I am back. Trying to finish up some things that got neglected this week. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, the whole tourist dressing in Hawaiian attire thing. It was quite funny. My nieces boyfriend wore these bright "aloha" swimming trunks and one of the surfers actually responded to him by saying "you're not from around here are you?". Another funny thing they shared with us is they visited this place called "Sand Island". Sounds nice doesn't it? Well, they were talking to this guy and saying how beautiful "Sand Island" was and how everything was so green. The local looked at them with a crouched brow and told them it was the islands landfill. Ok, that is pretty sad when a landfill looks more beautiful than the state of Michigan. Ok, enough about their trip. ;)
Some other thing we did while we were there was snorkeling. We went out on this speed boat with about 20 other people. They knew the spots to go to. The first place we went to see was a spot with a high volume of Hawaiian spinning dolphins. I think we saw about 20, some doing a pretty decent show for us. They dropped us off the boat one by one into the Pacific. Immediately, 3 dolphins swam under me and I got a great shot with my underwater film camera. Within minutes, a couple of them were spinning out of the water showing off. It was just fantastic! We also stopped at an area that had about 8 sea turtles swimming. We finished up our snorkeling adventure by swimming with some turtles which were AMAZING. They are so huge and beautiful. I liked them so much, I found myself looking at sea turtle figurines in the gift stores for my house. I passed. Lastly, we visited the reef and looked at the gazillion fish. I saw a puffer fish and got a picture of it. The trip was kind of a blur now. I remember everything, but don't remember what days we did what. It was like I was in a dream.
Again, instead of boring you, here are some highlights....
*Talking to the locals was the most beneficial thing we could do. They know all of the good eats, places to go and things to see. Hawaii could have a slight tendency to be a little Disney world-ish. Talking to the locals helps you get out of that fantasy land type stuff. One of the BEST things we did that a local told us about was visiting a lagoon that was off the beaten path. He told us there were sea turtles there. I didn't think that the second I stepped into the lagoon, a turtle would come up to see me. He wanted food. Yum Yum. We went back a few times to visit our friends. To us, they were super cool. To the local kids trying to play football in the water, they were a nuisance.
After bonding with these turtles, I actually felt bad about peeing in the ocean.
*Fried bananas are yummy delicious. Coconut milk is NOT. I thought it would be fun to pay some islander $5.00 for a fresh coconut. He did give us quite a lesson about coconuts, but the juice was just sweetened water. It is nothing like the Coco Lopez I take spoonfuls of while making pina coladas. Coconut meat is a weird texture and I just couldn't eat it. Aaron made sure to remind me that I paid $5 for it after refusing to eat any more. I will say, coconut juice is a great cleanse, if you know what I mean. Seeing so many coconuts reminded me of when Owen wanted to name his baby brother "harry coconut".
*Horseback riding was lovely. I thought I was going to have a hard time with my arthritic hips, but I was fine. I made sure to pop a few ibuprofen prior to the trip and right after. I love white horses and that is exactly what I was given. The only thing that made me nervous about the ride was when the guide told us that the bulls on the ranch may charge at us. Um, Hello? Do you realize what you just told me? I would have rather not known and been surprised.
Here are some odds and ends pictures of our trip.
Shaved ice is not a sno-cone. You will never, ever have anything like it. Simply delicious.
Look how orangie red the soil is!! No Photoshopping here people.
People just hang out on this rock. Check out the action shot! Yes, that is a person jumping off the rock.
Just outside our resort
Malsadas were also pretty stinking good too. They make them to order. Fried. They are very similar to the the Polish Paczki.
Making a Lei. If you look closely around my neck, ears and my wrist, you will see a beautiful green pearl set my fabulous hubby got for me. It was hand crafted from one of the locals. She did beautiful work and I just kept coming back to her little booth at the farmers market. I was crossing my fingers for a $30 pair of nice earings, and I got this! Aaron likes to buy jewelery for me. One day, I hope to pass these nice things onto my grand babies. I know for me, my mom's tiger eye ring my dad gave to me means the world to me.
Really, it is this beautiful, everywhere...even the landfills.
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