We're home!

We arrived on Saturday afternoon. We left at 5 in the morning and got to the Island at 2 in the afternoon. On the ride in we were in awe of the beauty. Best quote of the trip…..Grandma said “Well, it has been 49 years since I was on this Island. I’m sure things have changed!” Jacob asked “Why was it in black and white when you were here before?”

We erroneously tried to nap. Jacob didn’t adjust to the time well. We ate room service. And I was up at 2 am. Jacob was up at 4 am. We explored the hotel, in depth. We saw surfers as the sun came up and followed them to the beach. It was very peaceful. Considering we walked for 2 hours and only covered the grounds and the immediate beach – you should get an idea of how large this place was. The guide book says it is the only hotel that you could never leave and remain entertained for your entire vacation. They were right.

Finally everyone woke up on Sunday morning for the beautiful brunch. We went to the beach – first thing. We sat in the surf. We let it wash over us and feel the under-tow. It was fun for about an hour, then we realized that every pocket on Jacob’s suit was full of sand. He could hardly keep his pants up. We moved to the lagoon. It is man made, but has a sandy bottom and salt water. It had no current and is 3-5 feet deep. Perfect for the little kids to swim and for families to banana boat – kayak around the little islands. They also had sunk an old boat propeller for diving. We spent another hour there….. and then we jumped into the pools. There were 3 layers of pools terraced down the hill side. The restaurants at the bottom were on the first floor and the ground floor of the rooms at the top of the pools was the 3rd floor. When they say “acres” of pools, they mean it. They had an “adult” only pool, a lazy river with a current to pull you along, 6 hot tubs, a water slide (which was fast and fun!!) it connected the top pools to the bottom pools. They had a volleyball area and a basketball area and plenty of just swimming area.

Sunday night was the Luau. Wow…. Those girls can shake their hips! And NOTHING else moves. The costumes and the music and the dancing was 100% tourist, but it was great. The food was good too. The most interesting thing of the night, was the gluten free diet of the girl across from us at the table. They were there on their honeymoon and she’s allergic to barley, wheat, rye….something else. Good golly she was high maintenance. I felt badly for her new husband. He’s got a lifetime of that coming up. She annoyed the entire area…. She had the waiter, the manager, the chef all over to the table. They made her a beautiful “gluten free” meal. Salmon with some balsamic vinegar reduction, polenta (corn was ok for her), veggies, etc. But she wanted to know all the ingredients on the buffet – so she could get some of it too! There were 300 people there. All going through 4 buffet lines and trying to get back to their tables and she wanted everyone to stop so she could get the ingredients and how it was cooked….. wow – go sit down!!

Monday, Wednesday and Friday – Grandma and Granddad had tee times. We took the car and did all the other stuff we wanted to do. Monday we went to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. Then we went to Poipu Beach – Michael rented a body board and Jacob and I swam in the little lagoon. Michael got into a few rocks, and drifted around the bend. He had a long hike back to us. We had lunch at Tom Kat’s – and spectacular ice cream at Lappert’s. It was the place to be – Jacob wore more of his chocolate covered waffle cone and ice cream than he ate!! Later we went right back to the same beach for dinner at Berneke’s restaurant.

Tuesday we drove out to the canyon. I got the same sensation as I do when I snorkel. Way too much open space. Overwhelming size and panoramic views just did me in. I stood back and let the others go to the edge and take pictures. I took pictures of them. Then we drove up the mountain a little more and found “the little museum that could”. It was small, cute and next door to the lodge’s diner. We got a souvenir book about the blue turtle Limu and of course the matching stuffed animal. Jacob chased the roosters and chickens all over the island. They apparently got loose during the 1982 hurricane and they never gained control over the population again. Jacob and I swam in the pools and Michael went back to the surf. He banged his face, knees, shoulders, neck….in the surf, right up onto the lava rocks. Yes, it scared the ba-geezes out of him. Cheating death and not being paralyzed he managed to get back to the hotel room. He walked in and said “It’s not as bad as it looks (that was good, ‘cause he was covered in blood). Get me a martini and I’ll tell you the rest of the story”. I did, he was damned lucky.

We had dinner at the Beach House – which had spectacular views but the food was only fair compared to the expectations in all the write-ups and reviews. We stepped out of the restaurant and onto the beach. There were four or five families who independently had gone to a local fireworks stand. They were putting on a display. The patrons of the restaurant, the locals and the families were all gathered around for the variety of sparkling red, white and blue. There was something communal and backyard to it. It was just our speed.

Wednesday we drove to the north shore after dropping Grandma and Granddad at the Princeville Golf course. It was deluxe. The guide book says it is the playground of the dot com millionaires, that didn’t lose their shirts in the bubble. I believe it. We drove to the recommended “beach at mile marker 10”. It was great for body surfing. The scare the day before convinced Michael that sand was good – rocks were bad. This beach was nearly 100% sand, shallow and good waves. It was ideal. It was shallow enough that Jacob and I could wade out, let the waves wash over us and let it carry us back to shore. It was fun. When we had our fill, we needed a shower. So acting as if we belonged, knew where we were going and that we had done it a million times, we walked back into the Princeville club, past the work out room and into the locker rooms for a shower. One lady said “Do you need some help?” I turned and said with a smile on my face “Nope, we’re just going to use the restroom”. We never broke stride and we walked in. A selection of spa like amenities were there – but all we wanted was to be clean. We finished and walked out. We took a side trip to Banana Joes smoothie stand. They grow their own fruit. There is only one flavor of smoothie: Banana, Papaya, Mango, Pineapple – fresh or frozen – so we tried both. I prefer the soft serve frozen one. No dairy in either one – all fruit, delicious, fresh and very refreshing. On to Princeville the town…..lunch and the toy store. We got a swimming turtle that takes AA batteries….the only problem was that we didn’t have a little screwdriver. Our return the next day to the same shop allowed the shop keeper to assist and we went swimming with the newly dubbed “goof-o”. I don’t know where Jacob comes up with the names, but that’s what he chose. We went to dinner at the hotel, in Dondero’s Italian – I have to say the hotel did the best quality food on the island.

Jacob and I were going to go fishing with Grandma and Granddad, but there were only two spots on the boat. With the 12 foot swells and no fish – I can’t say that I’m sad. While the grandparents were deep sea fishing on Thursday, we investigated Lihue and found Hilo Hati’s -the greatest gift shop on the island! It is the Wal-Mart of Hawaiian gift crap. 1000 ways to do macadamia nuts, matching floral outfits for all the family, t-shirts, hats, grass skirts…you name it. We went to the Wiluha waterfalls and drove around town. We picked up the fish-free grandparents and found a local Thai restaurant. It was small, local, hole in the wall – and very good. The waitress brought out the food a couple of dishes at a time because “she’s only one lady back there cooking, so she can only make a couple at a time” Authentic is a good word for it. More swimming when we got back to the hotel and relaxing on the patio. We went to the Plantation house resort for dinner. It had a very Asian theme to the food, but very good. It was supposed to be traditional Hawaiian, but it was more like gourmet Asian.

Friday we liked the beach at mile marker 10 so much, we went back. Grandma and Granddad played the Marriott’s course. When we were done at the pool, there was no sneaking into the Marriott for a shower, their “activity building” was under renovation and therefore no facility available. We asked at Eggberts – the local IHOP – where to grab a shower. The waitress sent us to Hanalei – past the town of Princeville. It was truly in a rain forest with amazing views of water falls and every shade of green imaginable. We had lunch at Tropical Taco - also very local and good. Then we picked up the golfers and headed home to the hotel. We had a fancy dinner at the Tidepools.

Saturday we ate, packed, took pictures and headed to the airport. We got to the airport at 1:30 took off the ground at 3:00 pm and got home at 10:00 am. It was a LONG, long, long, long night and day.