Hawaii Part 2

Wednesday was somewhat of a wasted day because we had to check out of our first hotel, return our rental car (at the airport 1 hour 1/2 away) and catch a shuttle back to the 2nd hotel (1 hour 45 mins).  Needless to say, we didn't get much done that day.  We did get up early and spent the morning on the Kaanapali Beach. It was too cold to swim, but the beach was almost deserted, so we just enjoyed the view and the quiet in the morning.  On our way to the airport, I convinced Nick to let me shop at Walmart one last time.  This time, instead of food, I checked out their clothing department.  We found two hawaiian outfits for Cole (at a reasonable price!) and we picked up two swim shirts (spf 50) in two difference sizes (one to grow into).  This is one item that our local Walmart does not carry and we found them cheeper there then I've found them around here--so I was happy about our good buy!

That afternoon we checked into our much nicer hotel and got ready for our evening event which was a party on the beach lawn.  I had received a flower lei at the airport and was offered a wooden one at the evening party (see pics).

Thursday, Nick had a half day session in the morning.  I took that time to sleep in and work out in the hotel gym.  We were staying in Kapalua and that part of the Island is wetter and winder than the Kaanapali area where we were staying before (which has a desert climate), which means mornings and evenings are pretty cool. Mid-morning, I joined Nick for his session, because Apollo Ohno was speaking.  That afternoon, we spent relaxing by the pool.  That evening we put on our Hawaiian outfits we had purchased earlier that week and went to our "beach" dinner party, which had been moved to the pavillion because of the raining weather.

Friday was an all day meeting for Nick.  I, again, spent the morning working out and relaxing in the hotel room.  Mid morning I met up with a few girls I had met and we spent some time by the pool and then went out to lunch together.  Nick spent the afternoon doing a team building service project.  They were clearing out some weeds and replanting native grasses.  This was dirty work and Nick came back quite filthy!

That evening, we took a bus down to the Old Lahaina Luau.  Known as the best Luau on the island.  It was very interesting.  It reminded me a little of the fort in Lafayette that does reinactements. They basically told us the history of the island through music and dance.  It was very well done!

Saturday was our activity day.  We picked our special activity weeks before getting there.  We didn't realize that we picked the only activity that started at 6:45 in the morning!  We had picked Adventure Rafting, which means we boarded an 18 passenger motorized raft that took us out to the Island of Lanai.  On the way there, we saw 3 whales.  This was the very last week of whale season, so only a few stragglers were left.  The whales were quite active and did flips for us.  Unfortunately, it happened so quickly it was easy to miss. 

 Once we got to the island, we anchored off shore and spent some time snorkeling.  The water was even clearer around this island, which made for some good snorkeling.  After a little while, we took off for the other side of the island.  On our way there, we ran into a school (is that the correct term?) of dolphins!  Maybe a hundred?  Hard to say.  These were spinner dolphins, so relatively small (4-5 ft) and they would jump completely out of the water and spin around.  Dolphins are very social, so they came very close to our raft.  We could literally reach out and touch them!  It was very neat! We snorkeled some more at the second spot after having some lunch.  Later we took a very FAST ride back to Maui.  We held on for dear life as our somewhat crazy guide drove us home!  We found out that our guide spent two seasons crab fishing in Alaska a la deadliest catch!  Needless to say, this guy knew what he was doing in the water!

That evening was the awards ceremony dinner.  I was a beautiful sit down dinner--very well done.  A great way to end the week!
Sunday, we took the shuttle back to the airport.  We flew out at 12:50 PM.  Landed in L.A. 5 hr 45 min later around 10:30 at night.  We had a short layover and then we flew another 3 hr 45 min and landed in Indy at 5:10 AM.  After getting home, showering and going over to Grammy and Grampy's to see Cole, I took off for work. (Yah, longest day of my life--literally!)