roads.

There were 2 reasons why I came to town though:
First - Nikki and her family made a local SPA gift card as a birthday present for me :) Place is called The Pebble SPA Company. I tried to pick something that is not available elsewhere. So I will get a wild rice and spice treatment today at 3:30 in the afternoon. As wild rice is a Minnesotan thing I'm guessing that there is no wild rice treatments elsewhere. It is a body treatment that increases circulation, eases muscle pain, relieves tension and warms the body. Treatment is completed with a tub soak and an ultra moisturizing massage - all together it is a full hour of indulging! I'll let you know later on of how it turned out to be.
Second- I wanted to be online for a bit - addicted to Internet as I am :) It is just so difficult with Internet elsewhere (outside Estonia), this is something that always gets me by surprise.

I also stopped by Nikkis workplace - city courthouse. Unfortunately she was quite busy during the day so I was not able to get a tour. Perhaps some other day. I'll go and get a nice homemade sub for lunch now, accompanied by raspberry italian cream soda :) Yumm, things are getting crossed of on my list one by one :)

7-8.02 Minnesota: St.Paul, Duluth and Virginia

Saturday evening turned out to be a blast. 2 hour nap in the afternoon saved me from the regular coma that comes after staying awake for 36 hours in a row. Some of Mare's friends gathered at the apartment in the afternoon - by the evening there was a nice crowd of 9 people. We ended up taking a bus and city train to downtown St.Paul. Lots of dancing followed. Luckily the bars and clubs close here at 2am, otherwise I think we would have been up till the morning and I would have had to head directly to the airport :-P Getting back was a challenge though. We tried to get a cab for about 30 minutes, it felt like ages, standing by the side of the road and trying find a ride back home. As the whole downtown had the exact same plan as us (to get a cab) the streets were filled with people and cars creating huge traffic jams. It seemed absolutely impossible to find anything at all. In the end we just walked up to one empty cab, opened the door, sat in and demanded a ride :) It worked :) Of course only 5 of us fit there and the other bunch ended up waiting another 20 minutes. Sadly enough the had the key so we still had to wait outside once at the apartment.

Thanks to the time difference I had no trouble getting up 9am the following morning. After a quick shower Mare drove me to the airport. Surprisingly enough the whole checkin and getting through security took me only 15 minutes, that gave me plenty of time to have breakfast - missing that would have not been good at all.

Plane ride to Duluth was only 35 minutes - like a flight from Tallinn to Helsinki :) Nikki was waiting for me at the gate with two of her adorable sons: Colten and Wyatt. Colten is 2 years and 4 months and Wyatt is 8 months old. The younger one had a runny nose and an awful cough so he was not the happiest unfortunately. Older boy was shy at first but that passed quickly. Drive to Virginia Minnesota was about an hour. We covered so many topics on the way back - catching up on every possible aspect we could think of :) So great to see Nikki again!

Sunday we spent at home, just chatting and playing with the kids. Ryan was working the whole day and joined us in the evening. Got Dominos in the evening - pepperoni with cheesybread and everything! Headed to bed early. My goal is to eliminate my sleep deprivation during my stay with Nikki. As Nikki and Ryan are both working and kids are at the daycare then I have all the time to relax and rest. I have 16 movies to watch and a thick book to read :)

Arrival

Last nights strong snow fall made me nervous, visibility was very poor and I was afraid that the snow piles will grow too big for the taxi to get to my house. But all went good, got to airport nicely in time and no problems with checkin. One of my course mates was on the same plane with me to Amsterdam - whatta nice coincident. On the first flight I saw one of the most beautiful sun rises ever.

Flights were fine in general, too bad that KLM does not have electrical outlets on every seat. At least each seat had personal screen and the movie list was quite good. Now the immigration though - that was tough - the guy was asking lots of questions composed of very long sentences with complicated words, phew. All turned out just fine of course, but it was kinda scary experience nonetheless. On US side the immigration was quick and easy though. And my bag arrived just fine.

Once in Minneapolis airport, Mare was there to meet me and then Hanno and his friend arrived just 5 minutes later. So nice to see Hanno after such a long time. Mare I saw over Christmas time in Tallinn. Now we are just sitting around chatting, getting ready to go and have lunch soon. As far as I understand there will be huge party tonight - wohooo!

It is so nice to be here though! So many details remind me of college times - kinda like going back in time, this is always good :) There is the usual list of things I want to eat while here, also things I want to bring back home and some things that others want me to bring back ;)

That is it for now, we are getting ready and heading out soon. I'll try to write again soon. Oh and my dad asked me to write less about airports and other less important stuff, he said I should concentrate more on important things that I would want to remember in the future - he is right of course. And I will try to pick topics more carefully in the future :)

Lots of hugs to all of you.

Travel plans

I noticed that I have not given an overview of the travel plans. Here it is:
7.02 - St.Paul Minnesota - leaving Tallinn early morning and arriving in the cities at noon, will spend the day with Mare
8.02 - arriving in Duluth - leaving the Cities and arriving in Duluth, visiting with Nikki in Virginia Minnesota for 5 days
13.02 - leaving from Duluth, arriving in Kahului - spending the next 6 days in Hawaii, island of Maui
17.02 - luau :) - celebrating my friends birthday the Hawaiian way!
20.02 - Honolulu - spending the day in Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, leaving close to midnight to head back home
20.02-22.02 - spending couple of days on planes and airports on my way back home, arriving in Tallinn in the evening

:)