Colorado Cruiser: Clay & Nannette's 25th Annniversary trip to Hawaii Part 1

This year is the 25th anniversary of Nannette failing to avoid marrying me. My parents always told me to marry above myself, and to be truthful, when I first told them I was going to marry Nan, I think both of my parents (as most parents would) thought that maybe she wasn't good enough for me. But within only a few months, my parents expressed in no uncertain terms, that I wasn't good enough for her.

I began planning our anniversary trip over a year ago, and after flirting with a cruise through the Carribean and other exotic destinations, I found this week in Hawaii that I could exchange my RCI points for. But it was a week in a huge suite with 2 bedrooms and a full kitchen. We thought about it for a while and decided to invite someone to come along with us, and after thinking for a while I decided to invite my oldest brother and his wife. (I can hear the other 2 brothers and 1 sister grumbling but sometimes us Geeky brothers gotta stick together).

I remember that call. I expected to call and invite him, then have a week's wait while they discussed the idea, the costs, the vaccation time, etc. I called Mike at work and after a little chit chat I explained the trip and the time. His immediate response was "Yes, we'll go".

I asked "Don't you need to think about it?" and he said "Sure. ... Ok, we'll go."
Then he added "Let me think about it some more... Yes, we'll go."

I said do you need to ask Sheryl? and he said in a made up voice "Yes, we'll go."

So after nearly a year of anticipation it's finally time. I had found what I thought were great ticket prices out of Phoenix with a single stop in Honolulu. Phoenix seemed like a great options because it allowed my son Kyle (Who just recently returned from a mission to Tacoma) a chance to visit old friends. So on Thursday (the day after Halloween) we made the 13 hour drive from Colorado Springs to Mesa. Our flight was at 8:30 so we woke up at 5:00 to prepare. We made my daughter wake up and go with us so that Kyle could use the carpool lanes when returning home. Actually it was so early in the morning that there was no traffic. It was just fun to wake a 15 year old up at 6:00.

The flights were uneventful, except that the inflight movie was Transformers which has been played at my home about 6 times in recent days.

We arrived in Kona at about 3:00pm and I was totally unprepared for the amount of humidity in the air. It truly felt like we were deep in a rain forrest. At the car rental place, they had a very cool looking red 2 seater convertable sitting out front and Nan suggested that I rent that. "You don't like driving with the windows down dear" I told her. We rented a nice Dodge minivan (more about why later) and headed towards our hotel.

I was suprised by how much traffic there was. I remember the road being virtually empty and running through barrent volcanic rock fields. Now there are huge flowing bushes lining the highway, and traffic was bumper to bumper nearly the entire way to Kona. It took almost 40 minutes to reach the hotel. On the bright side, they are finally widening the road to 4 lanes.

We stayed in the Fairfield Royal Sea Cliff south of Kona. I had read allot of reviews on the hotel, but none of them prepared me for really how big this place is. It is nearly twice as big as the first Apartment that Nannette and I lived in. Ok, Nan and I lived in a house that my parents owned for our first year, but THEN we moved into a little apartment, and that apartment wasn't tiny. This suite is huge and even has a nice big lanai with a partial view out to the ocean.

Nan started the vaccation with a nap, and I grabbed my laptop and headed out to explore the hotel and check on wireless internet in the Lobby. I call it a lobby, but I usually think they should have 4 walls.

After the nap and my geek fix, we headed down to the pool and spa. The was was nippy, but it felt great to cool down. We talked a little with other couples and then set out a couple of lounges. I decided to take a photo of us, and i'm sure it's because I turned the strobe on that I turned out so pale lilly white. Talk about your "beached whale " feeling.

We didn't head for dinner until nearly 6:00 local time, which is 10:00 back at home, so we were starved. The girl in the lobby had suggested going South to a little shopping center that had restaurants, but when we got there, we mostly saw fast food and bars. So we decided to try Bubba Gumps shrimp house in Kona. As we got close, a police man had blocked the road and forced us to turn into a narrow alley leading through a parking lot. It was packed cars that weren't moving. After nearly 30 minutes of delay we finally got out and went a bit further North, then turned back towards Bubba Gumps, but found ourselves agin in a huge traffic jam. This time we spotted masses of people with glowing necklaces and tons of kids. There must have been a parade or something going on.

We finally gave up on Gumps and tried for a steak house that the GPS said was nearby, but after more twists and turns, the steak house was closed. By this time it as 7:30 and we were starved, so I turned South and headed back to the only thing we had seen and knew we could get food at. The L&L Hawaiian BBQ at the shopping center. I hadn't pictured our first meal on our 25th Anniversary to be fast food, but as the French say "The best sauce is hunger". And it tasted fantastic to us.

6:00am and my daughter Kadi rides with us to the airport so her brother can use the Carpool Lanes