Mele Kalikimaka

So...shame on me for waiting almost a whole month before writing a post about our trip to Hawaii! My only excuse is that we were at home for two weeks and had a ton going on and I honestly only opened my computer twice. Is that a good enough reason??

Anyway--I'm going to try to remember all of the fun details from our trip. Here goes nothing...

We landed in Honolulu around 9pm on Friday night, picked up our sweet Mustang convertible from the rental car place and headed down to Waikiki to our hotel. We were craving Taco Bell of all things and plugged it into the GPS only to find out it was not at all a Taco Bell. We got a little lost going to our hotel, but made it there in one piece. After checking in, we walked across the street to the cutest little McDonald's for a late dinner.

The next day we woke up early, grabbed breakfast at the hotel cafe and then headed up to the North Shore. It's been a while since I rode in a convertible and I must say it was quite fun! We got up to the town of Haleiwa and then the traffic really kicked in. Apparently it was the finals of the Pipe Masters surf competition and everyone and their brothers were trying to get up there to watch it. We opted to just pull over in a public park and at least check out the monster waves which were probably 15-20ft. tall. Then, we did some souvenir shopping, had a yummy Mexican lunch and rounded out the day with shaved ice (with froyo on the bottom)--delish!

Then we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the night. We headed out early and walked down the main street where all the great shopping is! Since we were en route to a Jimmy Buffett concert, we thought it appropriate to eat at Margaritaville for dinner! We enjoyed a great dinner and a few too many drinks before walking down the street to the Waikiki Shell amphitheater--such a cool venue! The concert was so great and we had amazing seats! Drew was happier than a kid in a candy store.

Sunday morning we wandered around trying to find a place for breakfast and finally made it out to the beach to take some pictures and get a good view of Diamondhead. Then the bottom dropped out and we were stuck in various hotels and shops trying to get back to our hotel. Once we made it back, the storms got worse and the roads around us were completely flooded. The silver lining was that my second cousin (I think that's right) happened to be in Waikiki the same weekend and we were able to get in touch and meet up for lunch. It was so much fun--talk about a small world!

Then it was time for us to head off Maui. Luckily the weather cleared up and we had no trouble getting to our resort in Wailea Beach. We got settled in, grabbed a drink at the bar and then had a really nice dinner at the hotel restaurant.
 
The next day, we hung by the pool, did some shopping, had lunch outside and soaked up the Hawaiian sun. Then we were off the luau that the resort put on and it was fantastic! The food, the performance, the sunset...all top notch!


  

When we got back to our room, I had the most beautiful flower arrangement waiting for me from my always-thoughtful parents and sister. So lucky!

Tuesday, we hung around the hotel through lunch and then got picked up to go on our whale watching tour! We were on a huge catamaran that could seat 100 people and there were only 15 of us...so it was almost like having a private tour. I think I drank my weight in champagne...but it was free, so who can blame me?? We had a stunningly beautiful day outside and even got greeted by a 40-foot Humpback whale who swam up right behind our boat. It was seriously cool! Drew swears he arranged all of that just for my birthday :)

                          

That night we went to a cute Italian restaurant up the road where we dined al fresco--it was lovely!

Wednesday morning was my official birthday and Drew treated me to a day of pampering. I got to go to the spa and have a facial and a massage--what a treat! Then we lounged by the pool, had a yummy lunch, relaxed and packed up before heading to the Four Seasons for dinner at DUO. It was absolutely amazing and such a great way to celebrate my birthday with my favorite person in the world.

Thursday we got up early to head to the airport and start our ridiculously long travel day back to NC. And then the adventures began back home...more on that in my next post!

One of the biggest things that I will take away from my 27th year is the beauty and privilege of gaining a new perspective. Even though we've been home several times in the past year, it's always a little bit different coming back to the States as a visitor. Being so far removed from the US (and all that that implies) really does readjust the way we see certain things and I have to admit, it's kind of nice to see things through different eyes every now any then.

Cheers,