So... Hawaii was AMAZING!! We were in Oahu for a week. We loved (just about) every minute of it! I try not to really post on Facebook or my blog or anything before or while we are on vacation. There are some creepers out there, and even though I try as hard as I can to make all of my pages as private as can be, I would hate for someone to find out our every move (or know that we are out of town and our house is empty for them to break into and steal everything). Who would have guessed 10 years ago that we would live in a world that we have to worry about things like that?!
We had straight through flights both ways, which was great! We flew Alaskan, which we had never flown before. There were some pros and cons. Pros - they gave you free Mai Tai's (for those of us that were legal drinking age), served POG (Passion, Orange, Guava Juice (AMAZING) which is hard to find anywhere outside of Hawaii), and even played fun games (like having people pull out the quarters in their pockets, then calling out a state, and if you were the first one to ring your attendant call button and you had that state on one of your quarters you won a lei). Cons - they didn't have TV screens or movies (you actually had to 'rent' a little player for $10 if you wanted to watch the movies and things that they offered) - thankfully we had our own entertainment :).
Our hotel was sweet. It was right on the beach in Waikiki. We had some hiccups along the way with them, but they got everything straightened out (i.e. we had booked a king room, but got 2 doubles - but they were able to move us on the second day / also, when we checked in they said that we had agreed to an amenities package (that included things like daily newspaper, Internet, local phone calls, etc) and had to pay $10 plus tax a DAY - which we did not agree to - but hey, it was vacation, so we made it a little joke and by the end of the week we ended up only having 1 DAY on our bill (must have been when we changed rooms the second day the amenities package didn't transfer over)). The best part about it (not only was the view of Diamond Head and the ocean amazing) was breakfast. I know that may sound strange, but follow me here. They had complimentary breakfast every morning, which was nice. But even nicer was that they gave you coolers in your rooms that you could stock up with the food as well (so for example, if you were going out on an exertion that day you could pack up your breakfast and take it with you). So we would eat breakfast down there and then stock up our cooler with fruits, yogurts, bagels, doughnuts (for Ryan), juices, etc. and take them down to the beach for lunch every day. So technically we only spent money on dinners, because we were covered by the hotel for breakfast and lunch!
We did a lot of NOTHING - AND IT WAS WONDERFUL! I know this may sound untrue, but this is actually the first vacation that we have gone on - just the two of us - that we have paid for - besides our honeymoon. The only other vacation we have gone on that was just the two of us, was the trip we won to Costa Rica with Dole (but even that trip we were with Dole employees the whole time, not really just the two of us). Other than that, even though it seems like we travel a ton, all of the trips have been with friends or family. Now don't get me wrong, we love those trips, and adore our friends and family, but it was so great to have time for just the two of us. We didn't have to worry about when everyone was hungry, or what was on the schedule, or who needed naps, or what vehicles we needed to take to get somewhere. It was just the two of us, with no plans and nowhere to go. BLISS :)
Ryan rented a surf board (of course) and surfed most mornings and afternoons - but was very respectful and spent lots of time with me too (we had a conversation about it before we left, so I think we were on the same page about what was expected :) ). While he was surfing, I would just lay around on the beach. When he finished, then we would just lay around on the beach. The ABC Stores (which are like their convenience stores and they are EVERYWHERE - I mean literally, there are probably 3-5 on every BLOCK) happen to sell inflatable rafts (but me being Ms. Frugal, wouldn't actually spend the $5 on one). The first night we were walking around on the beach at sunset and I saw some laying on the beach. I asked Ry if we should grab them, but he said no. The next day, one blew over to me while I was at the beach, and no one came back to claim it. (So I kept saying that Jesus gave it to me) So we used that inflatable raft out in the water. Now before you get worried, I wasn't out in the open ocean :) The beaches actually have breaking walls, so it makes like little pools near the beach. When the tide comes up it will bring a few waves in the little pools, but for the most part it is really calm, and you just get blown around by the slight ocean breeze (sounds dreamy, huh? IT WAS).
One day we rented bikes and biked over to Diamond Head and hiked the crater. Then on the way home we round around the island a bit (because we obviously had to get the most out of our time limit, hehe). Other than that we went to the Honolulu Zoo (which we could actually see from our hotel, so Ryan took a couple pictures of the animals from the 21st floor - where we stayed) one morning (just to give our bodies a break from being in the sun for so long). And the rest of the time was spent laying or walking on the beach. AMAZING!!
I really can't believe we haven't done vacations just the two of us more often. I think the main reason we haven't is because we normally are traveling throughout the year with friends and family, so we use our time off at work for those trips (not to mention the airfare that we spend around the holidays is a PRETTY penny). If I have my say, maybe we will do a trip every other year, just the two of us though - since it was great to get refreshed and reconnected. I would DEFINITELY recommend a trip away with your significant other - even if it is just a weekend, or a night. It is great to get away from the norm, from the routine and just have time with one another. I totally understand that some people will look at our trip and say 'But you live by the beach, you can lay there any time you want', but there was some special about being away from work, from the Internet, from home, from our phones, and just having time together and away.
I posted a TON of photos on my Facebook (I think there are like 500 pictures there, which don't include the 200+ I took of Ryan surfing). If you are my friend on there, you have probably seen them. If you haven't, it looks like I can share a link to the public album, even for people that don't have Facebook. Let me know if it works :)
1 comment:
I'm so excited that you two got to take a "just the two of us" vacation. Hawaii is wonderful, isn't it? I used to live half an hour from where you stayed, I think I even know which hotel you were at :) And you're very right about the ABC stores, especially on that side of the island. I really enjoy your blogs!
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