Honey honey honey honey MOOOON!
All last week, Benjamin and I had the time of our lives in paradise!
No worries about school, work, chores, callings, emails, cellphones, responsibility. It was bliss.
The beaches were beautiful, the sun was warm, the sky was clear and there was so much lush green ever where, it made perfect sense why it was known as the "Garden Island".
FAVORITE ONE:
We hiked down a woodsy trail to a tucked away waterfall. The pool below was relatively warm and deep. We swam under the falls and even climbed up on the rocks behind the falls and had a Nottingham moment.
FAVORITE TWO:
We wandered our way onto a beach (not a soul in sight) that had beautiful sandy beaches and pretty descent waves. We played in the waves as they crashed into us and built a hut on the shore with drift wood and palm leaves as the sun went down.
FAVORITE THREE:
For those thinking about a Hawaiian getaway, we highly recommend going to a Luau (that's Lou-owe as Benjamin would always correct me... not Loual. Oops). The food was incredible and the Imu inspired Ben to cook our Thanksgiving turkey a new way. The actual performance was presented as different dances from each culture that had come to Hawaii. Each was spectacular and I even attempted it myself after we got back to our hotel that night. They were better...
FAVORITE FOUR:
Snow Cone. 5 snow cones to be exact. I had never had such a yummy one before in my life. Something about how this one stand mixed its flavors kept calling us back. That, and the pineapple. Apparently, we've got it all wrong. The pineapples we get in the states are picked green so that they don't go bad by the time they reach our shelves but in Hawaii, they let them grow longer and pull them right when they are ripe and ready to eat which makes them grow longer and taste sweeter. The pineapple I've had my whole life has been tart with a kick (a delicious kick, but still...). I'm not sure what I ate there, but it was NOT pineapple. It was the most sweet, juicy, delicious piece of candy. Really, it was so sweet! You've got to get your hands on some.
As any trip, we ran into just a few snags that are noteworthy.
SNAG ONE:
We planned on renting scooters for two days to tour the island. We found out, however, that scooters there top out at 30 mph and are considered a "bicycle". This was a problem because they were quarantined to the shoulder (which oftentimes didn't exist) and there was basically one road on the whole island that took you to all the cities and beaches (which was, in fact, a highway filled with 60 mph cars). Advised by everyone not to make that day our last on this earth, we cancelled our reservations and rented a car.
ps. the "dealership" phone number was given to us by our cab driver and the "car" we rented was $20 bucks and we were given the advice of telling any "authorities" it was "Uncle Steve's car" and everything was dealt in cash, nothing signed. We looked like locals at least, so no one tried to break into our car and steal anything. So... that's something. Benjamin could tell by the look on my face, I was less than excited to be seen in this "vehicle". Ran great though.
**note the spray painted gold roof, the white front panel and white passenger door (not shown), the dents and scary wheels.**
SNAG TWO:
Our flight was cancelled and we got bumped back to a day later flight. This didn't turn out to bad as they ended up putting us up for the night at an extravagant hotel upgrade and gave us meal vouchers. The next night, we thought our flight lift at 10:00 PM when it really left at 9:00 PM, which we realized at 8:15 PM while in the pool. We sprinted to change, get to the front desk, order the airport shuttle, hurry to the check-in, pass everyone waiting in the HUGE line and got our boarding passes 2 minutes before we would have missed our flight. After that we had to run through security and the airport to catch our plane which barely held the door for us. Nightmare, but we got there and made all of our connections just fine. Husband was a champion of calm while I was a nut case.
Times wallet lost: two
(once as we were frantically trying to pack and get to the hotel front desk to call the airport shuttle)
Times car keys lost: two
(once in the sand at night)
Times credit card lost: one
(permanently, the last day)
Times locked out of our hotel room: one
BUT we never allowed these snags and bumps in the road to ruin our fabulous time and stop us from enjoying every minute of our week in paradise. Aloha!
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