Saturday August 1, 2009
This morning we got up and ready. We took Eliza and Libby to Chrystalyn’s to stay until tomorrow night, then we took Ellie and Hattie to my parents to stay. They were all pretty excited to go to their places. From there Brian and I headed to the airport. Our flight left at 10:55, so after we got checked in, we read and had a bite to eat. The plane ride was smooth and about 6 hours long. I did some reading and I listened to some podcasts. Brian listens to podcasts and talks on his iPod, but this is my first time and I loved it! I downloaded several free ones from iTunes and I was set. They also played 17 Again on the plan, so I watched that. It was okay—a little silly but it kept me entertained.
After we landed—about 3 local time—we got to our rental car place, then drove to our hotel. We are staying at the Moana Surfrider in Honolulu. We have two balconies—one from which you can see the ocean. Driving to our hotel was crowded! Kauai is much different and much less populated. This is far more touristy it seems. We got to our room and got settled a little bit, then walked down to a little grocery store for some milk and cereal. We figured we could eat breakfast in our room to save some time and money. We got a half gallon of milk, which was $3.00, but the gallons were on sale for $8.99. CRAZY! The cereal was pricey, too.
We came back to our room and relaxed for about an hour before going down to the welcome dinner. It was out on a lawn and right on the beach.
The view was so beautiful! Dinner was a buffet with a variety of foods…Brian was more adventurous than me, having mussels, squid salad and salmon. I opted for the prime rib for my main meat. After some dessert—fresh pineapple and cannoli, we took a little walk on the beach. I don’t think I have ever done that, so that was fun.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
This morning the time difference threw me off a little. We went to bed last night around 9 Hawaii time and I woke up and I thought, “Surely it’s about time to get up.” I looked at the clock and it was 2:15. Crazy! So I went back to bed until about 6. I laid in bed until about 7, then Brian and I got up and ate our cereal. We had planned to go to the 11 AM church meeting, but since we were already up, we decided to hit the 9 AM sacrament meeting. So we got ready and drove to the building. It was the Honolulu Tabernacle. The building was really neat—it reminded us of temple grounds—lots of lush flowers and landscape, a reflection pool and really neat, large mosaic of Christ.
Church was good. I was a little nervous—being in a new place, but there seemed to be a lot of other visitors. The chapel was so big—it had rows and rows and rows of pews, then on either side were additional pews facing inward. We ended up sitting in front of a family—reminded us of the movie—Singles 2nd Ward, I think. They had this sesame mix—it was so crunchy and loud. Then I smelt tuna!!!!!! It was so potent. I didn’t turn around to see if that is what it really was but we figured it was. It made for a fragrant hour (ewww!). It was testimony meeting. After the bishopric member shared his testimony which was really good, there were only 2 more testimonies! One guy was up there for like 20 minutes. He was very entertaining and he told the story of his conversion. He owns a VIP tour company and he would point out the temple when he was on the North Shore and he kept hearing negative comments about Mormons. After about a hundred comments, he decided to go in to the visitor's center. He ended up spending 7 hours there. After that and seeing that the members were actually nice people, he stated taking his tours to the visitor center and made them go in! He said he told them they could go or they could walk and get off the tour! After a while and after missionary discussions, he was baptized. After sacrament, we walked around the building for a bit—it’s really neat—where you go outside to get to the classrooms and the rooms open to the outside. It ended up being a good time. From there, we drove around a bit to see parts of the city. We decided it’s a lot like New York but without all the traffic. We drove past a King Kamehameha statue and drove by Diamond Head.
We got some lunch, then went back to our room. The Next Food Network Star finale was on this evening, but they replayed all the episodes from this season. So we watched a few of those and got to watch the finale. We also switched rooms. Our first room was nice but had two double beds. It would have been okay but being pregnant—it was just a little snug. So we now are on the 4th floor instead of the 17th and a little closer to the beach.
This evening we took a scenic drive up Round Top Road to a state park. The drive up was so pretty—LUSH, LUSH area—like a rain forest. At the top there is a little park and a scenic lookout.
We drove back down and got some dinner at Cheesecake Factory. We shared the stuffed chicken tortillas and it was plenty! I can’t eat too much at a time now, so it worked out great. We topped it off with some Baskin' Robbins.
Monday, August 03, 2009
This morning we got up and ready. There was a group breakfast, so we went there for that, then Brian had a meeting that started at 8. I went to a couple stores close to the hotel, but all that was really open were the ABC stores—like a mini grocery/souvenir store. So I went back to the room and waited until time to go down to the spouse meeting. It was combined with the financial advisors and basically they did introductions, the host from St. Louis did a firm update, then a guy from the hotel talked about things to do while we were here. After the meeting we were free to go for the day. We went back to the room, changed into our suits (yes, I actually got into my swim suit this time! LOL) and went down to the beach. Brian has wanted to try surfing for the longest time, so he finally got to fulfill that wish! Right by the hotel is a little surf place and you pay for an hour of instruction with a small group. I think there were 6 or 7 in his group. He got a mini lesson on shore from “Blue”—an older Hawaiian guy—then they were out in the ocean surfing.
After a few minutes, he was able to get up. And he did it over and over again until the hour was up. He got up several times and had fun surfing. He said it was tiring and he realized why his shirt is called a rash guard. He wished he had worn a long sleeve one, as he had a little rash on both arms from paddling. And the inside of his knees were red, too, from laying down and then getting up. I sat on the shore and took lots and lots of pictures. I am glad he got to do that!
We went back to the room and got changed, then grabbed a bite to eat a little food court at the Royal Hawaiian. We went to one store, then went back to the room for a nap. Brian said he never feel asleep because the room was too warm—I had turned the air up a little bit before. Oops!! After we got up, we drove around—saw the inside of Diamond Head Crater. You can hike up the inside, but that was out for me, so we just drove in and out. Then we took a road that went right by the ocean, so that was pretty. We drove in a few neighborhoods and awed at the homes and their beautiful view. We drove a little further and stopped at some scenic views. The ocean was beautiful—such a deep blue color. We drove back and went to dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise. Neither of us were too hungry, so we split a burger. The waiter talked us into fries—we should have asked how much—it was $4.75! Then Brian got a soda and the waited asked if he wanted bottomless. Mistake! We got the bill and it was $6.75. OUCH! The redeeming (somewhat) thing was that you got to take the “colorchanging” mug and you could come back for a free refill anytime without having to eat again. We got a chocolate cake to go and we ate it later tonight. It was SOOOO good. So rich and decedent. Yum!
Like NY, there are people on the street trying to earn a buck. They fascinate me although I never put money in their buckets. This guys was clothed in newspapers...very well done.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
This morning we got up fairly early and got ready and ate cereal for breakfast. We got our car and headed up to the North Shore. We drove up the west side by the Dole Plantation. There were tons of pineapple growing alongside the road. We wanted to do a little shopping before we started at the Polynesian Cultural Center which opened at 12. We ended up passing the little town we wanted--Halewie--and instead kept on going to Laie. We first went to the temple. It’s closed for about a year and a half for renovation. It was weird to see it like that—it was cement color instead of the vibrant white you usually see in the pictures. And the front windows were boarded up. We went in the visitor’s center for a little bit and went to the Distribution Center for a couple things.
We drove by BYU Hawaii and decided I should try to get a teaching job there. Ha! Surely they need an English professor!
We still had a little while before the Cultural Center opened and we realized that a couple places we wanted to go to were back in that little town we had passed. So we drove all the way back and ended up eating lunch at a little bakery Wialea Bakery. We split an egg salad sandwich. It was so good! We shared a cookie, then I got a Matsumoto shaved ice. I got creamcicle and strawberry with ice cream. YUM! It was soooo good.
The ice was so soft and to have the ice cream in the bottom was a nice treat. Then we drove back to Laie and spent the rest of the day at the PCC. It was a lot of fun and we had a good time. We went around to all the villages. I think we only missed Samoa. But we got to see the cultural presentations for each village. They were so entertaining and informative. I think our favorite was Tonga. They had some people from the audience come up and play the drums and it ended up being very funny. We also saw the Canoe Pageant which is like a parade on the water. That was fun to watch. This evening we went to a luau. There was some entertainment and of course dinner. Brian really enjoyed the food—I thought it was just okay. But it was the experience, right? After dinner we did a little shopping at the marketplace, then it was time for the evening show—Breathe of Life. It showcased each village and the costumes, music and dancing was just amazing! So entertaining. The best part was the fire twirling at the end. Now I’ve twirled a fire baton before, but this was out of this world. They were SOOO fast. It was great. It was a long, tired, but fun day.
Wednesday August 05, 2009
After getting up and ready this morning, we headed out to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. We had heard a couple people mention it, so we decided to give it a try. It was a lot of the same stuff over and over again, but it was still fun to look around. We found little Hawaiian dresses for Ellie and Hattie, necklaces for Eliza and Libby, flowers for their hair and $5 sunglasses for me. We left there and headed to Pearl Harbor. We weren’t sure if we would make it in time to get a ticket to go see the USS Arizona, but we did. Our tour wasn’t until 12:15, so we looked around at some of the artifacts, then got some lunch before headed to our tour. It’s free to go to the USS Arizona so we opted to do that. Some of the other tours looked fun, but I think we got our fill on this one. Maybe if Brian goes back someday with my dad they could do the other tours. The tour started out with a little video about events leading up to Dec. 7, 1941, then talked about the actual day. It was interesting to learn some more about that day in history. From there, we took a little boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial. You can see shadows of the boat under the water and a couple parts stick out above the water. It was neat to see and I’m glad we could say we saw that.
We came back to the hotel, took a little nap, then ate dinner at La Cucaracha.
Then we went to Borders and got a couple books to keep us occupied. I got a young adult book called The Mysterious Benedict Society and Brian got a WWII book called Flyboys. We ended the night with some ice cream and headed back to the room.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
This morning we got up and kind of lazed around a little bit. We finished off our cereal (yay!) and read more of our new books. Brian stayed up and read a ton of his. I read a lot, but ended up falling asleep. Our activity we wanted to do today was snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It’s a nature preserve and they limit the number of people/cars at a time. So if you miss the morning wave, you kind of just have to keep driving by to see when they open the parking lot again. We drove by the first time around 10:30 and the lot was full, so we ate lunch at Burger King, then drove back by and it was still full. We stopped by a couple of scenic views and as I was getting in the car from taking a picture at one, I could see the sign changed to open. So I jumped into the car and we hustled over there and made it in! We paid our entrance fee and watched the brief video about the preserve and how not to touch anything, etc., then we walked down to the beach. We rented masks and went down to the water. Brian ended up being the only one who snorkled. I totally chickened out. I am just not an ocean fan! I told him I think I would be better if I was just dropped off somewhere and couldn’t touch the bottom. I don’t like walking on the sand and being pushed around by the waves. It’s just too unstable! I know, I am a wimp and I wish I liked it better, but that’s just me! Brian has learned that is me, too, so he went off and enjoyed snorkeling. He came in and out several times and had a good time. He saw several neat fish he said. I sat on the sand and let the water come over my legs. I enjoyed that.
We hiked back up the hill to the parking lot and headed back to the hotel. Tonight is a farewell dinner out on the lawn overlooking the ocean. Should be good.
Dinner ended up being very good. We were too full for dessert, so we grabbed a plateful and ate it later in our room.
Eliza made us a sign before we left to display in our room.Today my parents picked up Eliza, Libby and Ellie and took them back to their house. Libby had earned jewelry making with my mom, so they all ended up making bracelets, necklaces and Eliza even made earrings. Later they dropped Ellie off at Brian’s sister’s house—Laura—for a little sleepover with them and to play with Tommy. She was really excited. Then my parents took Eliza and Libby to meet the teacher at their school. I didn’t want them to miss because we were out of town, so we arranged to have my parents take them. It sounds like it went well. They both have nice teachers and got to look around the classrooms and find their desks, etc. I can’t believe it’s time to start school again! I am going to miss them.
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Yesterday, Friday, was our last day. We got up and ready and checked out of the hotel around 11. Our flight didn't leave until 10:30 PM, so we had some time to kill! We went back up to the North Shore (less crowded!) and we ate lunch again at the little bakery.
And we couldn't resist another shaved ice. This time we got strawberry cream (YUM!) and mango.
Then we drove around to see some of the beaches there. In the winter the waves are 30-50 feet high. It's hard to imagine. We decided if we come back, we'll go to the beaches there. So much less crowded! The ones by our hotel were packed. We saw this old car at one of the beaches.
We also stopped at the Dole Plantation and walked around a bit and read a little bit about its history. Here's a cute little pineapple growing.
The plantation was lush with vegetation and flowers.
After driving around as much as we could, we took our rental car back and got to the airport around 5:30. We had a while to wait, but we both read. I ended up finishing my book. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one in the series. We had some dinner at the food court and waited for our flight. We were on time and flew overnight to arrive about 7 AM AZ time. I really don't like flying overnight. You don't sleep well and it just totally throws me off on my days/hours, etc. Yuck.
Overall we had a fun time. Just enough busy with enough relaxing. I think unless we were going specifically for Pearl Harbor or the Cultural Center, we would opt for a less touristy island, but we still had fun and enjoyed our time together.
1 comment:
It sounds like you had a wonderful week!
Post a Comment