Cruise Paradise 2006

With Al & Mary Rosario

Well…. we’re on the road once more! We’ve waited for 3 years to do this run. It’s in Hawaii, on the Big Island.

Cruise Paradise 2006 starts in Hilo Hawaii on June 23rd and goes to Kailua-Kona, June 29th then back to Hilo, July 5th.

This is the first time we’ve had another Hot Rod go on a run with us that was out of town! Bob & Sally Tavares are going on this cruise too! They are taking their 1932 Ford Roadster.

The hotels the run has set up are: Noniloa Resort on the beach in Hilo and the King Kamehameha in Kailua-Kona, also on the beach.

I know I said we were taking the ‘50 Chevy on this trip….. But it just wasn’t ready to go so the Vicky gets to go.

6/7/2006 - Took the '34 Vicky and the ‘32 Roadster, to the shippers in Oakland and loaded them in a container and they are on the way to Hilo Hawaii! We fly over June 21st! We felt a lot better after we knew who the terminal manger at Matson shipping was, Jack Olson is a street rodder, and we meet him at Cherries last year! Small world isn’t it! He knew how we felt about the cars and he arranged for us to drive our own cars into the containers.

There were seven cars to be loaded when we were there. A Mustang Convertible and two Rat Rods or as some call them, "Traditional Hot Rods" and a T-roadster. The mustang owners had been to the last Cruise Paradise and had such a good time they had to go again!

As we left the shipping yard, we walked past this brand-new car that had been wrecked! Made us pause, and say "not our cars, not our cars" ALOHA till we get to the Big Island.

(need to change the date in the camera too)

Cruise Paradise 2006

6/21/2006 Wednesday - Brother Roger came to take the truck home from the airport and we flew off to Hilo, Hawaii. We landed at 2:30pm and Al & Bob grabbed a cab and headed for the dock to pick up the cars. Nelson Parker and one of the local car club guys came to meet us at the airport; we didn't know they would be coming. They went over to the dock to find the guys. Sally & I picked up the bags and went to the Noniloa. Wasn't long till the guys had the cars unpacked and were at the hotel. Great view from the rooms! We all ended up with reservations at two hotels in Hilo??? Just a good thing we checked the other hotel the travel agent had changed us to, we had already booked my Mom, Aunt Raine & Cousin Fay in the Noniloa and wanted to stay with them. The parking is better at the Hilo Hawaiian. Well stay their when we come back from Kona next month.

6/22/2006 Thursday - Bob & Sally moved over to the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel so we could use the covered parking because it seams to rains daily and this way the guys don't have to dry the cars off so often! The battery on the Vicky was low so they took it out and one of the Hawaii Classic Car Cruisers, the local car club, Howard, took them to his house to charge it up. He has a lot of cars. This is just two of them. After Al put it back in we took a ride over to see my nephew Roger in Pahoa, about 15 miles from Hilo. He and Amber have a son, Noah, and he showed us all of his plants in their yard. We had a great visit and all went out to dinner.

 

6/23/2006 Friday - Met Mike & Irene Hogate from Long Beach and they came with us on a drive around Hilo Bay and on the scenic route then we had lunch at L&L Drive-n, downtown Hilo. Later in the day registration opened at the Prince Kuhio Plaza. As we were getting ready to go back to the hotel it started to rain, didn't last long, just enough to clean the cars off.

6/25/2006 Sunday - Downtown Hilo was been blocked off and there was live entertainment all day and they had venders and food in the park on the bay across from where we were parked. Lots of new car to look at and friends to be made.

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Mom and the Aunties came down to the show to check out the cars and go shopping! Downtown has a farmers market today and we got fruit and goodies

 

6/26/2006 Monday - This is the start of a week of daily cruises hosted by The Hawaii Classis Car Cruisers of Hilo. Pat & Rene Crivello, Herbert Leite and Darryl Turner will be our guides. We went down the Kalapana Coast and stopped at a shopping center at the Lex Brodiys Tires Shop. Then onto Pahoa Town and on down the coast.

 

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Next we went to a painted church that was moved so the lava didn't cover it.

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Walked out on the lava and could see the steam from the hot lava running into the ocean.

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It was lunch time so we all had plate lunch at Vernas in Kalapana. Was Ono!

 

The drive along the coast ?.. what can you say? No words that beautiful!

 

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Next was the Mauna Loa Mac Nut factory. That evening The Hawaii Classis Car Cruisers had a Local Style Pot Luck at Aunty Sallys Luau House in Hilo. What food! So many different kinds and lots of local food to try.

 

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Rene and Debbie Took such good care of all of us. There was even shaved ice! The Hawaii Classis Car Cruisers have really made us feel like family. Everyone has put a lot of work into making this run lots of good times.

6/27/2006 Tuesday - Visited the Volcano Winery for a little tasting then into the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

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The park has a road around the Kilauea Caldera called the Chain of Crater Drive with outlooks all around the rim. The steam vents in the crater were really putting out the steam. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory had a really nice display of different kinds of lava. They even had some the they called Peles hair and it was brown.

 

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I never realized there were so many different kinds of lava. As we drove down to the sea you could see the steam from the lava really good. We all parked along the ocean and had lunch and watched the lava flow into the sea.

6/28/2006 Wednesday - The cruise today is up the Hamakua coast to Honokaa Town. The group met at shopping center to head up the coast. Patrick and Leonard took us to a Portuguese bakery on the way out of Hilo.

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It was raining when we started out but north of town was clearing. The drive to the Waipio Valley Look-out took about 20 minutes. The view was spectacular! We all took pictures with this great background. This is Sonny & Karen Vidinha from Keneohe, on Oahu. They have a blue 32 4 door Ford Sedan.

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Next we went back down the coast to Laupahpehoe Town and Laupahpehoe Point. The Tsunami Monument is here. This is where the school that was washed away had been.

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The monument has the names and ages of all the children who were lost when the tsunami hit.

 

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Patrick and his son Thomas parked their black 64 El Camino next to Bob & Rita Calvin's 49 GMC panel to look at the view. Next we went to a local 50s diner to have lunch. Lots of cool memorably and great food!

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After lunch the next stop was Akaka Falls State park. There are two waterfalls here. Akaka Falls that is a 760 foot fall and Kahuna Falls that is a 800 foot fall. You can see Akaka from the trail but Kahuna is not as close. It was an easy walk to see both on a circle walking trail.

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I can't tell you how great the everyone from the local car club, The Hawaii Classic Car Cruiser have been. We've gotten to know so many of them, Patrick and Renee Crivello, Leonard & Debea Luiz, Darryl Turner and Herbert Leite the President, all such good friends. The club sure put a lot of work into this run. They have thought about we might need and provided it before we needed it! They always had someone following the cruises to help if you had a problem; they even have a full shop in a trailer with guys to fix anything you need.

 

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