Sunday Summary
Sundays are always a down day for us. Not so much that it's the halfway point of our trip as much as it's laundry day. Yup, taking a two week vacation either means packing two weeks worth of clothes or having to do laundry. We always choose the latter.

This Sunday was cool because it was during the NHL playoffs and the NBC Game of the Week was on. So, before breakfast, we were able to tune in and watch the Red Wings play the Predators, 9am HST. After everyone was done getting ready, we strolled downstairs for breakfast and planned out our day.

Cindy, my loving wife, gets a vacation from laundry while on our trip and she gets to sit by the pool while I hang back and play around on my laptop while the washers spin and the dryers dry. The layout at the Sheraton is kind of neat because the laundry facilities are only a short walk from the pool itself, so it's not that far off from sitting in the sun still.

After the laundry was finished, I went back up to the room, dropped it off and worked awhile in the upper lobby at the Sheraton. I was playing around with a few different website, but my main goal was to upload the whale video from yesterday. Had a heck of a time trying to encode it properly for YouTube, but in the end it turns out I was doing everythign right, but YouTube just wasn't going to be playing it with the quality I wanted. Bummer.

After Cindy returned from her extended stay at the pool, she cleaned up and we decided to head out to the new Outback Steakhouse that just opened up the week before. We know, there's an unwritten rule about going to a restaurant the first month it's open, and it pretty much proved true. The food wasn't that bad, but the service left a lot to be desired. I think all told, we ended up at the restaurant for about an hour and a half, with just appetizer and our main course, not even desert. Still, I'm sure they'll work all the kinks out and it will be better in the future.

After another stop down at Barnes below the Outback and we were on our way back to the hotel. There were still quite a few clouds out at night, but we decided to bring down all our camera gear to the beach and give it a shot. The photos didn't end up that great, mostly because of the full moon and the clouds. The majority of our time on the beach was spent just looking at different stars and even a few planets with the help of my star maps on my PDA. It was still a nice night.

Itinerary - Sunday, April 20th

• Breakfast buffet at the Sheraton
• Watch the NHL Game of the Week on NBC
• Laundry in Paradise
• Dinner at Outback Steakhouse
• Stargazing on the beach

Sunday Timeline

9:07 AM HST

Blogging before breakfast (and hockey)

Ah, hockey on network television. Wish it would happen more than just once a week during the playoffs.

10:16 AM HST

Heading down for a late breakfast, no score in the hockey game

No plans for lunch today, time for a big breakfast.

12:02 PM HST

Doing the laundry, one of the only drawbacks of a two week vacation

Actually, doing laundry on vacation isn't the bad, especially if there are enough washers and dryers for everyone that needs them. Getting everything done in 2 hours is a good achievement.

2:10 PM HST

Laundry is finished, uploading my whale footage to YouTube and trying out MyBlogLog (saw it at Go Visit Hawaii)

Okay, lugging all that laundry to and from the room might be a downside. After the video I shot yesterday, I was going to spend some time to try and get it online at YouTube. I found a few good articles and it appears I was doing everything right, but it wasn't giving me the quality I was looking for.

Sometimes, when I'm working on something that's not turning out the way I'd like it to, I take a small diversion. This time, I was checking out MyBlogLog, where I created a Ka'anapali Dreamin' Community. I haven't spent a lot of time with it, which is why it's mostly empty. Neat concept, though.

2:21 PM HST

Playing with QuickTime Pro to get better quality for my YouTube videos

I must have tried 4 or 5 times with different software packages to get a better result. None really seemed to make a difference.

2:37 PM HST

Boy, this encoding and uploading stuff for YouTube sure takes a long time. No wonder I don't do it more often.

Between the time spent waiting for the movie to encode and the time it took to upload and process on YouTube, I was kind of shocked that people did this all the time. Too much waiting would drive me nuts.

2:50 PM HST

Missing my broadband connection at home :( That's probably the only thing I'm missing, though

Speaking of waiting, you really don't realize how far the age of technology and Internet connectivity has come until you're without it. :)

4:58 PM HST

Heading out to the new Outback that just opened last week.

As mentioned above, we knew it was a big risk going to a place that just opened, but we tried it anyway. I'm sure by the time this is posted online, most of the kinks with the service and the waitstaff will have been worked out. The food was still nice, though.

8:11 PM HST

On the beach watching the stars' although it is a little too early

There was more watching the stars than actually trying to take pictures of them. I did get a few nice shots framed with the top of the Sheraton at the bottom of the photo, which was probably the best I was going to get. I tried taking shots of the moon over the mountains, but was getting an odd flare in the exposure that I couldn't seem to get rid of. Probably a chapter in one of my books I haven't gotten to yet.

Related Links

• Blog Post - Sunday Photo: We're Back
• Photos - Stars over Maui (mostly from '07 Trip)