Here's the combination of a those blogs.... Starting from when we got back and going backwards in time.... :0)
So I'm back in Houston.
I wasn't good for much but the basics like walking the dog and eating when we got in... I was a bit punch drunk from lack of sleep, not enough caffeine or food. I ended up going to bed by 9.... But I could have gone to bed earlier... Thats how tired I was. Then I woke up on my own about 6 this morning....
I haven't really done anything horribly productive all day... I've just been decompressing pretty much... Trying to get back into my groove here.... So far the only thing that feels normal is watching the Olympics and taking care of the dog... Everything else feels a bit like Chinese... It could be because I'm still getting used to being back... Or that I feel like I'm still on Island Time... Or that my body clock is all out of wack, hence I feel out of wack... Whatever the reason I'm still not feeling like everything's normal.... Maybe after I go to the store tomorrow and do some laundry things willl become more 'normal'....
As it stands I still just want to go back to Hawaii.... For more reasons than one.
But needless to say it was GREATNESS... And aside from a few petty arguments, that I didn't get to see one or two things I wanted to, and I didn't have a vacation fling like I had wanted to, it was a damn near perfect vacation.
Ok so the hotel we stayed at... The Waikola Hilton, located about 20 miles north of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. It's 62 acres on a lava rock beach with a sandy beach within walking distance. It has a flamingo preserve, a dolphin area, an ocean fed lagoon, 3 pools (including a kiddie pool) with 2 different water slides, a train/tram and a boat system that went around the hotel's canal, at least 5 different restaurants (that I can remember right now - I think there are more) covering a variety of tastes, a bar area, a coffee shop, and at least 3 gift shops, as well as an area where they have a luau twice a week, a spa, tennis courts, pro shop, golf course, and small shopping mall....
Its HUGE....
A few pics of the hotel....
That's the part of the hotel we stayed in... And thats the tram that went around the hotel in front of it....
That's the boat that went around the hotel....
And thats the ocean fed lagoon pool....
And another thing we noticed a lot of... Something called lava rock graffiti.... It looked sort of like:
None of it was at all obscene or angry which was really amazing... There were a lot of intials (like MKP + RTL = Luv), memorials with flowers, and even some pictures (I saw one of a dolphin and another of a peace sign.).... It was very cool.
This is created from a bunch of journaling I did while in Hawaii. Beware its really long.....
Monday (the 5th) was our first day of 'vacation'… Most of which was spent traveling… I was picked up early in the a.m. and went to the airport with the fam and proceeded to spend most of the day in airports, on airplanes or in a car (since our hotel was 20 miles from the airport). Local time when we finally got to the hotel was 6 p.m. (5 hours behind Houston time which would have made it 11 pm – is it any wonder it felt like bedtime?) Basically we traveled for about 16 hours. Is it any wonder we barely made it through one drink before heading back to our room to pass out?
Tuesday morning (the 6th) we all woke up around 6 in the morning, feeling MUCH refreshed and more like ourselves. My sisters and I did breakfast at one of the hotels restaurants while Mom did the hotel orientation tour that was being offered. Yes its big enough to warrant an orientation tour… Its over 62 acres! The travel guides compared it to Disneyland and Vegas- from what I've seen that's pretty accurate! But more on all that later…) After breakfast we laid out by the pool for a bit (little did I know this would become a bit of a habit…) then headed back into Kona to get groceries. Kona was the nearest town – and where the airport was 20 miles away but it seemed like a quick drive going 55 almost all the way with no traffic or any small towns in between there and the hotel. We found a Safeway and stocked up on breakfast and lunch foods (since we discovered our room had 2 empty mini fridges and to save money) but that was only after we found the world's cutest coffee shop where we had lunch… Overall I was really shocked at how expensive everything was… A bag of potato chips was almost $5!!!!!
Anyway so we headed back to the hotel with all our stuff in tow…. After a mini argument with my mom over something stupid, we headed to the hotel's luau ( a mind blowing $85 per person!) which was such a let down, my mother demanded and received a full refund. We never actually did make it a luau this trip but Linz was the only one who'd never seen one before so it was okay. So anyway we ended up at another of the hotel's restaurants for dinner, which was MUCH better and the mai tais there kicked ass… After taking some pics we headed back to the room where everyone but me fell asleep… (It was only 8 pm, WTF!?!?!?)
I eventually went to bed with a headache from trying to read by a very dim lamplight…. Then they proceeded to wake me up before 7 in the morning!!!! WTH!?!?! This vacation is a lot like being at home but at least here there's no dog breath involved in my wake up call….
We pretty much just bummed around the hotel all Tuesday, getting familiar with where everything was and eating lunch in our room. We did head down the street to a couple of shopping centers near the hotel…. They were mostly high end places like Coach, Macy's, Burberry, a Starbucks, some boutiques, a couple of restaurants, art galleries and jewelry stores. Though there were a couple of surf shops, which you have to expect everywhere in Hawaii…. So we head back to the hotel, change and go out to eat at the Italian place at the hotel… It was really small portions but it did hit the spot.
Once again everyone but me hits the hay by 9 at night. I eventually gave up the ghost about an hour later out of boredom. I had some really odd dreams that night about guys I've never met and don't know… That's 2 of 3 nights that's happened… Maybe its because I'm suffering from Alacka… A lack of single hot guys over 21…. Lol. I've only really seen 3 hotties all week and 2 were at the airport! Its all very sad… How can I run away with a local hottie when I can't find one to run away with!!?!?!!??? :0)
Anyway the only thing really on this day's agenda was hiking on the north side of the island… Which didn't EXACTLY happen… But sort of did… We couldn't find the spot we wanted but drove around and got to know the north side of the island pretty well… And then hiked down to a beach that was about a 45 minute walk in and about 45minutes to an hour back up…
Thursday was more shopping and hanging at the hotel. We had dinner in the shopping area at a cute little restaurant and walked back to the hotel in the pitch black darkness… Very spooky, especially to a girl whose been raised in the city and is paranoid about her safety… I.E. me…
Friday we went on a snorkeling trip. Where it turns out, getting my sea legs was easier than getting my land legs afterward… I guess that's what happens when you spend almost all afternoon on a catamaran! :0) We had a quick lunch in Kona at the same cute coffee shop we had eaten at earlier in the week and headed to the harbor where the boat was…. We were an hour early so we shopped in their little gift shop, mom flirted with the boy from Michigan that worked there, and we read brochures they had sitting out about things to do on the Big Island. Around 2 in the afternoon we finally get to board the boat… The Fair Wind II which had a diving platform, 2 water slides, was 2 stories tall with a bar. You could snorkel, swim, dive, go off the water slides or just chill on the boat… And then they grilled up a late lunch of burgers… We sailed about 6 nautical miles to a nature preserve near Captain Cook's monument and set down anchor.
Here's Captain Cook's monument.... I really should have taken my digital camera so I could zoom in.....
Everyone had an absolute blast!!!! We all agreed it was probably our favorite thing to have done on our vacation…
It didn't hurt that the scenery was realllllllllly nice too. And I'm not talking about the land or sea…. The crew was a bunch of hotties. There was the one from South Africa, a pretty blond boy training for a triatholon, a recently married hottie, and my favorite (as well as my sisters and mom's) a scruffy, blondish guy with a dragon tattoo on his leg. Mom wouldn't stop flirting with him! But most shocking (at least to me) was that she actually LIKED his tattoo… She actually admitted it's the only one she's ever seen that she's liked…. You could have pushed me over with a feather when she said that… She HATES LOATHES AND ABOMINATES ALLLLLL tattoos… That she liked that one was just incredible! It could just be that he was a hottie… But he reminded me of a couple of different guys I know from Austin… And my sisters and I agreed he was hot because he wasn't at all metro but he wasn't skeezy/dirty looking… He was just plain HOT…. He's the only native I'd seen that I was tempted to run away with…. :0)
This was also the cheapest bar tab I've ever had… $0. I had a mai tai that was like $5 but didn't have to pay for it…. God, its good being a girl… :0) Then they started giving away leftovers on the trip back to the harbor…. Hehehe… Also on the trip back we saw dolphins!!!!! Some were far away but a few got right up next to the boat and were swimming alongside it. Very cool….
So Saturday we woke up at the butt crack of down and were on the road to Hilo by 7:30 a.m. We actually did see donkeys/small burros on the side of the road on the way… (We had seen signs for donkey crossing but didn't' think much of them… We didn't realize there were really wild donkeys around!) We made it to Hilo in about 2 hours…. We went to Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots, just outside of town, before going to the big farmers market they have there and stocking up on fruit, etc. Then we had a shave ice outside the farmers market before heading to Volcano National Park… The lava had quit flowing on Wednesday so we had JUST missed it… Ah well… We had the world's crappiest lunch before heading out to see the craters, flows and lava tube…. We drove through the park, stopping to take pictures occasional and see yet MORE lava…. We turned around just past a sign that warned us to keep the windows rolled up because of toxic fumes and that you could die after breathing them in…. That sort of freaked everyone out but mostly La because of her asthma…..
Here's some pics of the Volcano Park....
So we headed back to the Kohala Coast and our hotel. There was a bit of a debate about stopping for dinner but we ended up going straight back to the hotel…. And eating fruit for dinner while watching part of the Olympics…. Then we went to bed…
That became another habit… Everyone in bed before 10 p.m. and awake by 7 a.m. most days…. Its odd because I'm not tired…. Even though we do a BUNCH of walking around and doing stuff more so than I usually do in Houston…
Now if only I could quit thinking about that dragon tattoo guy, life would be almost perfect…. Seriously, the end of my vacation is in danger because I can't stop thinking about him…
Sunday was laying out, lunch at a local restaurant, and more shopping… Sunday night I started getting myself packed… Which put me way ahead of the game on Monday… Sunday night was dinner at same place we ate Tuesday…
Monday was more laying out and then we took a late check out at 2 and headed into Kona. The girls stayed there to eat lunch and get their nails done while Mom and I went to do some historical site seeing south of Kona that they didn't want to do… We got to see the Place of Refuge, the Painted Church and coffee beans growing… Then we headed back to Kona to pick up the girls. We ended up having dinner at a cute restaurant the girls had found where we ended up on the beach with great drinks, wonderful sunset and live music (in the form of a guy playing guitar). It was quite a way to end an awesome vacation.
Some pics from the Huggo's on the Rocks (the bar we spent most of Tuesday night in)
The only things missing were a holiday fling, seeing macadamia nuts growing, and going to an orchid farm…. We pretty much did everything else there was to do on the Big Island. Except the price prohibitive stuff like the helicopter ride, going to the astronomy tower thingy and the horseback riding (which we can pretty much do here anyway so it wasn't a big deal)….
We then went to the airport and caught our flight out of Kona at 9:35 pm…. We ended up in LAX at 5:30 a.m. (and I barely slept thanks to my aisle seat and being kicked in the side by a sleeping kid) and barely made out 6 a.m. flight to DFW… Where oddly enough I ran into one of the guys I know from my local dog park and one of his coworkers…. And we ended up on the same flight back to Houston around 2 in the afternoon… And we got back into town around 4…. I was dropped off at my apartment around 5 and proceeded to be almost worthless the rest of the day…. But I've already blogged about that… :0)
Other stuff… I may have overdosed on a few things while I was there… Shrimp (had them almost everyday – twice in one day even)… Macadamia nuts (had some everyday)… Pineapple (had some almost everyday and it was AMAZING)…. And Mai Tai's…. But it was soooo worth it….
And I have a new sort of favorite genre of music thanks to a radio station we almost always listened to… Island music. Its like a mix of reggae/Hawaiian/sometimes acoustic that's really good…. I found the station on the internet but I don't think I can listen to it online…. But I can listen to a bunch of bands I heard of while I was there on Myspace… Not ideal but it'll do.
And I'm already looking into when I can go again… To do the stuff I didn't do… And because it was so amazing…. And I want to experience the night life in Kona…. And not have my mom flirt with the guy I'm digging… lol. Linz said I should just look into teaching there for a year or so and just get it out of my system… The thing is, I don't know if I can get it out of my system…. I've been twice and each time I find myself liking it more…. If I managed to teach there for a year, there's no guarantee I'd come back…. Warm weather 24/7, hottie running around half naked all the time, a very casual atmosphere, wonderful food and friendly people….
Ok that's all, I think… Its entirely long enough I think… Though I could go on more…. I won't…. Ya'll can thank me later…. Lol.
Later.
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