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Dr. Robert Runté on popular culture, education, and life. Recent Posts
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The Princess, The Mermaid, and Their Hot Air Ballon by Tigana Runté March 2003 Blog Indexes:
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Hawaii: Left over photo As an aside on the trip, I find it fascinating how digital has changed how kids deal with photography, scenery, and trips. When I was a kid, I didn't get a camera until about 12 or 13, and then just enough film and flashbulbs to take maybe 12 pictures. And you waited a couple of months to find out how your pictures came out because you couldn't see the first ones until you took the last picture on the roll, and then another couple of weeks for processing. (Admittedly, I'm old, and things had improved a bit by the time digital was phasing out film.) But today, Kasia can have a cheap digital camera at age 4; her camera shows her what she took immediately, and she can take about 5000 photos with the memory chip I got her without any further investment in film or processing. Tigana, at age nine, has developed quite an interest in architecture because she has been photographing it since she was six. We first loaned Tigana a digital camera when touring Casa Loma years ago, on what was going to be a fairly hopeless attempt to interest her in family history (her great grandfather had worked there back in the day) and it was a revelation to us how having the ability to take pictures suddenly engaged her in the tour. Instead of being bored, she proved an excellent photographer and set out to document her journey. The ability to constantly experiment with the camera and to receive instant feedback must imply that these kids will have a fundamentally different experience of photography and (hopefully, though I recognize, not necessarily) get a lot better at it a lot faster than anyone in my generation could. Hawaii: Sunsets and Rainbows The licence plates say, "rainbow state" and it's no exaggeration. I don't think that there was a single day that went by that we didn't see one or more spectacular rainbows. But they could also have called it the sunset state (though I suppose some of the connotations there are not quite as good!) because every night had a spectacular sunset too.   Labels: Hawaii Kasia's Song"Anywhere you go,Anywhere you go, Anywhere you go, There you are!" She sings this one a lot. So I asked her about it and she said, "You'll have to talk to my people." "Your people" I asked. She pointed to her shelf of 'My Little Ponies'. "Those are my people. You need to check with them." So I'm thinking maybe we have spoilt the kids a little with these vacations in Hawaii and staying in conference hotels etc, that they are starting to think of themselves as upper class. So I said to Mary we have to take our kids camping for the next vacation, or maybe a Motel 6 kind of level. "Let's do the camping," Mary replied. "At least then the bugs belong there...." Labels: Kasia Cruise: Other Passengers One of the things I found intriguing about the cruise was studying the other passengers. There were any number of middle class businessmen and their families as one would expect, but I also noted some others who seemed, um... well, to have more colorful careers. I am sure the two Russian families and the Colombians were probably insurance agents or some such, but the two bikers wearing full colors were, well, bikers. And I couldn't help noticing that the bikers were exceedingly polite to the Russian and Colombian families. Made you wonder, you know? And then there was the very muscular black guy who never smiled and had a tattoo of a seal on his arm -- navy seal maybe? He had the build and the security guy look, and we are talking Hawaii with its major naval bases, so not entirely implausible. But this guy kept looking this way and that like someone doing a threat assessment, but he's, you know, in a hot tub on a cruise ship, not guarding the president. And did I mention he never smiled, even though accompanied by his wife and child? I overhead his wife ask him in the hot tub, "Aren't you glad you came, now?" to which he replied, "Whatever. Just so long as you're happy." It was kind of sad. I mean, he was undoubtedly sincere in wanting to provide his wife with the vacation she wanted, but he was so obviously bored/doing it for her sake, that he was clearly bringing her down...would it have killed him to pretend that he was enjoying himself? Not only would it have made for a much better time for her and the child, but he might have enjoyed himself more. And in the dinning room, there was the huge Japanese family, obviously sponsored by the patriarch who was enjoying himself immensely, and everybody was happy happy happy -- except the one daughter-in-law who was the picture of misery. Part of me is thinking, 'go with the flow -- you're in Hawaii, it's warm, the food is decent, how bad can granddad be?' but of course, I guess it can be very bad.... Judging by her unguarded expression, she'd pretty much rather be anywhere else in the world than at that table. Though she would make an effort to look engaged if anyone looked at her, which they mostly didn't. Saddest of all was the one older lady who must once have been a beauty but whose current excesses of makeup, hair, and clothing suggested a combination of denial and desperation that was not becoming. I occasionally saw her seated with a large family grouping, so obviously along as someone's grandmother or aunt, but she spent most of her time alone, supposedly sunning on the deck, but like my navy seal, continually scanning the deck for someone or something: Potential prospects or wondering where the rest of the family was, I couldn't say. But I never saw her enjoying herself...even amongst the family, she seemed an obvious outsider. And, I suppose it should have come as no surprise that several of the kids on the ship were little monsters. I know my girls are spoilt, but I like to believe that they are not yet spoilt rotten. But several of the youngsters on this trip had obvious social problems -- bullying being the most predictable and common. These kids had a sense of entitlement that went beyond expectation to the fundamental belief that they were better than anyone else, and that all other kids should pay them homage. At the other end of the scale was a girl slightly older than Tigana who wore a constant frown, and cringed from any motion in her vicinity, and had victim written in block letters on her forehead. Watching her enter the other kids' sphere of influence was like watching a bather enter a pool of piranha. Tigana was mostly oblivious to these interactions, gravitating naturally to the one or two other nice girls, or when they weren't around, complaining to me that the other kids available were ignoring her. Well, that worked for me: I was just as happy that she wasn't hanging out with these jerks. In particular I recall one stereotypical fat-boy bully holding court in the hot tub while half a dozen girls hung on his every word, and two lesser males took up station behind either arm. They're like 11 and 12 years old and already playing out their life scripts. Very, very sad. Cruise:Trip HomeThe ship docked early in the morning, but we didn't have to leave until about 9AM to get to the airport for our 11AM flight home. Another advantage of our penthouse status was not having to line up for departure at a designated time, like everybody else, but just go when we wanted, knowing that our bags would be waiting in the VIP section whenever we came down. Mary had arranged for a limo to pick us up, on the grounds that it only cost $10 more than the regular shuttle bus, and as long as we were living the life of the rich and famous, we really ought to go all out.Arriving at the airport, we discovered that our flight was delayed three hours -- which meant that we could not possibly make our one-hour connection in Vancouver. The Air Canada desk hadn't even opened yet, and when it finally did, they weren't able to do anything for us anyway -- all they could tell us was to check with the desk in Vancouver...which of course meant we would have to leave the secure area with our luggage after leaving customs and start from scratch -- at midnight on December 22, so, basically, hopeless. So Mary, having watched far too many episodes of Amazing Race, got on her cellphone to Air Canada in Canada, and managed to book a flight for us out of Vancouver at 10 the next morning, and booked a night at the Fairmount (airport hotel in Vancouver) before the rest of our flight had even cleared the initial lineup in Hawaii. We then went off for a leisurely lunch in the airport, browsed through a bookstore, set the kids up watching a movie on the computer, and generally found ways to kill three hours. We still were the first to arrive at the gate (once it opened for our flight --security conscious American airports don't let you sit down until the previous flight has departed). We approached the desk about getting seats together (they had randomly slotted us in, so we were separated from the kids) and the attendants efficiently issued us new boarding passes so we were all together. The trip was okay for me as I took care of Tigana; bit more challenging for Mary keeping Kasia entertained. We arrived in Vancouver at midnight and were funneled into an enormous line-up for immigration/customs. There must have been a 1000 people ahead of us as the Christmas rush maxed out every flight, and there were only three windows open as immigration was down to the Christmas-week-midnight skeleton crew. It took about an hour to get to the head of the line, and about 30 seconds to be processed. But after hours on the plane, and hours more in the airport awaiting our delayed flight, we were all very tired. And I knew I was in trouble when I heard a little voice from knee-level saying, "Daddy, I don't want to stand here any more." Pointing out that nobody was enjoying standing in line; that we had to stand in the line to get home; that it was probably against the law to leave the line; and the importance of not wandering off, joining another family, and never seeing us again, did not seem to help Kasia comprehend that she had to stand in line and that there was nothing really we could do about it. So after the 50th repetition of "I don't want to stand here any more", she apparently felt her message was not getting through, and so felt the need to punctuate the comment with a fist to my leg. "Daddy! I do NOT want to stand here any more." *Punch* "Hey, stop that! That is not constructive. Look, I've explained that there is nothing -- ouch!" So the last thirty minutes or so of the wait is punctuated by the rhythm of a tiny fist hitting my leg at regular intervals. The expression on Kasia's face is not angry or tantruming or anything of the sort, just this tired determination to be heard and her problem addressed. (Tigana, it must be said, was dealing with the situation like the seasoned traveler she is, and was helpful and cheerful throughout the journey home -- aside from the entirely understandable chorus of "I don't want to go home, I want to stay in Hawaii!".) So. It was probably a good thing that Mary had booked the Fairmount, so we could crash immediately, rather than trying to continue on that night, as did so many others from our delayed flight. Having so many people miss their connections, they put on extra flights at 3AM, which would have meant arriving in Calgary at 5AM. Followed by a two hour car ride home to Lethbridge -- well, actually it's a three hour drive from the Calgary airport, but I doubt that we would have made it all the way in the condition we were in. Once through customs (25 seconds, thankfully, after clearing immigration) and a very long walk from the International Terminal to the Air Canada windows to confirm that we were still booked on the 10AM flight the next morning (we feared that they might have been cancelled, given the provision of the extra night flight) we went to our hotel room and slept for five hours. In keeping with the rest of the trip, the Fairmount room was extravagant (not that we actually paid more than what a normal room would have cost) and Next morning, onto the plane and home. Off the plane, Mary takes the kids to the washroom and collects our baggage, while I zip out to the Park and Fly lot to retrieve the car. Which is stone dead. I discover the dome light has been left on. So, I call the CAA, and a truck eventually shows up to provide a boost. But it is definitely fortuitous that we didn't arrive at 5AM -- as Air Canada would have planned it for us -- to find our car dead. Cruise: Kauai We spent the morning on the beach at Kauai. Tigana met another girl from the cruise her own age and they become fast friends, playing together happily. I was amazed both kids could be on the same ship for a week and only meet the last day, but I guess the girl and her mom had taken advantage of all the excursions and had spent relatively little time on board. Back on board in the late afternoon, we took the kids to a Pizza party organized by the Kids Crew, then watched the scenary as the ship pulled out.  Kauai has the best scenary of trip (not that my little pocket camera is up to taking it in), the ship making a point of going along the Northern coast while a Hawaiian cultural representative provided a commentary on history, etc., before turning back to its route home.  We then took the kids to the Kids Crew for PJ night; Mary and I had planned a romantic dinner on the balcony, but we had to cancel due to inclement weather (major winds), so ended up just eating in the buffet.  We got back to the room to find the cutest towel animal so far. The stewart had left a big towel animal (hare or antelope?) prominently displayed which drew our immediate attention, so the second one went almost unnoticed…thus adding to the sense of a mouse sneaking out of the bed!  Highlight of the day was when Mary took Tigana back to see W.T. Greer in the piano bar and he invited her up to sing with her. Getting to sing with a professional in front of an audience was a thrill for Tigana. Nice of Greer to pick up on her singing aspirations and to say she had talent. KauaiMy birthday today, so feeling a bit old.Mary gave me the morning off again as a birthday present, so I spent the morning writing while Mary took the kids to the beach. Writing on a balcony in Hawaii could quickly become addictive, and I started telling Mary she really should apply to the University of Hawaii -- and I'd just take early retirement and write. We spent the afternoon aboard ship again at the pool, and I again had an afternoon of mixed terror and pride as Kasia taught herself how to swim.  Ate at Little Italy again with kids for my birthday dinner, and this time we had excellent service from Anthony the waiter (who was everything our previous waiter had not been). Then the kids wanted Kids Crew, leaving Mary and I to wander the deck, a nice birthday activity. We took in the singer, W. T. Greer, in the Pink Champaign Lounge, and he was so good Mary eventually fetched Tigana out of Kids Crew to hear him. Tigana was duly impressed when she requested a song (God Bless the child) and he was able to sing it without benefit of actually having the words or music to hand. Cruise: towel animalsLike baloon animals, only made out of towels. The steward would leave these for us on the beds when he came to turn down the beds each evening. Unfortunately, the pictures of the early towel creatures were among those that I lost fooling with the camera settings. But here are a couple that I was able to retake. Towel Elephant    Towel cool dog. Cruise: KonaKona is a tender port, which means there is no dock,and you have to go ashore aboard the cruise ship's tenders –actually three of the powered lifeboats, each of which holds 60 people or so. Once again, our elevated status as residents of a suite meant that we got to skip the line-ups and board the tenders whenever, rather than wait for an assigned section. Ah the joys of being rich -- or at any rate, living like we were rich. rear view of a tender mounted on the cruise ship as a lifeboat We spent the morning shopping in the local artisan market, buying various knick knacks, etc., and wandering around the town. The highlight was eating snow cones (I use the Canadian expression somewhat loosely, since they are in no way equivalent) at Scandicanian Shaved Ice. The 'small' size was the size of Kasia's head; the medium that Mary and I shared was roughly the size of a basketball. Each ball of shaved ice comes with three flavourings (from a choice of about 30 exotic flavours) and Kasia asked for 'rainbow' so the lady layered red, yellow and blue flavorings to produce a five color rainbow (e.g., blue + yellow = green); we ordered ours with chocolate Macademia nut ice cream in the center. These are unlike anything we have ever had before, and an obvious must have in any warm climate. Mary and I told the owner that they ought to franchise their invention (the ice machine etc) and she told us that they had made arrangements to franchise but the franchise organizers had insisted on their being in business at least one whole year before they went public -- so that they could have a 'year plan' laid out for the franchisees and to demonstrate that the theory actually worked, etc. Time's up in March, so if anyone is looking for a failsafe summer franchise.... Unfortunately, I accidently erased all the photos of the shaved ice, the tenders (I had some great close ups of the interior, operating instructions etc that I intended to work into my novel) and the local sights when I had some free time to experiment with the camera settings. Tigana was a tiny bit exasperated with me. "Dad, even I know you down load all the pictures before fiddling with the settings on a new camera, and I'm nine! Duh!" well, what can I say? But it was a very relaxed and enjoyable day. Cruise: Maui: day two breakfast on the balconyWe have breakfast in out on our balcony most mornings, brought by the butler. Well, we have to find something for the butler to do. And it cuts down the number of meals in restaurants we have to have with the kids. At age four, one restaurant meal a day is about the limit of Kasia's good behavior. So we have a good breakfast, some kind of snack around 1 or 2; then supper. I have generally enjoyed the ship’s food, though I am lead to understand by more experienced cruisers that the food is not up to the usual standard, especially in the premium dinning rooms which require reservations and additional cover charges. I found they tended to fall down on some of the tiny details that distinguish five star restaurants. For example, I was twice handed menus where grease stains obscured portions of the page, which one wouldn’t expect in anything above a roadside diner; and the Italian restaurant provided quite poor service, screwing up the order (forgetting some items, bringing appetizers with the main course, bringing kids food after the adults; kids’ drinks appearing just in time for desert, etc.). Mary found the food in the premium dinning rooms a bit predictable, lacking complexity of five star dining.  the infamous espresso machineSimilarly, there are very minor problems with the suite. The chief annoyance for Mary is that her upgraded espresso machine doesn’t actually work – the first day it ground the beans and dispensed a fresh cup, but has refused to work ever since. A regular drip peculator that actually worked would have been better. I noticed that there was supposed to be a glass door between the toilet and the washbasin, though it’s absence is not a major issue since we just close the door to the bathroom. Anyway, after breakfast, Kasia went to Kid's Crew, and Mary and Tigana went shopping in Maui, while I took the morning off staying on board to process pictures, blog, and so on.  Kid's Crew facilityHaving spent the previous week with just us, Kasia has missed Montessori school and interaction with her peers and so has begged more time in KidsClub on board the cruise ship. Mary, ever the stragetic planner, anticipated this reaction and planned our trip to end on the cruise precisely so the kids would let us get a few evenings to ourselves. The 2 to 5 year old club seems to do a lot of very simple stuff that really engages the kids, such as dressing up as clowns (“circus night”) or superheros (“superhero night”) and then parading through the ship in costume. (The same procedure seems to work well with the 21-30 crowd who are similarly marched through the ship by their wranglers wearing Hawaiian shirts and shouting “pub crawl”.) When I had to pull Kasia out of KidsClub “bluesclues mystery morning” yesterday for our Whale Watching Cruise, she was quite put out. In the afternoon, Tigana entered one of the cruise director's contests and won a medal for "best splash", beating a 150lb kid. There followed several hours of swimming, and in the evening Mary and I fed the kids, dropped them off (at their insistence) at Kid's Crew again, and ate a satisfactory dinner at the Lazy J steakhouse, another of the ships upcharge restaurants. This time the service was excellent, the steaks so-so -- but then, we're from Alberta, so it is hard to meet our standards for steak.  Ship's poolThe kids love swimming in the pools, a mixed blessing from my non-swimmer’s viewpoint. Kasia has taken to throwing herself off the edge and swimming lengths, a process somewhat complicated by the fact that she can’t actually swim. But she has made impressive progress in the last two weeks towards actual swimming, diving fearlessly to touch the bottom of the pool, then surfacing on her own for air, then going under to splash forward a couple of feet, then up for air, etc. until she has traversed the pool. She just needs occasionally to grasp some handy fixture (usually my conveniently placed arm) to pull herself up when she has miscalculated and needs to come up for air immediately, and I’m just not certain that she has realized that she can’t always count on something being there if Mary or I are not in the pool with her. I have endeavored not to allow her to see my constant state of terror during these activities, however, as I have no wish for her to inherit my paralyzing fear of water. But maybe a little common sense anxiety would be better than her fearless overconfidence?  in one of the ship's 4 hot tubsPart of Kasia's problem, the Basils suggested, is that her earlier experiences with reflex anoxic seizures has taught her that if you stop breathing it is okay because you just start up again a couple of minutes later. That this does not actually apply under water may not have quite penetrated. I also worry when Kasia tries to throw herself off the side of the pool into the freezing water before I can get to the pool, since one of the triggers for RAS is sudden cold water on the face. (Though Kasia has been seizure-free for a couple of years now....but it's not the sort of thing you want to risk in a pool.) Cruise: Maui: Whale WatchingTook Prince Kuhio Maui-Molokai whale watching tour. The tour shuttles arrived at the dock at the precise moment scheduled, and the rest of the trip was equally efficient. The crew appeared genuinely interested in both whales and our safety; the onboard concession was dirt cheap and so good Kasia ate two hotdog combos, an unheard of intake at a single sitting, and that after a good sized breakfast. The tour started with an orientation by the company’s naturalist, Katie, who was superb! I learned more about humpbacks in that 15 minutes than from any PBS special, and somehow seeing the whale’s tail spread out before you in person has a lot more impact than seeing something on TV.  There were also two volunteers from the Whale Sanctuary on board to assist the naturalist, and they did a great job of floating around the boat answering questions as they occurred to us, as Katie provided intermittent commentary over the speaker system. Both of the volunteers were drawn to Tigana’s fanaticism regarding shark conservation, and consequently spent a disproportionate amount of the trip talking to my girls. (Most of the others on the boat seemed less interested in availing themselves of this resource, and entirely focused on getting pictures of the whales.)   We did see several whales, though I wasn’t able to get pictures. I saw the first whale’s tail climb out of the water, splash down, and then –sorry if this sounds a bit mystical – could feel the whale turn and swim by the boat, while everyone else looked off in the wrong direction. I kept wanting to watch where I “felt’ the whale’s presence, but the captain steered off in the opposite direction, until the whale was out of range – but I could feel here out there. It was very strange. That was followed by a couple of other really good sightings of whale pairs. A very successful outing, in my view. The trip was slightly nerve wracking for me, though, as I was in charge of Kasia for the first half of the trip, and she kept insistinig on wandering around the ship leaning agains the much too short -- in my father’s-eye-view – railing. When the whales actually showed up, they caught her interest, and then she cuddled up to one of the sanctuary volunteers and fell asleep on her lap.  Cruise: Hilo: AnniversaryDecember 16th was our 10th Anniversary, so we dumped the kids in the "kid's Crew" babysitting for the evening, and had a quiet dinner for just the two of us. We chose La Bistro, one of the premier restaurants on the ship that require an upcharge, but although the food was decent --especially the French onion soup -- it could not compare with the meal at La Mer a few nights earlier. Or Roy's. Or the Thai restaurant. Okay, not really fair comparisons since we had chosen the Honolulu restaurants based on the Basil's recommendations and they were all top restaurants in their categories, but one expects cruise ships to be top too. I'd rate La Bistro as equivalent to what you'd find in a Westin Hotel, so good, but missing some of the finer details --e.g., crème brulee was not the correct temperature and therefore right consistency. But nevertheless, a nice romantic dinner, especially given that we were on a cruise in Hawaii.  Cruise: Hilo: Volcano National ParkMary had booked a tour of Volcano National Park for our Hilo stop as a treat for me -- visiting a volcano has been a lifelong ambition of mine. She booked the tour through Roberts rather than the more expensive version through the Cruise line. Unfortunately, Roberts loaded about 8 other tour buses first, so our tour left 45 minutes late. Since the driver was still required to have everyone back at the ship on time, our time at each stop was very attenuated -- e.g., only 20 minutes at the Volcano museum which was just long enough to line up for the bathrooms, but not long enough to see any of the actual exhibits. It was extremely frustrating for a museum-loving guy like me. Similarly, the stop en route at the Manua Loa Macadamia nut factory was a bit of a bust because the factory was closed on Sundays, and there was not sufficient time allotted to take the self-tour (windows into the factory with video commentary in 6 languages), just time to shop in the gift shop for ice cream. Another minor annoyance is that during the drive back to the ship the driver decided to sing off-color Don Ho songs -- since half the bus consisted of young kids, I'm not sure the sexual innuendo was the best choice.But those complaints not withstanding, the highlight of the tour was a walk through a lava tube and the visit to the crater. Pretty damn amazing!
Cruise: The ShipI was surprised by (a) how big the cruise ship was, and by (b) how much stuff was crammed into the ship. In addition to the many restaurants, there was a chapel, a cultural center (with displays on Hawaiian history), a large library, a games room, an Internet room (prohibitively expensive though: 75 cents a minute for very slow access -- I did not avail myself of it, in spite of serious withdrawal symptoms); a large central atrium with grand staircase and glass elevators, and so on. Caddilac dinner  Cultural Center  games room  Library  Another view of the library  The Grand Staircase  The ship deck at night Cruise: The SuiteWe started the day with our second breakfast at Eggs 'N things, again luckily arriving just before the big line ups.The Cross-Cultural Research Conference was over by noon, and we were off to the cruise portion of our trip. Woohoo!  Now, as mentioned previously, the whole idea of adding a cruise to our trip came up when Mary tried to book the Superferry to one of the other islands, the idea being that we would work at Wiakiki, and then keep our vacation portion psychologically separate by going to a completely different island. But the Superferry had been forced to cease operations while environmental impact studies were undertaken, so looking around for alternatives, Mary found a bargin curise offer. Well, we rather liked the idea of checking into one additional hotel, and then having it move from island to island while we slept so we could get a really good sampling of Hawaii. And Mary had always wanted to go on a cruise, so I agreed that that would be a very suitable way for us to spend our 10th anniversary. [Between you and me, this was a huge relief because it is my understanding that the male is supposed to do the anniversary planning, and I am completely hopeless at this sort of thing. I had bought the Dummies Guide to Cruises about a year before thinking that that might be a nice surprise gift for our anniversary (shamelessly stealing the idea from a colleague) and was thinking about the Disney cruise, but in hiding the book from Mary, had completely lost it and the idea until about October, at which point Mary already had Hawaii pretty much worked out. Given my previous track record on significant birthdays and anniversaries, had the Hawaiian option not presented itself, I’m guessing we would have pretty much have ended up with the Family Deal at our local Tim Horton’s. Oh, wait, Tim Horton’s doesn’t have a family deal. Well, something. Um, our anniversary is December 16th for sure, though, right?] So Mary discussed various heavily researched options with me and we agreed to go for the additional expense of an outside room with a window as opposed to a porthole or an inside cabin with no view, given various bloggers’/reviewer’s comments about claustrophobia and so on. Mary chose the queen sized bed with two fold down bunk bed option to accommodate all of us. And then….having booked the room, the travel agent phoned with an upsell: Would we be interested in an upgrade from our current cabin to a larger one with a balcony for $X. Mary explained that upsells were a standard procedure in the cruise business, and that it was common for people to sit by the phone hoping for a call offering an upgrade to the next level or occasionally a couple of levels, for half or less of the usual differential. Well, suspicious though I generally am of bait and switch marketing, it sounded like a significant improvement, and what the hell, it was our 10th anniversary and we had promised not to buy other anniversary gifts or significant Christmas gifts this year, so I told her to go for it.  Main room, showing hideabed, seating, big screen TV, corner of Queen bed (588 square feet)It was only when the phrase “your butler” entered the conversation that we began to appreciate just how good a deal we had gotten. They had bumped us up not the usual one or two levels, but twelve (from Category N on deck 4 to Category AD on deck 10). The only level higher than the one we were now in is the “owner’s suite”, and it isn’t available for four people, so this was as high as it was possible for us to go. And way beyond what we would have been prepared to pay, 10th anniversary or no.  kids on main bed; birthday decorations are for my birthday which fell on the trip, as did our 10th anniversaryWhen Mary showed me the comparison on the ship's website, I couldn’t believe it. Well, I couldn’t believe I had agreed to the original room when she showed me the picture (click on "virtual tour" for "category N" bottom of the page), because I hadn’t appreciated that “queen bed” translated as “no actual floor space left” or that “fold down bed” meant “fold down over top of the queen bed” so your face is two feet from bottom of kid’s bunk. That original cabin looked very much tinnier in the photo than I had visualized when Mary said it. But as for the room we got!  'study/work' area Our balcony which was actually larger than our originally booked cabin (188 square feet to 144) (And as previously mentioned, ignore date stamp on photos-- I was using a new camera and hadn't yet figured out how to change the date or turn stamp off.)   Walk-in closet/luggage area Corner of the bathroom; basically big as any hotel bathroom with full bath/shower, separate toilet stall (not shown). For a virtual tour click on category AD "Penthouse suite" -- the room shown differed from ours only in being reversed left to right and having a regular coffee machine instead of our (supposed) upgraded expresso machine. Along with the upgraded suite came upgraded status... as residents of the suite, we automatically got our own boarding times, so when we showed up at the ship, we bypassed the huge line-up to board, and went directly to a special counter where, after being efficiently processed, we were introduced to our butler.... Pretty sweet! We also got to book reservations for any night in any of the upgraded resturants, in comparison to normal folks who could only book two nights ahead...so we were able to get everything we wanted when we wanted without issue. And so on. Nice to see how the other half (well, half of one percent) live. Oahu: Honolulu: LaundryIn preparation for our move to the cruise ship, I dropped all our dirty laundry off at the Laundromat a couple of blocks away and paid a minor service charge (about what the Hilton charges for cleaning a single shirt) for them to do the washing for me while I went back to the conference. After the conference, I collected the laundry --now wrapped in a see-through plastic package (so customers could tell which was theirs) about a cubic meter in size -- and returned to the hotel.Standing at the elevators of the Tapa tower, I observed two young executive types walk into the lobby. As one turned to go one way, the other started to join me at the elevators. "Where are you going," asked the first fellow, "we're over here" indicating a lesser tower. Somewhat sheepishly, he replied that "They've bumped me up to Gold Executive for some reason. I'm here now." The other executive looked seriously taken aback. "What? Well, what floor are you on then?" "The 35th." (That's the top floor.) "Oh, we're on the top floor now are we?" responds the other exec, half mocking, but perhaps just the tiniest bit threatened to find his colleague being treated differently. "Getting all high and mighty are we? Middle of the tower not good enough for us any more, hey? The new golden boy are we?" and so on until the elevator came to whisk us away. Mostly it seemed good hearted ribbing, but.... So there's just the two of us in the elevator, me on the 34th and the executive going to 35. Slightly embarrassed by the exchange prior to boarding the elevator, he tries to make conversation with me. "Doing some laundry then?" he asks, innocently enough. 'Yeah," I say in a mock-bitter voice, "down on the 34th floor we have to do our own laundry, not like you Gold Executive types up on the 35th floor!" The elevator doors snick open, and I step out and as the doors close, I hear this faint "I have to do my own laundry! I think. don't I?" Okay, it was a bit mean, but when god hands you a set up like that, you just have to go with it. Oahu: Waikiki: Doctors on CallBreakfast was at Eggs 'N Things, a highly recommended restaurant a few blocks from the Hilton; we would certainly add our endorsement. And we were lucky, arriving just before the big rush, so we hardly had to wait. The portions were huge, more than I can eat (rarely the case for me), and the choice of half a dozen different fruit syrups made the kids happy with their pancakes.Tigana (and her friend Lisa Basil) went off for a surfing lesson, one of the highlights of the trip for Tigana. I don't have photos because my little digital pocket camera could not possibly pick them out on the ocean, but Lisa's dad tells me he got some good shots with his telescopic lens, so I'll add those here when I get them. And then I sent Mary to the pharmacy for my medicine, only to discover my over the counter drugs were prescription in the US. So, I suddenly needed to see a doctor. As this was after the conference, the Hilton's on-site clinic had already closed (4:30) so I asked where I could find the nearest clinic, and the night manager gave me the number for Doctors on Call. This was a very slick operation. I phoned the number and the receptionist asked where I was staying and directed me to a bus stop on the Hilton grounds. Ten minutes later, a Doctors on Call van pulls up and drives me off to the clinic. Once there, I have to wait about an hour in an over-air-conditioned waiting room, but that's pretty much par for the course anywhere. The paperwork was very straightforward and I noticed them processing people in English and Japanese with equal ease. When the doctor saw me, it took him about 60 seconds to confirm that I needed my prescription, and before I could even ask where the nearest pharmacy was, they had already dispensed the drugs, processed my credit card, and had me back in the van and on my way back to the Hilton. I was pretty impressed. Every city needs one of these! If you have ever wandered around trying to find an after hours clinic in a strange city, you'll appreciate how brilliant it is having them come get you. One side benefit of the round trip to the clinic was that I got to see a lot more of Honolulu after dark. We were mainly driving on the main thoroughfares, so I got a good sense of Honolulu night life, at least at street level, and my first impression was very positive. People seemed to feel safe walking around after dark, the lights were bright and inviting, and everybody seemed to be enjoying the party, as it were. Considering this was the middle of winter, I could get used to the casual short sleeve evening stroll. With the kids on this trip, that is about as much of Honolulu night life I was going to get to see. Mary, meanwhile, had to manage the our kids plus the Basil's two kids, this being our turn to cover for the Basils as they ate out. Mary organized a pizza party for the four kids, then took them to watch the fireworks which I believe are a routine Friday evening event at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort. I got back in time to help tuck everyone into bed. Labels: Hawaii Cross Cultural Research Conference (continued)Given the previous blog entry, it should be no surprise that my favorite paper from today’s sessions was George R. Franke and R. Glenn Richley, Jr. (both University of Alabama) paper, “Mind the gap: The risks of bi-country comparisons in cross-cultural studies.” The basic thrust of the paper was that the very popular bicultural comparison format violates various principles of sampling and that at least 25% of the published papers using this technique were necessarily wrong. (Not that they could identify which were the wrong papers, just that given the nature of the techniques involved, statistically a quarter of the papers would have the reported relationship backwards.) Their analysis suggested that for even strong correlations, one needed a sample of at least 22 countries to ensure a reasonable statistical probability that one had depicted the relationship correctly.But even here I still had the objection that they were using “country” as a proxy for culture, which may be acceptable for homogeneous cultures such as Japan, but very problematic for Canada – does a member of the Cree first nations respond the same way as a francophone Quebecer and a Mormon from Cardston, Albertan? Somehow, I doubt it! And given the very slobby sampling techniques often used (“I wrote to 22 of my colleagues on other campuses and asked them to survey one of their classes”) I am having a lot of trouble accepting the legitimacy of most of these quantitative studies. Scientific my ass! And yet the quantitative bozos that dominate management research have the nerve to question the validity of qualitative methods? what a sham!  Above: Tigana and Kasia in Christmas sleigh on Hilton grounds, one of innumerable Christmas decorations that make little sense in Hawaii's climate... Labels: Hawaii, research methods Cross Cultural Research Conference Working day: We presented our paper at the conference, attended various other sessions. I found the presentations mixed: some were quite good, others kind of weenie. One I found kind of annoying analyzed articles on acculturation, but limited the study to three journals each in business and psychology, concluding that the majority of studies were quantitative rather than qualitative. There didn’t appear to be any rationale for the selection of the sample journals, and others in the room objected that even within business, how different journals approached acculturation could be radically different. I pointed out that sociology and anthropology might have something to say on the topic, and that those journals were more likely to have qualitative than quantitative methodologies. There just didn’t seem to be a point to such a limited analysis, which was too obviously a course assignment recycled for resume credit. I could even see the grad student doing it as a first experience at presenting at a conference, a legitimate use of conference time, in my view; but I found it pretty hard to take that the prof had added her name to this class assignment. If you’re a tenured prof and this is the best you can do, it’s a sad day. In contrast, another grad student did a conceptual presentation, which she clearly identified as preliminary and informal, a kind of surrogate candidacy experience in which she was looking for feedback from outside the small circle of her own profs to see if she was headed in a fruitful direction. I thought her ideas insightful and likely to have very far-reaching implications, and we provided what suggestions and encouragement we could. In this case, the combination of her very current lit review and the introduction of her own ideas meant we were hearing from the very cutting edge in the field, and our time amply rewarded, in spite of the preliminary nature of the research. The problem, then, is trying to distinguish between the time wasters and the relevant. Of course the peer review process is supposed to do that, but somebody signed off on that first paper, and I’ve been at other conferences without a grad student to be seen, as if no one below a PhD candidate had anything to offer. And speaking of idiot reviewers, I was kind of offended at the reviewers’ comments on our paper questioning whether our comparison of English and French Canada was truly a cross-culture paper because it wasn’t “international”. So here we are at the Cross-Cultural Research Conference, and the American ethnocentrism is so dense that they assume every nation on earth is a cultural melting pot in the American tradition. Paper after paper provided “bicultural” comparisons between two countries: US and Japan, Spain and Germany or etc. Well, I’m okay with any comparison between say “Japan” and “Korea” because those are pretty homogeneous populations. But between Canada and anybody else, I’m going to want to know about your sampling technique, because a 100 francophone respondents from Quebec are going to be saying something quite different from a 100 Anglophones from Southern Alberta! And what was laughable about many of these bicultural studies is the samples were entirely accidental convenience samples: the 60 students in the grad class the research taught on their home campus in the US and on their exchange semester in Germany. Yeah, the 50 students in an MBA class are pretty typical of all Germans, eh? I accept that the MBA sample is a reasonable proxy for managers for research on business, though I strongly suspect that the textbook learning of the MBA gets modified as they gain actual experience which is likely to result in different responses, but if the study focuses on some strictly managerial issue, I could go with it. But I constantly saw people suggesting results far beyond what the sample size or its representativeness could justify. Unusually good conference lunch (well, it is at the Hilton) and engaging conversation with a Russian graduate student studying in US on a basketball scholarship. They did come close to poisoning Mary, but I was able to recognize the shellfish in the sauce before Mary took a bite, and they very efficiently substituted a chicken dish from the neighboring conference for her. Of course, as these things always go for Mary, the chicken was in a wonderful mushroom sauce, mushrooms being her other food sensitivity, but hey, they tried. For supper, we went to Roy's (with the Basils -- we split a baby-sitter and dumped the kids for the evening). I tried raw Ahi (tuna) for the first time. I couldn't believe that this intensely delicious food was any relation to the white stuff that comes out of cans. And I can't believe that I was willingly (read 'greedily') eating up raw fish. That is so not part of my self-image. I've told people for years that I hate fish (except for salmon), but I now see that this prejudice was formed growing up on the prairies in the 1950s, before air freight allowed for anything even approximating the phrase "fresh fish". Eating week-old fish or frozen fish sticks does not come close to eating Ahi caught the same morning and marinated in Roy's special spices. I could get very used to eating at Roy's. Labels: academic integrity, Hawaii, research methods Oahu: Le MerWednesday evening we registered at the Cross-cultural Research Conference (at the Hilton where we were staying), and then Mary and I went out to supper at La Mer, a five star French restaurant recommended by the Basils (who were also kind enough to look after our kids for the evening so we could go). It was a superb meal in a superb setting with outstanding service. The second floor view out over the ocean reminded me of something out of a Bogart movie -- very Tahitian/Casablanca kind of feel. Mary and I tried dishes outside our usual comfort zone on the grounds that if you were going to try something new, it should be the five star version. (Mary and I both have horror stories of thinking we didn't like particular cuisines because our initial exposure was through a substandard example, e.g., I used to think I didn't like Thai, and Mary used to think she didn't like East Indian, etc.) Consequently, Mary ordered the goose, and I had salmon roe for the first time...Low point of the day was Mary realizing that she had lost her driver's licence and credit cards. Lost, not stolen, since no one had attempted to use them when Mary phoned the credit card company, and she fortunately still had her passport, or we would have had real trouble over the next week getting through security at the cruise ship and getting home. Labels: Hawaii Oahu: Sea Life Park (continued) In addition to the Dolphin encounter, we spent a couple of hours watching the dolphin show, touring the exhibits, and the highlight for me (second to watching Kasia with the dolphins, of course) was another interactive encounter, this time with Stingrays. Kasia and I joined Mary and Tigana wading into the stingray pool, but only Mary and Tigana snorkelled. But having the stingrays swim past and nudge me on their way to lunch was pretty darn cool. Here, Tigana watches a turtle in the reef tank. Labels: Hawaii Oahu: DolphinsHaving arranged for a shark encounter for Tigana, Mary cast around for an equivalent experience for Kasia. (Four year olds were not allowed on shark encounter, and she wouldn't have been able to snorkel anyway.) Thus, the dolphin encounter at Sea Life Park, an hour bus ride from Waikiki. I wasn't sure how Kasia would react, but she positively glowed for the whole time. It was pretty cool! And we learned that dolphins shed their skin seven times a day, to keep their skin hydrated and free from parasites etc. Consequently, their skins are incredibly soft -- "like butter", Mary says.   Honolulu Spent the day at the beach with another family attending the conference (The Basils). As former residences of Honolulu, they were able to recommend the best resturants, and we shared a superb Thai supper at one of their favorites.
Labels: Hawaii Oahu: Penguins For weeks prior to the trip, Mary had promised Tigana and Kasia the opportunity to see the Penguins in Hawaii, in reference to the movie Surf’s Up, at which I would invariably protest that there were no penguins in Hawaii, that they lived in Antarctica, and that their mom was pulling their leg. Mom would then argue back with the usual, “who you going to believe, me or Dad?” shtick, to the bemused amusement of all involved. At Turtle Bay, Mary presented the kids with two toy penguins to further confuse the issue, implying that these were the promised penguins.  Of course, the setup was based on Mary’s Internet research that the Hilton Hawaiian Village had a colony of penguins within its grounds. Thus, we conspired to find out where the penguins were located and to maneuver the kids to the compound at feeding time. It worked great (see photo of Tigana’s reaction.)  Turns out that only two species of penguins actually live at the south pole, and the others live in South Africa and South American and so on, though they are not of course native to Hawaii. Oahu: SharksTigana has long been fascinated by sharks, buying and reading every book available on the topic. Her interest in shark conservation was greatly heightened by seeing Shark Water, a documentary she highly recommends to anyone who will listen. So when Mary realized that there was an opportunity to see sharks in Hawaii, she arranged for Tigana to go on a shark encounter. Tigana and mom took a boat out to a spot in international waters at 6AM (when waters are supposedly calmest and sightings the best, but a voyage Mary describes as rollercoaster-like) where the boat lowered a shark cage and everyone doned snorkels and climbed in. Then the guys on the boat throw out fish for bait, and approximately 60 sandbar and galapagos sharks showed up, swimming right up to and banging into the shark cage.
WaikikiTransferred from Turtle Bay Resort to Waikiki. Repacking turned out to be problematic, as I tried to cram everything hurriedly back into our suitcases we had spent weeks scientifically packing before the trip, plus all the extra stuff we bought here (inexpensive beach towels, beach mats, etc., all of which seemed to be quite bulky). Ended up buying a cheap extra suitcase at WalMart, since we will have to check our baggage on the way back again anyway. Found our way to the Waikiki with only minor detours (suspected we might be off course when armed guards waved us down and asked us for ID before proceeding – but they seemed familiar with the concept of idiot tourists, and got us headed in the right direction again without too much hassle.) Once settled in on the 34th floor of one of the towers of the Hilton Hawaiian village, we went down to the beach. I was greatly surprised that the beach wasn’t more crowded. I had always assumed that hotel beachfront at these resorts were a cheek by jowl kind of set up, but that wasn’t the case at all. There were certainly people about, but it was a lot easier finding a nice spot for ourselves here than on, say, the beach at Park Lake just outside of Lethbridge, and believe me, the ocean at Waikiki is a hell of a lot more impressive than our local lake.Labels: Hawaii Turtle Bay Resort, Oahu
Labels: Hawaii Oahu: KasiaGiving Kasia her own digital camera for her birthday, just prior to the trip, has proved another brilliant move on Mary’s part. Not only has having her own tiny camera meant that she has not demanded to borrow ours – with all the missed shots, fingers over lenses, and ‘where did you put the camera?” issues that would entail --it has provided us with key insights into Kasia’s experience of the trip. We get that scenery and museums and the like may not hold the same appeal for a four year old as for the rest of us, but it wasn’t until I saw her pictures that I fully realized that a Kasia-eye view of Hawaii is very different. Here we seen Kasia’s view of our scenic car trip to North Ohun and our walking tour through the Polonesnian Cultural Center. Suddenly, we see why these may not be as engaging for her! a Kasia-eye view of Oahu Still, Kasia has held up amazingly well, partly because Mary has built in enough breaks so that we don’t burn the kids or ourselves out, and partly because Kasia seems to love it here. She has repeatedly asked why we can’t move here. When I asked her why, she answered “Because it is always summer here.” Can’t argue with that! Polynesian Cultural Center, Oahu
I was constantly impressed by the scale of the facility, it’s very high staffing ratios, and the overall quality. Every exhibit seemed to involve at least half a dozen dancers or warriors or drummers or whatever, and often much larger casts, and every “island” had its own shops, interpreters etc.  The shows were often very good, my favorite being the Samoan, a one-man show by the muscular gentleman shown here who was very funny as well as informative. He demonstrated how islanders made fire (in about 4 seconds compared to the “two weeks” or “never managed it” typical of North Americans in the Survivor series) and how to crack open and milk a coconut; a younger assistant demonstrated how to retrieve a coconut from the tree. All accompanied by a very funny running dialog. Great stuff!
 That one cravat notwithstanding, the day was a huge success. To our great surprise, it maintained even four-year-old Kasia’s interest throughout, her only falling asleep briefly during the evening dance extravaganza, but even there, coming awake again for the astounding and (slapstick funny) fire knife dances. We were on site for almost 11 straight hours, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Highlights included the Marquise display at which I got to participate in a mock wild boar hunt to prove my worthiness to marry Mary; the tribal dances of the Aotearoa (New Zealand); and the very lavish Broadway scale evening show (I counted at least 60 performers on stage at any one time).  So, I’d have to say, I would highly recommend the Ambassador package to anyone able to travel to north Oahu. Oahu: Turtle Bay Resort4 AM and we get up and carefully examine Kasia. No new pox! We get to go!We then have a short flight to Vancouver, a not too awful rush to collect luggage, negotiate American immigration and customs, and catch our 8 AM flight to Honolulu. The scheduling was a bit tight, but Mary had researched the turn around extensively -- the percentage of on-time arrivals, the average time through customs, etc., and determined that rushing a bit here was the better option of that or waiting around the Vancouver airport for an additional four hours trying to entertain a four year old. The flight to Honolulu was uneventful, if long (longer for Mary who had to wrangle the kids -- I offered to switch off with her, but Kasia insists on being with Mom, and the seats are three and one, so, the best I can do is try to entertain Tigana from across the isle). The plane hit some air pockets which caused the adults to gasp a few times, but Kasia and Tigana are going, "whee!" and "Again! Do it again!" so not exactly traumatic. We arrive at Honolulu in the pouring, and I am surprised to find that it is raining inside parts of the airport because although there is a ceiling, there are often no walls. I have a difficult time taking in the concept of a climate where walls are redundant, and wonder momentarily how they deal with it in the winter, and then I remember that this is is winter. The other thing that strikes me at once is the number of individuals in uniform. Of course, Hawaii is an important naval and air force base (actually, a whole bunch of bases, judging by the road maps) but I did get the sense that American society is much more highly militarized in comparison to our own. We rented a car and drove to the north shore of Oahu, and the third thing we noticed is how polite the drivers were on the roads -- as nice as drivers in Halifax. People would let you in, or give you the wave if you let them in. You don't always even get that in Calgary any more. We stopped at a little beach on the north shore in the rain to give the kids their first run through the sand, and to watch these enormous breakers crash into the shore. The surfing championships were being held that week along that shore because this is the season for the most impressive waves. Then back into the car and on our way to the Turtle Bay Resort (with lunch en route at my first ever Jack-in-the-box restaurant.)  The resort was great, we got a great room with an ocean view, and took the kids down to the beach. Turtle Bay, particularly in the rain, reminded me strongly of Tofino, only, you know -- warm. We had an early and excellent super at the adjoining Ola restaurant where I had the house specialty (a salom dish) with sea asparagus which I had never heard of before but which is amazingly good. Mary also notes that they made the best Mai Tai ever. The kids surprised us by behaving extremely well throughout supper, especially considering the jet lag, how excited they were, and how long and tiring a day it had been. So, after supper, it was off to bed for all. Labels: Hawaii Hawaii Conference and VacationHaving had a paper accepted at the Cross Cultural Research Conference in Hawaii, and it being our 10th anniversary December 16th, we decided to add a few extra days onto our business trip to enjoy a vacation. As Mary started planning, she suggested drawing a clear line between business and pleasure by moving to a second island for the vacation portion of our trip. Unfortunately, her original plan for us to take the Superferry to another island fell through because the Superferry was suspended pending environmental impact studies, so Mary started casting about for alternative transport. What she found in the end was a deal on a inter-island cruise, which offered the advantages of a single "hotel" while visiting all the islands rather than having to choose one.Mary then spent every free moment planning our trip down to the smallest detail. I was astounded at how much information was available online, including live blogs from passengers currently taking the same cruise, to an excellent blog by one of the junior waiters, to web cam images of the actual cabin we would be in; reviews in-depth of very excursion available on every island; and more restaurant reviews than Alberta has restaurants. Preoccupied with NaNoWriMo, and frankly useless at this sort of planning anyway, I left everything to Mary. I realize that this was a totally unfair burden to place on her, especially given all the other pressures on her from work and family just now, but she is just so amazing at this stuff that it is the only logical division of labour. Any time I've attempted to arrange anything, I always forget a hundred details -- like booking passage for the kids or making sure our connecting flight doesn't leave an hour before our initial flight is due to land. Stuff like that. So ten year's experience has dictated that Mary does the planning, and I try to contribute in other ways... Such as holding her hand and remaining optimistic as everything begins to unravel. After two months of planning, we arrived at Kasia's preschool a couple of days before we are due to depart on our vacation of a lifetime to find a notice on the door that there had been chicken pox in the school. I turn Kasia around and whisk her home for the day, but it is too late: We find two clear pox marks on her chest. Off to the doctor's the next morning to have Kasia checked out. Mary, convinced that we will have to cancel the whole trip, or at least the first half, awaits the doctor's verdict. Fortunately, we have had Kasia innoculated against chicken pox (given the very terrible experience Tigana had with the disease six years earlier) so the doctor's view is that although Kasia does have the chicken pox, that it is a very mild case, and that it has probably already run its course, such that Kasia is no longer contagious. The test, he tells us, is whether there are any additional pox that show up today, in which case she is still contagious and travel is off, or whether she remains with just the two crusted over existing pox, in which case we should consider ourselves free to travel. Mary is convinced that we should start rebooking everything, but I have faith that the gods would not have set us up that way (too cruel to Mary, who really, really needs this vacation) and insist on our driving up to Calgary where we stay at the Delta airport hotel awaiting our 6AM flight. It is a long, nervous night. Handbook of Arts in Qualitative Research The Handbook of Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples and Issues (Sage Publications, 2007, $130, ISBN 971412905312) is out at long last. I contributed Chapter 26 on blogs. Nice to see it in print. Labels: Popular culture, research methods, reviews Day 30 Well, I finished today at 56,501 words. Unfortunately, due to timezone error, the wordcounter stopped counting my words at 11PM instead of midnight, so my chart is a little under the actual total, though that's okay. The official number is still good! And I'm almost exactly half-way through the novel, the heroes have finally solved the first of three major mysteries, and I have stopped at a good point to pick the story up again when next I have time. A very positive experience. But now time for me to go to bed. Labels: NaNoWriMo |
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