hawaii travelogue

So the actual travelling to Hawaii was a real test in patience. We flew Hawaiian airlines and learned that we should always always do web checkin. It was line after line after line (both going to Honolulu and coming back). Good thing we allocated lots of buffer before each flight or else we may have been really stressed. Not a good way to start off a vacation or end one either.

On thurs, the first thing we did upon arrival was go eat at Rainbow drive-in for some typical Hawaiian plate lunches. mmm. But boy, all that food was heavy. After some walking around in the afternoon, it was time for dinner already and we headed to the Side street inn which was a total locals only type of place. We ordered plates of ribs, chicken, kim chee fried rice, and more meat. I'm drooling just thinking of it. Not that we weren't stuffed already but we of course had to go get dessert at Bubbies known for their very distinctive desserts.

The next morning, we got up extremely early to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. So I have to say that I've been snorkeling at a bunch of places and this area was extremely beautiful ( the sheltered bay and mountains and such) but the actual snorkeling? not so good. The problem was that the water was way too shallow and fish are usually near the coral but the coral was just way too close to my body for comfort because of the shallow water (I remember a past hawaii trip where we scraped our asses on the coral - ow).

By 10, we were done and on our way along the east side of the island heading to Kailua. After another plate lunch (more meat!), we took a quick little hike up a hill to the lighthouse view. That was really nice but not such a good idea at noon. I was ready to jump into the ocean after that. So thankfully we hit Kailua beach after that which was the place for kitesurfing/windsurfing though I don't know how to do either sports. I instead renting a boogie board and aimlessly drifted in the ocean with it. I did catch one wave though but didn't try hard for any others.

Dinner this night was Allan Wong's - one of the best and ritziest restaurants on the island. Most people in the group ordered the 5 course meal for $75 but me being the extremely picky eater that I am just ordered a pasta. I did get a nice banana split for dessert though. At this point in the trip, the number of calories consumed was most likely in the tens of thousands. alas. Hopefully I was sweating it all out.

Sat was the day of the wedding and we did the quick little hike up Diamond head around 9 or so which unfortunately was probably when it was most crowded. It was really nice though but perhaps might have been better at an earlier hour. Our lunch this day was some quick Chinese food at Fatty's. Not quite sure why it was named this but I didn't care to ponder it too much...

So the wedding was at the Wailea country club near Diamond head. Beautiful locale right next to the beach. It was a beautifully short ceremony (good thing since we were all standing) and A looked gorgeous and radiant. Actually A's whole family had some good genes going for them... Lucky groom. Once again, we of course gorged on the buffet dinner (sushi, tempura, pork, mmmm) and appreciated the cupcake wedding cake (so cute!). So this was a pretty unique wedding in that we had performances by the bride's family. The cousins did a hula dance and then A did a personal hula dance for the groom. A's side of the family is also very musical so they sang many of the songs for the evening for the dancing and such. Too cool.

The bouquet toss. Oh, I truly hate the bouquet toss. I think it's something to just torture single women out there. I'm not sure how guys feel about the garter toss but I've done the bouquet toss 5 or so times now and I'm always dragged out there and end up standing there with only a handful of other women being on display. sigh. I need to time my bathroom breaks better apparently.

The next morning was a trip to the beach for some surfing lessons. which were kind of crappy. No safety notes at all. Oh well. All you need an instructor for is to push your board initially and tell you which waves to catch and when to go. Though it might be useful to start figuring that out myself. After our lesson, V and I hit the waves again but I only caught 1 or 2 waves after that. I kept missing them all since I wasn't going fast enough. It was a good surfing morning though on those big long boards.

All in all, I have to say it was a fabulous trip. I went running around the park near Diamond head the last day I was there and wow, what a motivating place to run with all that pretty scenery. Best run I've had in a while.