When I went to Hawaii one of the coolest things I did was check out the live volcano. To this day it was one of the most awesome sights I’ve ever witnessed. Seeing a mountainside with liquid hot magma pouring out of it was enough to make Dr. Evil proud.

Well, since none of us has all night to watch lava make it’s way down a mountain, someone was kind enough to film a lava flow throughout the night and then speed it up for us. So here is a time lapse video taken on the Big Island of Hawaii for your viewing pleasure.
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And now I present for your viewing pleasure about 20 minutes of off-road footage shot during our vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii.

This is all Point-of-View videography, so you’re more or less seeing what we saw when we were driving - at least through the front window. The way I accomplished this was to use a small clamp-on camera mount combined with my Panasonic FX07 digital camera.

The camera has optical image stabilization, so the ride doesn’t look quite as bumpy as it actually was.
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Waikoloa Village is basically a subdivision on the Big Island of Hawaii that has a wide variety of housing units ranging from single family homes, to condos, to high end hotels. Among the hotels is the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and this is where I spent the week on my recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii. (View in Google Earth. What is Google Earth?)

The hotel is ideally located for branching out to explore all the various parts of the island, and the facilities are enormous. 64 acres of highly manicured grounds complete with a private bay, swimming pools, and even a dolphin habitat. With over 1,200 rooms, this is a large hotel by any measure. A local man told me that the property was originally developed by a Japanese company for $360 Million, but later sold at a huge loss for $90 Million to Hilton.

Although the hotel is basically a Disneyland for adults, there are some critical flaws which greatly detract from it as a serious vacation destination. At the same time, there is some great stuff to see and do… like swim with the dolphins!
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I happen to have been invited to attend a very special Cisco Systems awards banquet during which Pat Monahan (lead singer of the Grammy winning band Train) did a private concert for the roughly 400 people in attendance. Seeing how I was sitting 10 feet from Pat and I happened to have my little camera with me I filmed a couple of songs (hope you don’t mind my sharing this one Pat!).

Now, before you get to watch the video I have to share the funny story behind the video. Seal was originally scheduled to perform at this event, but one day before he called in sick. It just so happens that Pat was on his honeymoon one island over on Maui, and somehow the event organizers managed to talk him into taking a break from his new wife to entertain this group. Clearly the only reason for someone to do this would be because he’s just a nice guy and willing to help out in a crisis. Thanks Pat!
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During my recent visit to Maui, Hawaii I spent the better part of a day traveling along the famous road to Hana. For those of you that are unaware, it’s one of the most famous drives in the world.

According to the T-Shirt, we’re talking about:

617 curves, 56 bridges, 52 miles and 3 hours

… of non-stop driving fun. Of course, the whole point of the Road to Hana is the drive, not the destination.
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While on Maui for three days I stayed at the Maui Coast Hotel in Kihei. I did all the standard research, starting with their Web site, I also checked TripAdvisor and it got a 4.0.

They had a special for a one room suite for $175 / night, which is a great rate on Maui. The hotel is only 3 miles from the Four Seasons, Hilton and Marriott so I reasoned that it would be worth saving 50% and just driving around. Plus there are beaches right near the Maui Coast Hotel as well.

Unfortunately all the logic in the world won’t turn the Maui Coast into a good deal.
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During my recent stay at the Four Seasons Resort on the island of Lana’i, I had the opportunity to spend a little time with a small group getting personal instruction on the art of the Mai Tai from none other than the Four Seasons’ head Beverage Manager, Mike.

He was kind enough to allow me to film his lecture, though I don’t imagine he had any idea that tens of thousands of people might be watching it in the next week or so! Anyway, this is a fantastic drink and if you study up and make it for your friends you’ll be a rock star!
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While vacationing in Lanai one of the activities I chose to partake in was horseback riding. Although I stayed at the Four Seasons Resort at Manele Bay, the sister property, Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, offers a full featured equestrian center called The Stables at Koele.

The Stables (tel. 808/565-4424) offer various rides, including group rides which they describe as “a slow, gentle walk”, starting at $65 for a 1 1/2-hour trip. The good news is that it was “slow”. The bad news is that it was not “gentle”.
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During my recent trip to Lanai, Hawaii we stayed at the Five Star Four Seasons Resort Lana’i at Manele Bay (View in Google Earth. What is Google Earth?) where each of the 249 suites average 700 square feet and feature private balconies, original artwork, and marble baths.

This hotel is expensive. The kind where if you have to ask how much, you probably don’t want to know. In fact, Maui Revealed says:

You’ll be forgiven if you start to wonder if Lana’i is the Hawaiian word for, “It costs how much”

So the question is, is it worth it?
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I began my two week vacation to the Hawaiian Islands on Monday. During the trip I’ll be visiting Lanai, Maui and The Big Island with reviews, photos and even a few videos to follow. So, if you’re stuck at work for the next two weeks but would like to take a virtual vaction, feel free to live vicariously through my travels.

I arrived at DFW airport a bit early, so since there was time to kill I did it in the travel lounge. Terminal D has every airline lounge imaginable, so being a member of the Priority Pass program I stopped by the club for some refreshments and relaxation.

The lounge in terminal D is quite nice with lots of free snacks, drinks, and good work space. There were only a couple of other people in the club at the time so it was very quite. It also had some great views of the runway and airplanes, and I snapped this shot from the club.
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My wife and I were planning on accompanying my brother and soon to be sister-in-law to the Big Island of Hawaii in June, and as a result I did quite a bit of planning for the trip. Being cost efficient is important to all of us, but making sure we end up with decent accommodations at a good value is possibly even more important.

I thought I would document my search methodology in case it helped others to find and book their travel online. Please note that I am very meticulous when it comes to travel planning. I’m picky about where I stay, how I get there, and want to know what I’m going to do while I’m there. I even make printouts and carry a small binder with me. Anal, I know… but it works for me.
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Since my family is planning on taking a trip to Hawaii in a few months I was thinking about the things to see and do on the big island. Now, I’ve been there before and one of the highlights of the trip for me was going to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and watching the lava flow.

If you’ve never seen it in person, I highly recommend you book a trip to do so! This is one of the most awe inspiring things in nature. When the liquid hot magma reaches the surface and becomes lava it is up to 2,200 degrees (1,200 C). For the sake of comparison, the gas forge I use for Blacksmithing will get up to about that temperature and if you leave a piece of steel inside at that temperature it will literally carbonize the steel (think burn the steel to a powder).
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