Colorado Cruiser: Clay & Nannette's 25th Annniversary trip to Hawaii Part 2

Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 am and could not get back to sleep. I fiddled around the room, then walked to the ocean, and finally figured out how to get back to the lobby. The lobby is on the 5th floor because the timeshare is built on a hill. I went back to the room and grabbed my laptop and camera, then went back and wrote up the first few days of the vaccation.

It was very quiet and relaxing. They had left hawaiian music playing. I sat and watched the sun rise.

We hadn't made it to the store yet, so we didn't have anything to make for breakfast. We decided to drive into Kailua and look for a good place. We found a buffer after a few minutes walking around. The food was ok, but for the price we'll eat in the room from now on.

After breakfast we went to a flea market just north of town. It wasn't so much a flea market as a bunch of kitchy stores with cloth walls and tin roofs. We bought a shoulder bag for Nan and a few gifts. We saw a group of guitarists sitting by a small stage and figured it was a local band rehearsing before doing a show. We sat nearby to drink some water and figure out our next stop.

I was already drenched in sweat and decided that jeans and t-shirt wasn't going to work for the trip. I had brought a few pairs of jean shorts but hadn't put them on. We decided to make a stop at Hilo Hatti's and Ross to look for something cooler to wear.

In the mean time, the group of guitarists were playing some lovely songs, and after a while we realized that it wasn't a band, it was a class. The instructor was a typically large hawaiian guy with a wireless mic on his guitar. He would demonstrate something, then the class would try to follow or to chord around it. It was fascinating to watch and listen to.

We finally decided it was time to go, so we headed to Hilo Hatti's. We didn't find any shorts, but we got more gifts, a wrap for Nan, and I found some cheap sandals and a hat. Ross did have some nice shorts so we picked those up.

We drove South down the highway towards Kealakekua and Captain Cook. We stopped at a few scenic overlooks and swapped taking pictures with a few couples. One map showed a museum in Captain Cook so we figured we would stop there, then drive the windey road down to the monument. After missing it twice, we finally figured out that the "museum" was inside a surf shop. We decided to skip it and drive down.

The whole time I've been here, we've seen allot of motorcyclists riding around and I've thought it would be fun to ride around. But the road from Captain Cook (which is a town) down to the ocean REALLLY made me wish for a motorcycle. I don't think there is more than 20 foot of straight road the whole way down. There were beautiful views most of the way down.

At the bottom, we got out and walked along the beach a bit and listened to the ocean. There were many locals sitting under the trees, and a few people fishing.

There is a 5 mile long road leading down the coast to the National Park at the Forbidden City. The road is 1 lane wide and runs almost dead straight through the volcanic rock and bushes that have grown. It was so cool looking that I had to get a picture of it.

We toured the forbidden city and sat where the king used to sit. I always remember visiting here and seeing allot of work going on with people fishing, pounding taro and working on the huts. We asked the park ranger at the front desk and he said there is a big festival during July and August where you can see all of that, but right now it's just the tour.

We at our Wendy's sandwiches sitting in the car with the A/C running, then drove back North to the hotel.

My brother Mike and his wife Sheryl arrived at 6:30pm. We drove over to the Costco to buy groceries for the week. Mike and Sheryl had just spent the last few days in Honolulu with my mother, so they were feeling much more adventurous than we were so we bought Poi, Kalua Pig, smoked fish, and several other fun things. We also got eggs, chips, salsa, bacon, bread etc. It's always hard to get out of Sam's club with only what you planned on buying and we didn't get out until nearly 8:00.

Nan found a brochur for a nice sounding restauraunt so we headed south down the highway looking for it. Everyone took turns looking at the map and trying to figure out how to get there (except me cause I was driving). We drove down the highway 10 miles before we finally called the place and asked for directions. It turns out that we were on the 11 highway and the restauraunt was on a different "highway". We backtracked and still missed it the first time past. We finally made it to the place at nearly 9:00.

After dinner we went to the hotel and sat around talking and planning things to do for the coming week. We all agreed that we should go to church the next day. The meetings started at 9:00, 11:00 or 1:00 and we figured since we were on vaccation we would go to the 1:00 sacrament meeting.

Sunday morning we all woke up by 7:00 still. Its just hard to get adjusted to the 3 hour time difference. Since we had shopped the night before, we had omelettes, bacon, orange juice, milk, toast, and cereal for breakfast. Finally at 9:30 Nannette suggested that since we were all up and doing nothing anyway, we should just go to the 11:00 meetings. So we started showering and getting ready.

Then at 10:30 we started heading for the door and my sister in law Sheryl said "What? Are we going early?" She'd been out of the room when we decided on 11:00 so she VERY quickly got dressed and off we went.

The building if very open and beautiful with wide louvered windows across the walls. The windows weren't open, but you could feel the breeze anyway. It was their Fast and Testimony meeting and we sat listening to the wonderful testimonies. Everyone who went up began by saying "Aloha brothers and sisters" and the congregation would all respond "Aloha". I've seen this every time I've attended church in Hawaii and it still seems so wonderful and friendly each time I go.

After church we took Mike and Sheryl back to the hotel, then Nan and I drove around looking at some of the beaches. It started raining hard so we looked for somewhere to have some lunch. We decided to eat at the L&L Hawaiian BBQ again. This time I got lau lau and kalua pork, and Nan got "Hawaiian Pork" which turned out to be a pork chop with teryaki sause on it.

After lunch we drove to the Coldstone Creamery for desert and to make a few phone calls. It was still raining and we wondered what the Hawaiians thought of the wierd people from Colorado that eat ice cream during a cold rain storm.

After lunch we headed to the airport to pickup our son and daughter Kyle and Kadi.

Yes, I really did buy tickets to take 2 kids with us on our 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii. I'm a guy. 'Nuff said.

I'd been browsing web sites before our trip when I came across really cheap airline tickets from Phoenix direct to Kona. And after thinking about it (and asking) I decided that it was too good a deal to pass up. We had the room in the hotel, so bringing the kids was just too good a bargain.

At the airport, I let Nannette out to meet them, then started the Nascar shuffle around and around the airport. It was still pouring rain.

Nan bought lei's for them and met them as they came out of the security area, got their bags, then we went to the hotel.

For dinner we decided to go to Bubba Gump's shrimp house. It continued to rain so I let them off and parked the car. I was soaked by the time I got back. We sat at a table right out on the water with waves breaking about 5 feet behind us. We ordered so much food that no one finished except Sheryl. She got a salad and kept raving about how good it was.

I still had that last bit of a cold so I decided to sleep out on the deck. The temperature was perfect and I slept the whole night with the sounds of the ocean and the occasional drunken tourist returning home. Nan said she could still hear me snoring even through the closed sliding glass door.

Nannette and I at a scenic overlook on highway 11 near Kailua