Hawaii '08

Hawaii

This is the story of John and me on our trip to Oahu, Hawaii December 5-11, 2008. The president of John’s company lives in Hawaii and this year, they flew everyone out to Hawaii for some meetings and a lot of great activities too. One option was to take a travel journal and write about all the fun things we did each day, but the other option (and obviously the one I chose) was to blog about our trip so we could share it with our family and friends as well. I’ve also included a lot of pictures from the trip, but I don’t know how to make the photos look the way I want, so they are all just centered throughout the text. Also, my hair is poofy and my skin is shiny in nearly every photo, but I learned that is normal in Hawaii, so don’t judge.

Enjoy!

Day 1-2/5/08

After a long flight over the Pacific Ocean, we arrived at the Honolulu airport around 3:30 in the afternoon (HI time). I was very happy to be off the plane because I really don’t like sitting in one place for that long, but we were lucky to have a direct flight. Right away we got to go outside, across this walkway that took us to baggage claim. John’s co-worker, Rich (who also lives in Cache Valley) had told us we would notice the way things smelled differently, and he was right. The air was much sweeter than anywhere else I have been. Of course I started snapping pictures.

First Hawaii sights/smells

Honolulu airport

Can you tell how excited and/or tired we are?

We were met at baggage claim by Alan and Jim, who are John’s bosses, (president and CEO, respectively) and they had leis for everyone in the group, which of course smelled wonderful. Our flight got in the same time as a couple of other couples so we all piled into the rental cars and headed to Kailua, the town where Alan lives. The freeway cuts right through the mountains where everything was so green. It was amazing! It was raining a little too, which I think just enhanced the colors of everything.

We got dropped off at our rental house, which ended up being right across the street from the beach. We were sharing the rental with Mark and Janene, Rich and Teri, and John and Ellen (who had not arrived yet). Our room was one within the main living area of the rental house with the full kitchen and living room, while Mark and Rich and their wives had separate quarters.

The house was so great! We had a private backyard with a pool and it was furnished and stocked with everything we needed. Right away we walked across the street and over to the beach to check it out and wade in the ocean a little. I was in love with Hawaii by this point and couldn’t wait to soak up some sun on the beach!

Our next stop was a local place called Buzz’s Steakhouse where we stopped for some pupus (appetizers) before heading over to Alan’s house for more pupus/drinks/mingling with everyone else who had arrived. It was fun to get to hang out with everyone and get to know everyone a little better. We stayed at Alan’s house pretty late into the evening because 2 couples didn’t arrive until much later than everyone else because their flight had been delayed. Alan kept us well fed though, including the most delicious pineapple I have ever tasted! I also tried several different kinds of sushi and I was pleasantly surprised that I like them all! The company and conversation was great, but we were very tired from our day of travel (not to mention the 3 hour time change), so we headed back to the beach house and called it a night.

Day 2-12/6/08

We were up early (about 5:45) so we headed over to Lanikai beach to try and catch the sunrise. We didn’t find the most perfect location, but it was beautiful all the same. We walked along the beach for a while, of course snapped some more pictures (a theme that will continue for the rest of the trip), and headed back when the sun was up.

Sunrise walk on Lanikai Beach

So pretty-photos really can't capture it right

Caught site of a rainbow at Alan's house

The first activity Alan had planned for us was a trip out to Hanauma Bay (www.hanauma-bay-hawaii.com). It was a gorgeous day; the weather was great, so even the drive was awesome. We had a great view of the ocean for most of the drive and when we didn’t, we had green mountains. I was really excited to go snorkeling, as it is something I have always wanted to try. So we get to the beach, get all of our stuff situated, and rent the snorkeling gear. Then it came time to put my face into the water and I kind of freaked out. My natural instincts were telling me to hold me breath and blow bubbles out my nose, which doesn’t work when you are wearing a snorkelling mask. Every time I would try to put my face under, I would freak out and couldn’t do it. I was worried for a few minutes that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. John had no problems, and I’m sure he was thinking I was being silly. I do get a little claustrophobic though, so I think that had something to do with it. I was finally able to put my face, very slowly, under the water and I practiced taking long, slow, even breaths, which worked best for the kind of mask/snorkel I was wearing (had a self-closing valve that would close if I breathed in to fast/hard which was pretty freaky, although helpful for diving under…which I never tried).

Drive to Hanauma Bay

First view of the Bay

Ready to snorkel!

This is where we were snorkeling-even way out beyond the buoys

Favorite-and it was on our first full day!

I was finally ready to start swimming around and I was so glad I got over my fear! We spent the next several hours swimming with all kinds of fish! This ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip. We came in for a break and decided to rent a waterproof camera so we could try to snap some pictures of all the fish. The photos didn’t all turn out, but we managed to get a few good ones. When we went out the next time, John M. spotted a sea turtle! We were able to watch him swim around for several minutes and it was seriously so cool! I would have liked to stay out in the water longer, but even with fins, it was a lot of swimming and got tiring after awhile. I had no complaints about relaxing on the beach though!

Fish

More fish

isn't he sexy? :-)

I couldn't resist capturing how awesome I look underwater

After a scenic drive home with one stop to view Rabbit Head rock (check out the photos…I don’t really see it), we had just enough time to shower and change before heading out to our next activity. We had a longer drive for this one, out to Germaine’s Luau (germainesluau.com/about.htm). I was really excited because I have been to Luau’s before during college, put on by the Polynesian Student Union, and they are always very fun and entertaining. We got there just as the sun was setting, which was of course amazing. The entertainment went on pretty much all evening, starting with getting to watch some men pull the cooked pig out of the pit it had been cooking in.

Rabbit Rock

The sun was in our eyes...or something

The men of Profit point, all "dressed up" for the Luau
L to R: Joe, Jim, Ted, John, Alan, Rich, John H., Mark, Gene, and John M.

Retrieving the pig

The food was a buffet of all sorts of tasty Hawaiian foods, so I tried a few new things and was stuffed before I could even finish. The show continued after dinner to include dances from all the different Polynesian islands. The girls even had a chance to go up on stage to learn to hula dance. I’m sure we looked a little ridiculous, but it was sure fun! They ended the show with some special holiday numbers, which seemed so strange because it was so warm there.

Ellen and Pam, learning to hula

What a fun night to end a fun day!

Luau sunset
(photo by Ellen Staniewicz)

I caught a few of the performances on video with my little camera, so I thought I would post a some samples, but it was taking too long to upload, so here is just one:

Day 3: 12/7/08

We were up early again on Sunday morning, although we were sleeping in a little later each day. John and I went on a walk along the beach again and then headed over to Alan’s where they had a catered brunch for us. We had a pretty relaxed morning (I think mostly to recover from the long and busy day we had Saturday), but it was nice to get to talk more with the guys John works with and get to know their wives/girlfriends better.

Around noon we left to do some sightseeing outside of Kailua. We stopped at one scenic overlook, which gave us spectacular views of the area. It had been raining a little, so of course everything looked really green and lush.

After that, we drove into Honolulu and down to Waikiki. We had a couple of hours to shop and walk around, so we took full advantage. John was in need of an Aloha shirt of his own (he borrowed one from Rich for the luau), plus I wanted to get some gifts for my family. One fun thing I did was pick my own oyster to see what kind of pearl was inside. I ended up getting a really pretty black pearl that has a greenish lustre to it (I didn’t get it set there, but did pick a setting once we got home, which John gave me for Christmas). After our shopping, we met up with everyone at the beach to go on a Catamaran sunset cruise (link: www.outriggercatamaranhawaii.com/sunset.htm). It was so perfect! It was fun to sail around during the sunset and we had our own little dance party on our side of the boat.

John, Pam, John, and Ellen (yes, there are 3 Johns in the company)

A pirate ship that passed us...they were having a bigger party than us

Our boat captains and the sunset

View of Waikiki from our boat

With Teri-I thought I was going to fall overboard when I had to stand up for this photo

We're in paradise!

Rich and Teri

Best sunset photo my little camera could capture...seriously doesn't do it justice

After the cruise, we were very ready for dinner. We ate at a nice restaurant at the Outrigger Reef Hotel called the Ocean House. I didn’t actually take any pictures during dinner…but the food was so good. Everyone tried and shared different appetizers and entrees and of course we saved room for dessert. It was kind of a long dinner though, so we went right to bed once we got back to the beach house. Another long, full, and very fun day!

Day 4: 12/8/08

Well after a fun-filled weekend, the guys did actually have to meet and do some work. They met at Alan’s house for meetings all day, which left all the ladies some time to hang out and get to know each other and just have some fun. In the morning, they had arranged for the author of “Hawaii Coffee” to do a coffee tasting over at the other rental house (aka the Lake House). It was interesting, informative, and we had lots of tasty treats.

View from the Lake House

After that, a few of us went shopping in Kailua. I got to hang out with Janene and Alan’s wife Pam, and it was nice to have some girl time. I ended up finding a few things and then headed over to the beach to meet up with the other ladies. It was nice to get to relax a little because we had been going pretty much non-stop since we got there.

Quote of the day: "What? I can't hear you over my outfit." -John Cutler

For dinner that night, we ate at a restaurant in Kailua called Haleiwa Joe’s. The restaurant overlooks the Haiku gardens, so the view from our table was really nice. It was another marathon dinner with great food (more great seafood of course). For dessert, John and I split a burnt caramel macadamia, which is the best dessert I have ever had. It was macadamia nut ice cream swirled with burnt caramel sauce and surrounded by fresh berries and bananas.