Hawaii Day 5 – Jan 9th February 3, 2009

This day we went back over to Hapuna beach and I decided to give boogie boarding a go again. I must say that the waves were a bit more harsh than the last time. Most of the time even if I caught a good one it ended up pummeling me. The worst one was when I was waiting for a wave by some local guys and one starts paddling out further and signals to his buddies. I could see that there was a huge wave forming and they were going to try and catch it. The crazy guy next to me yells out “paddle you f’ers, paddle!” So the rest of them paddle further out to catch it and I start going in the opposite direction trying to swim out of the way. Lesson leaned – you can’t out swim a wave.

 

I love the “dangerous shore break” sign because that’s how it really feels. I guess that Hapuna is the most dangerous beach in Hawaii because of all the spinal cord injuries that happen there.

 

 

 

A sand sculpture of a shark chasing a swimmer.

 

 

I like how you can see his fear.

 

 

Mom, Dad, & Eric. Craig just doesn’t like the beach/sun/ocean for some reason I would like to know so he didn’t come along this day.

 

 

 

We went to one of the resort restaurants to eat dinner where there were crazy hungry sparrows. It was all fun until a stupid cat came by and scared away all of my little bird friends.

 

 

 

 

We stuck around for the sunset. It seems like everyone stakes their place by the buddha each evening for a good view.

 

 

 

Eric & Craig

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hawaii Day 3 – Jan 7th January 31, 2009

This was a pretty laid back day since my parents were in a timeshare meeting for a long time. While they were at the meeting the boys and I decided to take the shuttle over to the resort’s lagoon to snorkel. We saw plenty of fish and even swam with a sea turtle!

 

 

 

 

The turtle kept swimming after me trying to eat my bikini. We found out that sea turtles like the color yellow. Another snorkeler came by wearing yellow flippers and the turtle decided to go after those too.

 

 

Butterscotch the salmon crested cockatoo.

 

I also have a video of the sea turtle here on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=54958862027

Hawai’i Day 1 – Jan 5th January 19, 2009

I’ve been back for a week now and want to blog about the trip before I forget the details so here we go -

Technically this was actually day two but our first day mostly consisted of sitting on airplanes, plus we didn’t actually get to Hawai’i until sunset. So this was our first actual “day”.

We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club condos and weren’t actuall staying in the Hilton Waikoloa Village Beach Resort but were allowed to use all of the facilities and pools over there. I guess that staying at the condos are better than staying in the hotel because you get two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen & dining room, a living room, a balcony/back yard, a place to grill, and are next to the clubhouse. As for getting over to the resort there is a free shuttle bus that takes you to various places within the gigantic resort area or you can always walk or drive. We decided that our first thing to should be checking out the resort.

 

We took a public foot trail over to the resort that winds around the coastline.

 

Craig & Eric.

 

Mom & Dad.

 

A small part of the large pool. Under that waterfall there were more waterfalls, two more pools, and a hidden hot tub under the cave.

 

Another section of the same pool. This thing was gigantic! Even further down from this there was another large section connected to a sand bottom kiddie pool.

 

There were Japanese statues everywhere. I think I would’ve liked to see a Polynesian style instead.

 

They also have a dolphin encounter program there but be ready to shell out some bucks.

 

A sea turtle in the lagoon. These cute guys were everywhere! I swear we must have seen turtles every day because they come up to the shore to sunbathe.

 

The ocean fed lagoon.

 

The Ocean Tower. (well, part of it anyway).

 

Afterwards we decided it was time to go check out a beach. That is what Hawaii is about after all, right?

We went over to ‘Anaeho’omalu Bay since it was the closest to where we were staying. Eric & I decided to try and snorkel there but the water wasn’t very clear and there wasn’t much to see below the surface. Plus it’s super freaky to snorkel in murky water. I kept thinking to myself  ” a shark could be swimming towards me and I wouldn’t even know until it was way too late since I can’t even see more than a foot in front of me.”

 

That afternoon at the clubhouse they were serving free icecream cones. I chose Kona Coffee with a scoop of Chocolate on top. Holy Cow! That Kona Coffee flavor was to die for! It was the best damn ice cream that I ever tasted! This was the point where “We are on vacation!” really sunk in. I guess that’s what eating the best ice cream of your life by the pool with live music playing in the background will do to you.

 

Some time before sunset my dad and I went on a walk around the golf course. Oddly there was a wild turkey standing there. For some reason I don’t think that turkeys really “fit” in a tropical setting.

 

We kept walking and found some ancient petroglyphs and King’s trail – a very old path that goes straight through the lava field for about 32 miles.