It’s a long read…  But it’s also a weeks worth of info!

 

Arrived at airport at 4:15am for our 6am flight. Not going to mess up getting on this plane!  And to our surprise there is a line for check in. Then we realize there is only a line, there is no checking in going on. Apparently the self checkin is only staffed from 4:30 am on. Good thing they have hightened security, level orange,  telling us to get there 3 hours early…  Arg!

 

The rest of the travel went rather smoothly. We arrive on the island at 11:30am. While I wait in line for the rental car, hubby calls to have our bubblie and strawberries ready for our arrival at the hotel.  Yeah!

 

We enjoy the champagne and strawberries on the balcony. Overlooking the ocean, and the water slide! Ahhh….  Feels good!

 

We nap and get up around 4ish feeling famished…  None of the restaurants are open till 5:30…  L

So we have $70 in appetizers and drinks!  We make do!

 

Next morning I’m up by 6am, not bad having gone to bed around 7:30! I tried to stay up, really I did! We exchange our gifts – today is our actual anniversary!  He likes his watch, and  I love my new heart in heart necklace and turquoise earrings!  Same color as my ones from the wedding!  Yeah!

 

We hit the gym, buffet breakfast and then are ready for some quality time at the pool!

 

We head to dinner around 3pm, anticipating some shopping at Whalers Village.  We arrive earlier than expected, and we can’t eat early, we planned the time to be there for sunset!  So we go next door to the Barefoot Bar at Hula Grill and enjoy a couple drinks and appetizers!   Crab rangoons! Yummy!

 

At the appropriate time we head to dinner – across the street to Leilani’s – sister restaurant to Dukes in Huntington Beach, CA – how funny!  We are seated in a prime location up stairs and then the waitress mentioned she heard from a little bird that it happens to be our anniversary, so she’ll be buying us desert! How sweet!  We get a nice Riesling and wait for the sunset to begin!  Meal was lovely, wait staff very attentive, and food – yummy!

 

Monday was my day of pampering! I ordered up a manicure and pedicure and a brow wax! It was lovely! Very relaxing and my digits looked great! When I was getting my brow wax the lady was oohing and ahhing over my luscious brows. I thanked her but was a little uncomfortable with her affection toward them. As I was laying there she said ok, just brow? Not your lip?  I was taken aback…  Umm.. no?  Then in my head I’m thinking.. well gosh, do I need it? Am I all hairy, good lord!

 

Hubby enjoyed unattended time at the coffee bar with his laptop!

 

We then hit the pool for the afternoon and then of to Lehina for dinner at Bubbah Gumps! Hubby’s choice!  Kind of a creepy little fishing village! Plenty of affordable food choices, so that was nice!

 

Tuesday was our Road Trip to Hana – the only day we didn’t work out!

We were at the buffet by 6:15 for breakfast!  Then off on our adventure!

 

I drove us there. (We learned that hubby has inherited his father’s inability to let others drive without getting annoyed)  He drove us back! We did stop to get our box lunches for the drive and had the pleasure at being behind a “family” getting ready for the drive. They were completely unprepared. Mother and Daughter were smoking like a chimney, Hawaiian hubby of Daughter seemed completely at a loss as to what this “Road to Hana” was. Did they really need a lunch? Did they need water, could they not just drink from the streams?  The little white girl behind the counter was waiting for the punch line that never came, the other native said – NO, don’t do that! He didn’t even chuckle, just said ok.  We were hoping we could get our lunch and get ahead of them on the road! We did! Whew!

 

The drive was amazing! All the views, the water falls, the gardens, the green, the ocean, the black sand, the lava flows! Beautiful!  We got to the 7 sacred pools on the far end of the Halekala State Park right around 2pm. Almost time to head back. We were debating a hike to the bamboo forest when it started to pour…  So back we went!

I’d suggest if you ever go, get the rental jeep that allows you to go back over the off road portion to make the trip quicker on the way back!  I would have loved to spend some time hiking!

 

We head to dinner that night. Excited to eat at the sushi and grill in our hotel. Cascades. We head to the maitre d and he greets my hubby. Hello sir, name and room number. Wonderful, this way Mr Hubby. How has your trip been Mr. Hubby.  Here you are Mr. Hubby. Apparently I was not invited onto Mr. Hubby’s Trip.  Sigh.  I was annoyed but kept it in check. Maybe they thought they were being sophisticated?  We decide since we were still a little tired from the drive, so stick with soda with dinner. Grave mistake…  That lead to absolutely no service for the rest of the evening!  We never got the specials, we were charged for re-fills, we barely got a nod, our empty plates sat for quite some time. No-one asked if we would like our pictures taken.  We finally came and removed our water glasses and then asked if we wanted desert…  Um, no?  Ok great. I was so upset!  I know that I can be a total pain in the butt, but this time I did absolutely nothing wrong! Can you imaging my horror! It pained me even more that this ended up being a meal over 100 dollars!!!  ARG!  So we head back to the room, order up our free champagne we missed on our anniversary and this coconut crème Brule that was to die for!  The coconut it came it was actually made out of chocolate! HOLY COW! It was amazing!  That mostly made up for the terrible dinner! The poor room service fella! We had covered every flat surface in the room, and I was sitting on the bed watching TV so we asked him to put the tray there, next to me. He got all giddy and flustered. “oooh, champagne in bed, desert in bed, how nice”

 

Wednesday was slotted as another pool day!

 

Gym, Buffet, Shower, Pool.

 

Lunch time was time for another adventure! I had read about a mixed plate restaurant for lunch in my hidden Hawaii book. It was down a few hotels from us. So we headed off!  IT was in the “hotel that is most Hawaiian”.  It was the hotel that was most scary!  Icky!  We find the restaurant on the front of the hotel, poney up the 12 bucks a person and to our dismay…  meat loaf, turkey tetrazini, chili, and chips and salsa with hot velveta cheese. Oh my.  Not really what I has expected at all!  You really can’t go wrong with chips and salsa… but really… meat loaf? Where is the local flavor?  So we leave, with the knowledge that we had indeed been on an adventure!

 

We walk to the end by Black Rock and the Sheridan. This we find out is supposed to be the best beach on the island… How unfortunate….

 

We return to the hotel, and enjoy the afternoon by the pool! 

 

That night we again head to Lehaina for dinner. We choose Blu. A mediteranian flavor restaurant. Nice view over the water. Again we start with a lovely Reisling.  Gotta start writing down the names I guess!  I go for a tomato and mozzarella salad, starting with a hummus and tzatiki appetizer. Hubby goes for the gyro.  To end we go for the Baked Smore. MMmmmmm!  Can you feel the pounds coming on?

 

We walk the creepy little fishing village again and then head back to the hotel!

 

Thursday is our explore the beaches day!  We do the normal – gym, buffet, shower, then pack our bag for our day. We are heading to the other side. Makena. There is a lava flow from 1793 and some great beaches. We drive over the lava flow. Super neat!  Crazy all the different type of lava there is and the stuff it does!  We end up at Big Beach. We set down our stuff and finally I get my walk on the beach, with my hubby!  Feels great to have the sand under the toes and the water washing up on us.  Now I feel like I am on vacation!  We reach the end by the cinder cone and head back. Hubby head in, I head into the ocean! Very gracefully I might add!  Hubby called it a dance or something of the sort!

 

We enjoy the wind, the sand, the nice overcast sky…  Then our tummy’s start to rumble! 

Off to Alexander’s Fish and Chips. Supposed to be the best bettered goodness on the island.  Local looks a little scary – hubby was a  trooper and ordered up the mahi!  It was very yummy!

 

For dinner we headed 2 hotels up to the Westin to their out side dining called Tropico. Such a fabulous place!  No wait, wonderful soups for appetizers, a great Resiling – Dr Losen.  We both went for the giant prawns with pesto on fried rice that had pineapple and bacon in it. SOOOO good!  Mmmmm. Yummies!

 

Friday – our last day!  L  We do our normal morning, then nap and pack. Then off to finish up the adventure!  We head up Haleakala – wow!  Gotta come back and hike it!  IT was neat to go up through the clouds and then be on top of the clouds!  We head back down and over to the Pineapple Winery. Yummies!  Got some coming in the mail next week! Final stop – Iao Needle.  Supposed to be 2100 feet from the valley floor, sacred area.  We arrive, we look at each other and say – That’s it?  Will all the greenery it doesn’t look that big, and it’s not a needle, it’s a hump. The fog and clouds rolling into the valley and hovering around it is cool…  But hey, we got to see it!

 

All in all it was fun vacation! I got through 2 books, didn’t get burned, had pretty toes, and spent quality time with the loving hubby!  Success!