We woke up at 2am. Why such weird hours, you may wonder? We have to get ready to head up to Haleakala for the sunrise. We managed to get out of the condo just before 3am, and started our 2+ hour drive up the volcano. The volcano is 10,023 feet, and the drive was constant switchbacks. Everytime we saw an elevation sign we would check the temperature. It seemed like we were losing 2-3 degrees for every 1000 feet.We got up there around 5am, and the park ranger told us that the sunrise was expected to be around 5:45am. Right before we left the car we checked the temp and it was 34 degrees. We had planned for it, but we still didn't have enough clothing to keep warm. *shiver*

We went to the lookout point and managed to snag an awesome spot to wait. I tried to stay warm by constantly shaking or moving around. A park ranger comes out to us and starts to tell us about everything we can see from up there. We can actually see Mauna Kea on the Big Island from up here. After much waiting, the sun starts to slowly make it's way to us. Oh, it was so worth the wait and the cold. We watched that for quite awhile. And I of course managed to burn my eyes up a bit. We walked around a little bit, and then headed back out. I fell asleep before we even got to the lower parking lot which was maybe 200 ft away.

I woke up just as we were arriving at the condo at 9am. Mike decides he wants to sleep instead of packing. This perturbs me a bit cuz we have to be out of the condo by 11am. As I am taking some trash out, the maids are already there and waiting to clean. I tell them we will be leaving at 11am. I know they had more guests coming that night, but still. We did manage to leave at 11am on the dot.

We head into Kahului to go to the CostCo to return some stuff we didn't even open, and to get some macadamia nuts for some gifts. We decided to drive all the way to Kihei to eat at a different Maui Tacos than we had before. Before going there, we went to Longs Drug Store to get envelopes to send off our gifts. Right across the street from that is a post office. It dawns on me that it's a Sunday, but then I figure I could use the Automated Postal Center. When we get there, the APC is down and not selling postage. Of course not, that would be too easy. So, we head to Maui Tacos, eat entirely too much food there, then head back into Kahului to find another post office.

We managed to find it, but this one doesn't even have an APC. Ummmm... it's not like we can take this on the plane. I absolutely refuse to pay the airlines extra money cuz my bags will end up overweight. And I'm already going to be carrying on too much. What the hell are we gonna do?!?!?! Oh, wait, can I just buy some stamps and pop it in the mail. Nope, because I mail so much stuff on PaperBackSwap and SwapADVD, I happen to know that you cannot mail something that is heavier than 13 ounces with just stamps without handing it to a postal worker. Weird rule, but I've been bitten by it before, so I know not to try that. As we are driving around, we see a Pak Mail that is actually open. OMG. These people are nothing but thieves! They won't ship it for anything less than Priority Mail and that is like $20 per package, and we have 4. Their reasoning for using Priority Mail was silly, but whatever. I'd rather pay them than the airlines any day.

Because Mama's Fish House was so amazing, we made dinner reservations there for 5:00pm. We still have some time to kill, so we drive towards that area and go to the beach we saw before that had some windsurfers. We hit it big. There were tons of surfers and TONS of windsurfers. Mike went out to watch 'em out there, and I stayed in the car and watched them. There were so many people out at that beach, but I had a great view of all the windsurfers, and it just mesmerized me.

After that we drove into Pāʻia and then past that into Makawao Town (Cowboy Town), got gas, and managed to be late for our reservation at Mama's.  Mike had an Uku dish cooked in upcountry style, and I had the mahi mahi dish Mike had at our previous visit. Very good. Ridiculous how good their food is. We also made sure to have one more Scorpion before we left the island. Mike even managed to get the recipe from the bartender for it. Excellent.

We headed to Alamo to return our rental car, and I almost forgot my wallet in the car. We got to the terminal and put our bags through the agriculture inspection, then TSA.  Then we went to get our boarding passes, and we have one bag at 44 lbs, and the other at 54 lbs or something. Mike took them and moved stuff around so they would both be under the 50 lb restriction. I refuse to pay the airlines more for baggage crap. Hate airline fees. Bastards. Anyway... Mike did that, but was told he had to go back through the whole process. So, back to the ag inspection, back to TSA, and finally off we go. We couldn't have timed it better. We had a few minutes before boarding started and it dawns on me that I think I forgot my glasses in their case in the rental car.  Mike called Alamo for me, and since we didn't have time to go get them, he arranged for Alamo to mail 'em to us and charge us. They only charged us $10 for fedex, so not bad.

We got on the plane, and Mike was out pretty quickly. I actually stayed awake and watched Horton Hears A Who, I shouldn't have bothered, but then after that I completely conked out. I can never sleep on a plane. Not truly sleep. But I slept all the way until just before landing in LAX. THEN, I actually managed to do the same thing all the way to Austin. Couldn't have asked for better, it seems so fast when you're asleep the whole time!

When we arrived at the house, my office Aeron chair was completely coated in white Sundae fur. I think she may have actually missed me!

Mike woke up at 6am to see if he could find us a snorkeling cruise out to Molokini Crater. He found one with Pacific Whale Foundation @ 7:45. We got lucky. The boat we were on usually holds 100 ppl, but for whatever reason we only had 22. It made for a great casual trip. When we got to Molokini the water was quite choppy. However, right as we were getting in the water it got much better. It was great. There were tons of fish here, and I even got to see this wicked looking eel. Because the weather had gotten so nice and calm, the captain took us around the back of Molokini as we were leaving the area. He showed us all the damage the military did to it. (Just like they did with Kahoʻolawe). They used it as a bombing target practice because it's silhouette was similar to an aircraft carrier. You can still see bullet holes and other big gouges in the side. You can see normal natural erosion on the other side of it. Big difference. It makes me sick to see what we as a country or maybe just the military are willing to do sometimes. Why would that seem like an OK thing to do? It just truly baffles me.

We headed to another area that the captain called "Dirty Harry Bay" cuz Clint Eastwood has a house right there by the water. It's also called Turtle Arches, cuz there are lots of turtles under these coral arch things. It wasn't the clearest of water, but we did manage to see a couple turtles. There was a whitetip reef shark under an arch that our instructor Steve found by quite the surprise. I didn't validate that myself. I trust that it was there and scared the crap out of him. On our way back into Māʻalaea Harbor, we saw 3-4 turtles surface for air right near the boat. Much better views than our previous turtle exposure. One even stayed up for a LONG time, I think he was hamming it up for all the cameras.

We got back into the harbor, put our stuff into the car, and then ate lunch at Beach Bum's Bar & Grill. Nothing special, but it got the job done.

We left and headed out to West/West Maui in search of the best banana bread on the planet. At least according to the writer of our Maui guide. We stopped at two places in Kahakuloa Town -- Julia's and Lorraine's. We got banana bread at both, and a shave ice from Lorraine's. Julia's was definitely supreme. Definitely the best one we'd had on Maui for sure.

Shortly after Kahakulua we came upon the area where the Nakalele Blowhole is. We noticed a ton of broken car window glass bits all over the ground where you park for it. Not a reassuring thing. We just stayed up on the top there and didn't hike down to the Blowhole. This was already a long day and we were just exhausted. We sat on the cliff area up there and just watched the blowhole going nuts. We definitely got there at a good time of day.

We came back to the condo around 5:30pm. Mike immediately went to sleep, and I started packing and doing general clean-up, then finally went to bed at 7:15pm.

The usual morning. We actually went to the beach at our condo for the first time and took a dip and a snorkel. The waves were pretty rough out there so I didn't snorkel too much. I ended up just hanging out in the water enjoying the waves smacking into me. No, seriously, I REALLY love getting pummeled by waves. It's so much fun!

After that, we packed up to go snorkeling in La Perouse Bay. On our way there we stopped at a little food stand called Makena Grill and got some fish tacos and macaroni & cheese. Weird combo, yes.. but tasty food. It was so good. The tacos had a pineapple salsa on them. I didn't even mind the cilantro that much. The mac&chz had a very smoky flavor to them. I guess from the smoker they use to cook much of everything. It was really good though.

We went further down that road and ended up parking in a lot where the road ended. It was very strange. Imagine a big gravel parking lot, and then imagine that gravel is lava rock. See, strange. We walked up the road there to find the trailhead to get to the snorkeling spot known as the Aquarium. Mike had already been to this spot before I got here, and he told me it was a pretty flat trail with only a little bit of climbing over boulders or big rocks. The boy was apparently on some really good drugs when he went the first time or something because that hike was horrible. In what the guides say should take no more than 30 minutes, took us 90 minutes. Why so long, you wonder? Mike couldn't remember how to get there. And so we seemed to be off trail most of the time and we were doing nothing but climbing and dealing with lava rocks and whatnot. After awhile I was so tired and my legs were so wobbly, it was just getting scary to continue. So, of course I started to cry like a ninny. My legs were shaking, I was scratched in a few places from the lava rock and the weather was kinda crap. Despite my whining and crying, we managed to make it there, and I'm so glad we did. This was, by far, the best snorkeling I've ever done to date. Insane. It was the first time I truly felt like I was intruding on their turf. It was just gorgeous. The water was freezing.. FREEZING... and the wind was blowing hard, but it was awesome. At one point, Mike got my attention and started pointed behind me and there was this HUMONGOLOID green sea turtle. It just glided by us like it didn't have a care in the world. It had some weird barnacle looking things on him. Later we found out they were a type of tumors. Poor guy. We managed to find a bit of an actual trail on the way back so it was a lot faster leaving.

We drove back to Napili, grabbed a tasty MickyD's beverage. On our way back to the condo, we decided to tour a local neighborhood called Kahana Ridge. We saw a house for sale in the area and grabbed a flyer to see how much. An awesome looking house 1900ish sq ft... yours for only $918,000. Yeeow.

Back to condo. I had managed to snag some trial size hair conditioner, and I showered and conditioned my hair 3 times. This was the first time since I'd been in Hawaii. My hair felt like straw. Oh, it was so refreshing to have my hair feel so nice again.

We went and had dinner on Front Street in Lahaina at a pizza joint called BJ's Chicago Pizzeria. Excellent deep dish pizza. Yum. We walked around down there a bit, and wandered into an art gallery called Diamond Head Art Gallery. Random, yes, but it ended up being really cool. We saw this one artist's work that I just fell in love with -- Leohone. The ones I saw were all of Hawaiians and their ancestors sort of like spirits around them. There was this one of a really tired guy that can't paddle his boat, and you see the ancestors helping him. It was just gorgeous.

I don't have any pictures of this day because we used the disposible camera. Once we get them scanned in, I'll put some up.

NOTE: I just found out today that the area where we snorkeled - La Perouse Bay - has been closed as of August 1, 2008 for 2 years. They are worried about preserving the area. It's crazy! We just made it before it got closed. I feel so lucky. Here are some news stories about it.

Mike had to get up early for scuba. So, I slept in... til 8:30 even!  Did the morning thing of breakfast on the lanai. Then I proceeded to lay on the bed with my ipod to listen to an audiobook. And of course, I fell back alseep until 12:30.  When Mike got back he was crazy starving, so we got lunch at Maui Tacos. I had a Wet Napili Burrito. It was so good. Even better than the first Maui Tacos outing. Mike then needs to crash, so we go home and he sleeps, while I read and sleep. We finally wake up cuz we had to get up for Warren & Annabelle's.

We managed to wake up late and got there about 15-20 minutes late. I thought it was a hard set time, but we were allowed in. When we arrived we were given a key and then ushered into this room with 4 doors and a bookshelf. We were given some clues and had to figure out where to unlock the room so we could get into the main room. We put it into one door based on a clue, and we were wrong. I think we may have tried another door and then finally got it.  (I won't ruin it for others who haven't yet attended a show there.) We selected some place to sit and ordered apps and drinks. Everything was very tasty. We were then given quite the show with a ghost playing a piano and a waitress singing along. Slightly cheesy, but still really fun. We were asked if we wanted to be in the front row for the magic show, and I begrudgingly agreed. This was truly what I didn't want, but I figured I would try to be brave. We then went into the magic theater and I got the first spot to the left of the magician. This had me very worried, and rightly so. This spot ended up being prime picking-on spot. I had a whole lot to do with the first magician, and not quite as much with the second. Oh yah, we weren't able to see Warren cuz he was on vacation, so we saw a couple other guys -- John Shryock, and Dana Daniels.  I found John Shryock more entertaining by far.

We left there and were back at the condo by 9:30pm. Crashed.

Such a rough day of sleeping :D

Had the "usual" morning of breakfast on the lanai. How easy such things become the norm. "Yes, I lounge about on my lanai to eat my meals, while I look upon the beautiful water and beach, don't you?" Slowly - very slowly - we started to get ready for the Road to Hana. We had planned to get up really early to go up to Haleakala for the sunrise, but we had an alarm snafu. So, Road to Hana it is. In between getting ready we laid back down. So nice to laze about. We finally got the energy and left the condo at 11ish.

We decided to have lunch in Pāʻia at a place called Cafe Mambo. The book didn't think the place was stellar but it looked like our kind of place. We stepped in, and we were right. It reminded us of Austin even with it's very hippie-artsy vibe. We had their Sesame & Nori Tofu Fajitas, and they were most excellent. No idea what the author of the guide ordered, but it definitely wasn't these fajitas.

We then continued on past Mama's Fish House and onto the Road to Hana, this was after 12. Yeeeiiikes. The road was crazy. There are supposed to be a ton of waterfalls on this road, but we didn't see too many. We did get out for a couple, but it got old real quick to see they were trickles. Apparently this is the dry time of the year, so they tend to be a bit lacking. Maybe next time then.

We stopped in Ke'anae, this wee little village type place on a peninsula, and stopped for some banana bread and shave ice - guava flavored. Mmmmmm. Best shave ice yet. Saved the banana bread for later. We stopped just a couple of miles past Ke'anae at the Halfway to Hana store and got more banana bread there. More driving through lush hills with the occasional rotting mango stink. Just before Hana, we stopped at the Honokalani Black Sand Beach in the Wainapanapa State Park. Mike hiked down it, I didn't. I looked at it from above. I just wasn't in the mood to get covered in sand.  Plus, it was so gorgeous from my view, I just didn't imagine it got much better. We got to Hana, drove around there a bit (not much to see there), and then started back. I didn't want to be driving that crazy road at night.  On the way back we stopped at another little roadside stand and got some hot sweet corn on the cob. It's hard for me to pass up corn on the cob after getting out of braces. Yes, I understand I got out of braces 3 years ago, but you be in braces for 5.5 years and not have some degree of food related trauma, I dare you.

Right before Mama's Fish House we stopped to have a wee tinkle and admire the stunning view. The water is must choppier on this side of the island, but apparently it makes for perfect wind-surfing conditions. We saw a few out there, but nothing crazy. We still watched them for a bit before heading back through Pāʻia, then to Lahaina. We decided to eat in Lahaina at Bubba Gump's. It's a chain, but neither one of us have eaten there, so why not try it for the first time in Maui? On our walk along Front Street to Bubba Gump's, I wanted to stop at Na Hoku, a Hawaiian jeweler. I don't necessarily like to admit this, but I saw an ad in the Hawaiian Airlines magazine for a necklace that I really took a liking to instantly. We did go in, and I took a look, but without touching. If I don't touch, I don't have to have. But man-oh-man, I wanted it. I knew the one in the ad for the $299 price was going to be small, and it was, but the next size up was a whopper of a price difference. I decided to think it over, and we just went to eat.

I was very tired, so it wasn't much more than ordering and eating. Not too much in the way of conversation or anything. Just wiped. The food was OK there, nothing to write on your blog about or anything. We headed out and decided to go back into Na Hoku. This time I did touch, and tried on the small one and the bigger one. Sure enough, the bigger one looked perfect on me. Even Mike agreed the bigger one was better. We sifted through some different chains and I found a 20-inch one I loved to go with it. Then after that purchase we were informed that we qualified for a free pearl at The Pearl Factory store next door. We popped over there, and picked out a fresh oyster from a bucket and they opened it to reveal the pearl inside. The tricky thing here is now they want to sell you a setting for said "free" pearl. After much haggling with the persistent salesman, I finally ended up with their cheap ring setting. It took work though. Quite the scam these stores have together.

We head back to the condo, and I'm giddy the whole way cuz of my new sparkly bling. Off to bed though. There's always tomorrow to admire the gorgeousness.

After breakfast on the condo's lanai, we walked all of 100 feet or so to Snorkel Bob's to rent me some snorkel gear. We then got ready, and headed to Honolua Bay for some snorkeling. We were using our Maui Revealed guide and we weren't completely sure where it was. On the way there, in one of those one way construction areas where they have to stop one direction of traffic for the other, we were offered some Maui Wowie from the waiting car on the opposite direction. Interesting sales tactic, I thought. Laughing about that, we continued, and did find the entrance to the trail to Honolua without too much hassel. The trail was pretty cool. It was very jungle-y. Very dense vegetation. At one point, it starts to smell funny and I notice a bunch of mangoes all over the ground. The smell would be something we would get to know quite well in Maui. Old, rotting, fermenting mangoes.... *shudder*  We continue our trespassing hike towards the bay, and arrive to a moderately busy rock/boulder beach. I really do dislike the hardship of rock type beaches. With some effort, we eventually get into the water and head out away from the other folks. It was really nice, though slightly murky. Saw all kinds of different fishies. Still no turtle, but we did hear a lady say she saw them out there. Bah.

Woo.. that couple of hours in the sun is just tiring! So, we went back to the condo and napped. What was funny about our naps, were that most of the time they weren't intended. We would just end up laying on the bed thinking of something to do, being lazy, enjoying the surf noise, and poof, we'd be out. Based on recommendations from the guest book in the condo, as well as a couple we met at the lu'au, we made reservations for dinner at Mama's Fish House. We then went out to our beach, and walked around the bend over some big boulders, and ate lunch at Gazebo's. Which is literally a gazebo by the beach that serves food. It has maybe 12 tables in the whole joint, so we waited for about 30ish minutes. Nothing too bad. I had a Monte Cristo and Mike had some veggie burger I think. Not bad Not bad. Oh, and while we were eating, this bigass pigeon landed on this dude's head behind Mike. It was funny, cuz this was a damn big bird, and the guy said he thought "Someone was getting fresh with him".

I really can't remember what we did next, hmmm.. maybe we ate then napped. Dunno, but there definitely was food and sleeping in some order.

Later on, we decided to head out towards the other side of the island for Mama's Fish House. We headed out way early, with plenty of time to find the place. Well, right as we get past Pāʻia, we see the traffic slow and a cop on the road. We quickly figure out it's an accident and wait for a few minutes there. Once we realize we might be stuck for awhile, I look for an alternate route to Mama's. I find one, so we turn around and head that way. This was when I first learned that if a road is on the map in Maui it doesn't mean that's it's paved. It was mostly a dirt road through what looked like farm fields. And it also appeared that others in the other direction were having the same idea we did about bypassing the accident. So, we finally get back out to the main road on the other side, and realize we are stuck on this side too. That was good for a guffaw. As people turned around, and traffic move ahead every so slowly, we managed to get to the entrance of Mama's Fish House and made our reservation right on time. Good thing we left early.

This place is nice. It's close to the beach, it's a very nice upscale place but has a great warm feeling still. We grab drinks at the bar as they are getting our table ready, then we get seated at a window seat facing the beach. And I mean facing the beach. Our table was a half circle table with the flat end up against the window, and we looked out the open window to the beach at night. We might not have been able to see much of the beach, but it was still quite beautiful. We got an appetizer of crab cakes that had a fire & ice relish that was insane. Mike ordered a mahi mahi dish, and I got a shrimp & pork tenderloin dish. We ended with the black mousse pearl dessert. So pretty it was almost a shame to eat. But not quite :D

Drove back to condo. Crashed.

Mike was there when I arrived which was really nice! I was so happy to see his mug. Mike had already been snorkeling before he came to get me and said he was worried he wasn't going to make it in time, but he did. After he picked me up, we went to CostCo to grab some food & alcohol stuffs. Also went to Wal-Mart to get some reef shoes, beach mats, and other beach-y paraphernalia.

We then headed out towards Lahaina, which is about an hour from Kahului.  We stop at Longs Drug Store & Safeway to grab a few more things, then stop at Maui Tacos for lunch. It was really good. Once we got to the condo in Napili Bay, we took a long nap. I was knackered. We eventually got up and got ready for the lu'au.

We then went to the Old Lahaina Lu'au. It was hot as hell and I made the awful mistake of wearing make-up. I was literally melting. Geeeez. The sun could not set fast enough. I ended up liking this lu'au a whole lot more than the first one overall. It was smaller and felt less like an amusement park than the first one. The food was also better and felt more hawaiian than the one at Paradise Cove.

We went back to the condo, I cleaned up a bit, and then off to bed.

We were supposed to go to Pearl Harbor, but Michelle stayed up a bit late after the wedding, so didn't wake up early enough. Since all tours leave at 6:30am, we couldn't do that either. So, Erika & Sharon bought a tour for Tuesday, after I'd be gone. Eventually we did hook up with Michelle and Dorothy. Dorothy was like death on feet. She was absolutely exhausted. All of us headed up toward's North Shore. We passed the Dole factory place, but we didn't stop. Just whizzed by saying "Ooh, look it's Dole". We stopped in Hale'iwa and ate at Macky's Shrimp Truck. We each ordered different shrimp dishes and shared with everyone. Everything was just delicious.

After we ate, we made our way to Shark's Cove for some snorkeling. As we are walking down to that beach, I recognize someone. As we get closer, I realize I am right. I see Brian Grazer with two children getting ready to go out in the water. I know you're probably thinking "big woop" but he's a HUGE TV & Film producer. There are very few producers that are as well known as he is. Granted, he's got a bit of a unique look so that helps. Anyway... we continue on, go out. Froze our butts off. It was beautiful snorkeling. Not the best or anything, but still it was great. The surf was a bit rough, but still manageable. We got out for awhile, chilled, then went back in for a bit more. We were trying to catch glimpses of a turtle or two. Unfortunately we never did see one.

After leaving there, we headed up the road just a bit and stopped at a rest stop type area. Dorothy cleaned up a bit as her flight was in a few hours. We then walked across the street to Sunset Beach to have a dip while the sun was setting. Dorothy stayed in the car and slept. Sharon didn't get in the water, but sat on the beach while Erika, Michelle and I got in the water. It was a really cool beach. Right after we got near the water it dropped off something fierce. It was cool though. The waves were constant and rolling, I could definitely see how they could be monster waves in the winter. Great place for it. Apparently Sunset Beach is where a lot of the North Shore surfing competitions are held. That would be awesome to see.

We headed back towards Honolulu and dropped Dorothy off at the airport. After we left the airport and we were about halfway back to the hotel, Michelle got a call from Dorothy saying she found a different flight in the morning she would rather take and to come get her. So, we start to turn around. Then we get a call from her again saying that she was wrong and she didn't need us to pick her up. Craziness.

We eventually make it back to the hotel, rinse off quickly, and go down to the restaurant at our hotel called Tiki's Grill & Bar. We treat Michelle to dinner as she drove us around everywhere. I ordered the Hawaiian Gnocchi. It was awesome. It had a coffee based sauce and had pork, butternut squash, carrots. It was really good. The girls helped me finish it off. After that, I gave Michelle a big hug and said goodbye. I really like her. I will definitely have to keep in touch. She's good people.

Ahhh.. the wedding day. How I do love weddings. (that's sarcasm)

Sharon left the hotel really early to go get ready for the wedding with all the other bridesmaids. Erika and I eventually got up, went & got our breakfast as usual, and then slowly got ready for the wedding. Once we were done we walked the whole two blocks to the church -- St. Augustine By The Sea. We arrived at 11:15am, and the wedding was set for 11:30am, but we seemed to be the only ones non-wedding party related. This was when I started to realize that maybe everyone at the wedding was with the wedding party. And by wedding party in this case, I mean the people directly in the wedding in some way or another. Eventually the wedding started, and it was a full on Catholic mass. There was a bit of Philippine tradition that I had not seen before at a wedding, which made it a little more interesting. New stuff spices it up for me, ya see. After the wedding, we blew bubbles at the couple.

On our walk back to the hotel,  Erika and I decided that we were going to be naughty and go to the beach in the time between the wedding and the reception. So, we went to the beach, had fun & sun, then went back to our hotel to re-shower, re-dress, re-primp. So, freshly ready yet again, we got a taxi to take us to Kahala Hotel & Resort where the reception was being held. Holy crap. This place is the kind of place that really really rich people and celebrities stay at. This place was just gorgeous, and extravagant, and just insane. They have their own dolphins for pete's sake. We walked around the courtyard there, found the bride & bridesmaids taking pictures near the beach, and waited for them before we headed to the cocktail hour. Had some cocktails and hors d'œuvres, and then into the ballroom for the reception.

We waited for awhile while being situated and the wedding party got ready to make their entrance. It was kind of funny, cuz they entered to like maybe 10 people that weren't part of the family/party. It was cute. The couple did their first dance (before dinner?) and then there were some speeches & toasts. Now, I will say the toasts started me thinking and slowly got me in a bit of a funk. My bad, but it still sucked. Ya see, there were three (or more) toasts at my wedding, and they were all about telling me how lucky I was to have Mike. But no one came up to talk about me and how lucky Mike was. It was slightly embarassing, and as is evident, still eats at me a bit. Which then got me thinking about my brother (who was my Man of Honor) and family in general, and that just got me to a really bad place. I couldn't even muster up the desire to dance. And I love to dance. It was just a bummer.

Anyhoo... So, dinner was served. The first course was a sushi style plate with three different types of tuna pieces, including a tartare -- which I love. We'd seen the menu for the night, but I couldn't really remember what it all was. But I do remember lobster being involved at some point. So, really looking forward to everything if the first course was this yum. Second course was a seafood (including lobster) stuffed pastry purse which was very tasty too. Then the main course was a filet mignon and lobster, over potatoes & asparagus. So simple, yet so well done. Excellent. But, the real kicker was yet to come. The dessert. You would think the wedding cake would be THE dessert. But oh no. There was crème brûlée, and boy was there. That had to be the best crème brûlée, I've ever had. And it was HUGE too, so it wasn't like you weren't going to get enough. I looked over at Erika at one point, and said "Would it be bad form if I started to lick this clean?" and her response was something like "Not at all, it would almost be a shame if you didn't. And I might join you." I totally paraphrase, but that was the basic gist. Point being - DELISH! Then the wedding cake came out and I'm so friggin' full at this point I just point at the chocolatey looking flavor piece and take a couple surprisingly bland bites and push it to the side. I think the other flavor was a guava flavored one, but I tried that and it was equally blah. But, that's OK. Cuz the cake was gorgeous and all the rest of the food was divine. You can have one bad thing, especially when everything else was insanely awesome. Oh, as a side note.. our waiter was a complete dick. We were so nice to him. We kept saying "Thank you!" when he handed us our dishes and he would give us these ugly sneers and not say anything at all. We would ask for refills and he would get snooty and say the bar is closed, and when we told him it wasn't that just made him worse. Erika decided she would kill him with kindness and was extra nice and that just seemed to irritate him more. It did become fun after a bit though.

So, after the food, I believe this is when the dancing begun. Yah, at this point I was just a bummer, and sat back being kind of sad. For whatever reason, it was really hard to see there and see this HUGE family with friends having such a great time and being so close and being silly with each other. Instead of enjoying it for what it was, it just made me sad. After that, as we started to walk out, we noticed some pictures by the door. The photographers (There were 4, and 2 videographers) had already printed out some of the photos they took earlier that day and had them in this cool frame. The photos were awesome. The couple have a page with a slide show of some of the pics and also their wedding page. Check it out.

We headed out to the front of the hotel to get a concierge to get us a taxi. While we were waiting, Sharon decided it was time to get her bridesmaid's dress off right then and there. It was way too small for her and she was in pain most of the day. Actually, it seemed like most of the bridesmaids were uncomfortable cuz their dresses were too small. So, back to Sharon, she grabs her bag that her clothes are in and starts to strip right there in this extravagant hotel's lobby. It was awesome. She seemed a bit tipsy too, so that was even funnier. She did it very sly-like, granted, but it was still awesome. She pulled her shirt on over the dress, unzipped the dress... sighed in relief and enjoyed that for a moment... then pulled on her pants under the dress then got the whole dress off. Voila! She also kept flingin' her bouquet here and there and the flowers in it were mostly gone, but at one point she decides to try to pitch it in what she thought was a trash bin, but was really just a big nice huge plant-type pot set out for display. It was fun to watch.

Got the taxi, got back to the hotel, crashed.

Again, fuzzy on the morning details. But I remember that Sharon was at the wedding rehearsal and Erika and I split a pizza and a salad at Wolfgang Puck Express. At some point we met up with Sharon, Dorothy, and Michelle. Michelle dropped the rest of us off at Diamond Head State Monument. I didn't realize we would be doing some hiking, so did not pack appropriate footwear for the occasion. But I decided I could do it anyway. OMG. I should have used the fact that all I had were flip-flops as an excuse to stay back. Goodgawd. I literally made it like 20 feet from the top. I just couldn't make it any further. I felt like my stomach was going to come out of my mouth. I got close enough. The rest of the girls went up the last set of steps from hell to take the view in from the top. I stayed in a little area just below those steps admiring my view. It was gorgeous too. Hmph. Before we started the hike back down, we called up Michelle to tell her we were on our way down. We hiked back down, which always takes so much less time than going up, grabbed a shave ice (yes, that is shave ice, without a D. It's like that everywhere in Hawaii. I thought it was weird too), and generally chilled out while we waited for Michelle. When Michelle arrived she also had the bride to be. We all squeezed in the car, and Michelle headed towards our second drop off point -- Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.

She dropped us off. We ate at the cafe at the top before heading down to the bay to snorkel. Before going down, you have to watch a 15-minute video instructing you on how not to be an ass and destroy coral and mess with the fishies environment. We head down there, get our gear, and off we go. Sharon & Dorothy seemed to have quite a difficult time of it that day. It was quite humorous even. I always knew they were nearby cuz you could hear the laughing/screaming/quasi-panic sounds when I lifted my head up. Michelle told us she would be picking us up at 4pm, so we got out near that time and started to rinse off, dry off, etc. While doing all that we get a call from Michelle saying she would be an hour late. But we were already packed up and ready to go. It was kind of a bummer. So, we hung out at the beach there for a bit, returned our snorkel gear, and took the little bus thingy up the hill. The bus was my treat for everyone cuz I was tired of the hiking bit, and was willing to fork over the dough to not have to walk up that hill. We waited at the top for quite awhile. Even endured a light sprinkling of rain at some point. Michelle & Aileen (the bride), came and got us.

Back to the hotel for us where we got cleaned up. After Erika & Sharon showered, they went off to get Korean BBQ while I showered. I met back up with them on the road, where we spent entirely too long looking for Aileen's hotel. We eventually found it, with no help from the locals. No one knew where this hotel was and it was right off the main road. It was weird. Anyway, we finally made it there. We eat on her balcony, and then when it gets to that time, everyone heads out to the balcony to watch the fireworks. We could not have had a better view. It was awesome. It was a 20-minute long display of awesome firepower. Shortly after that, we left, and crashed.

I honestly cannot remember how the morning went this day. I didn't write my notes on this day until days after, so I just completely lost the morning. No biggie.. it was probably something like, woke up, ate breakfast. I know, exciting right? The part I do remember is Erika and I walking down the main street there looking for a spa to get a massage. I was excited by the thought of getting one, but also nervous. I've never gotten one before and it's always seemed so bizarre to me. Some stranger feeling you up. Well.. hmm.. now that I put it that way. Doesn't sound so bad :D

We checked out one place but it didn't quite meet Erika's muster. So, we keep walking. We try to go up to one, and it ends up being on the roof of this kinda moldy smelling hotel. Good thing that one was closed. Ew. We ended up at the Hyatt Regency Wakiki Resort & Spa called Na Ho’ola , and WOW. I can just say... WOW. WOW. First, the place is just so serene and gorgeous, and you seriously have an elevated front row view of the greatest part of Waikiki Beach. Just like that picture on their website. Hell, that might even be the chairs me and Erika sat in and the view we saw. Beyond gorgeous. WOW. We look over their menu of spa services and decide to get the couple's massage (cuz it's cheaper that way you pervs) and choose the Ho'ola massage. I guess it's their signature massage or something. But, since I don't know any type of massage from another, I can't really tell you how it differs. WOW. WOW. I know, but yah, it just rocked my world. We finish that up, go take showers in their very nice girls locker room, and head out to do some more relaxing beachside.

Before hopping across the street to the beach, Erika & I grabbed a deli sandwich and some fruit from a convenient store and split all that while sitting on a park bench looking out at the beach. Seems so simple and like no big deal, but just sitting there eating and looking at a gorgeous beach is just about as relaxing as it can get. We finish that up, walk about 30 feet from the bench and plop down our beachmats and stuff. I didn't know about Erika, but I can't just lay out at a beach. Dunno why, but that's just not how I roll. I'm a water gal. The waves are good too. I like being smacked around by waves. Call me crazy. I think it was just before we head into the water or maybe just after, that Sharon met up with us. She was done with her bridesmaid duties for the day, so had some time to play with us. I practically ran into the water. I just couldn't wait. Sharon seemed a bit intimidated by the water, but she managed to wiggle her way out a bit. All three of us pretty much just played in the waves and had fun.

We did have to be ready for the lu'au by 3:45. For some reason, we had it in our minds that everyone else was wrong and our thinking of 4:45 was more accurate. What we didn't realize is 4:45 was when the lu'au started. But, 3:45 was when the buses were going to be behind the Hyatt to pick us up to drive us an hour to get there. So, a few phone conversations made us realize this and we had to scramble FAST. Three females got ready, including showers and partially blown dry hair, in less than 30 minutes. It might be a record. I sacrificed, I showered last and let my hair wet. I know, such a friend. Had nothing to do with the fact that I hardly ever blow dry my hair.

We end up running several blocks to where the buses are, then get in this long line. Sharon can't see anyone from the wedding party in our line, so we're kinda wondering what is going on. Another phone call, and we find we are at the wrong bus. Thankfully, our bus is just on the other side of the street from the current one. The wedding party was so big we got our own bus. Yay! They were waiting for us, cuz as soon as we got on, off we went. It did end up taking us an hour to get there cuz of Honolulu traffic. It's a beast, but nothing I haven't seen before. We get to Paradise Cove and it almost feels like an amusement park entrance. We get shell lei'd, handed a mai tai, and we get a group picture the entire wedding party. I say wedding party, meaning everyone in the wedding and attending the wedding. It was about 60ish people.  Then we are off on our own to check out the arts & crafts and demonstrations. The actual food portion of the lu'au wouldn't start for another two hours. So, we needed to be busy. One of the first things we did was head towards the shore area near some bushes and start taking pictures of each other. While taking these pics, a tall attractive dude was nearby and Sharon asks if he would take a pic of all three of us. He does, then Sharon starts talking him up. He's from Oklahoma, he's there in Hawaii with a couple hundred or so high school football boys (oh, that's who all those dudes in jerseys that got off 3 or so buses were). See, he's coaching them in some All-American team thing they've got going. Wowza. So, just as Sharon is going to make the transition to get Erika in the conversation, Michelle calls us over to her to get pics with them. Introduction of two attractive singles only one state apart failed. It could have been so beautiful.

We get more drinks and keep walking around. Quick lesson on drinks ... Mai Tais are everywhere and they are really delicious. Apparently there is this other drink called a Lava Flow that is also everywhere and consists of a Pina Colada with a strawberry mix of some sort, resulting in the sweetest damn drink I've ever had. I think Sharon ordered one, and after a few of us tried it, it sat there all alone, un-drunk. Deathly sweet. I'll conclude with the Tropical Itch. This was my kind of drink. And apparently everyone else's too. We all ended up getting them a few times, and every time you ordered one it came with one of those bamboo back scratcher. Yah, I have a few. It was very refreshing to drink with abandon knowing that the worst we would have to do was walk to where the bus dropped us off to our hotel. Funny thing though, no matter how much we drank, and the tropical itches seemed rather full of alcohol, I don't think any of us got drunk. It was weird.

Finally, it's getting time for the food, and they sound the alarm (blowing a conch shell) and everyone hustles over to this mini arena type place where the pig is roasting and they do this ceremony thing that I can't see too well, and then the pig gets pulled out of the ground and taken away. We finally get the OK to head to the buffet and I think I got a little of everything so I could say I at least tried it. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting as far as food goes. I mean, there was the kalua pork, and some mahimahi, and this lomi lomi salad, but everything else seemed very American-picnic-y. Pasta salad, salad, white rice. I'm sure there's more, I'm just not remembering. Good food, just not as "Hawaiian" as I was expecting. While we eat, we get some entertainment with some hulas and such, but then after most everyone is done eating the real show starts. It was really good. Lots of hulas, different types of polynesian dances, like the Maori Haka, and even a fire dance that I think is supposed to be of Somoan origin. My only criticism of the show was I thought the main host or storyteller was a bit on the cheesy side. Kinda Las Vegas-y in a way. But still, it didn't put me off from the show.

All is over, we pile back onto the bus -- but not before we get a picture with one of the half-naked men at the lu'au -- and head home. Back to hotel, crash.

I get into Honolulu at 4pm-ish local time. The ladies aren't due in Honolulu for another hour or so. I realize that since I came in on Hawaiian Airlines, that I'm nowhere near where I need to be to meet the girls at their baggage claim area. I find someone and they tell me that I can take an airport shuttle that will take me over to the other terminal. I wait for about 15 minutes where they tell me to, but no shuttle seems to be coming my way. I find a map of the airport, and it looks like I can walk to it easily enough. I start walking with my bags, and after what seems like forever, I find the American Airlines baggage area. Just in time, after a bathroom break and a quick phone conversation with Mike, I see the girls headed down the escalator. We do the hello hugs, and talk about flights and all that, and get their bags. Just as we get the bags, Sharon's friends Dorothy and Michelle come running up to us with gorgeous fresh leis. I got lei'd! I didn't think I would get one. It's not like an automatic sort of thing, yanno.

We cram into Michelle's "Island Beater" as she calls it, and head to our hotel. It's a bit of a drive in the evening traffic, and less than 5 minutes out of the airport, we have a bit of a funny thing happen. The three of us girls are in the back, Sharon is in the middle and I'm on the driver side. A mustang pulls up next to the car on the passenger side and the driver dude sees we have on leis. Well, of course that clearly indicates we're fresh on the island, so the following exchange takes place:

Mustang Guy: You need real leis.
Sharon (pulls up and looks at her lei): These are real.
Mustang Guy: That's not the type of lay I'm talking about. <light turns green, and he drives off>

That has us laughing for quite a bit. We definitely start our trip off interestingly. We head to our hotel - ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel - and drop off Sharon & Erika and all of our bags. You see, I'm a bit of a stowaway. We didn't happen to tell them about me, the third person. So, I need to make like a tree and get out of there. Michelle, Dorothy, and I go to park her car at her place, and then we walk back to the hotel. I finally take a very needed shower, and we head out to dinner at Sansei Seafood & Sushi Bar just across the street. It was very good, we have a lot of fun... well, as much fun as three girls that are jet-lagged and about to pass out. After eating we immediately go back to the hotel and crash.

Travel day over.

The first week I will be with a couple girlfriends. They were originally going for a wedding, but since they were going to be there anyway, they thought they would ask their friends if anyone wanted to join and have some good girl time. It sounded interesting to me, but I've never done a girl trip of any sort, so it was a bit perplexing. The more it stayed on my mind, the more I realized I needed to truly consider it.

I told Mike about it, and he was just jealous I would go to Hawaii for the first time without him. So, at some point one of us suggested I meet up with him on Maui after my time with the girls. Well, twist my arm, but ok. I guess I'll spend two weeks in Hawai'i instead of one, and see a city, and then see a nice relaxing type island. Oh, the struggles involved in that decision, let me tell ya! :D I jest, of course.

So, I tell the girls I'm going, and that's that. I book the ticket, which cost a fortune, but Mike's ticket kinda made up for it cuz he used miles for his. From talking to booking was like maybe 4 days. That is downright spontaneous for us.

Mike will actually head to Maui a couple days before I get there, and he's doing his usual Mike thing. He'll be couchsurfing with one or two different people until I get there and then we have a condo for the rest of that time. He also rented us a convertible car. So, I just cannot wait to get there and just chill. It will be so incredible. I don't care if I don't leave the beach. I will be perfectly content to chill & read on the beach, maybe hit a luau, drive around a bit.. then back to the beach. No rush rush.

Mike has also been taking scuba lessons in prep for the islands.  I guess he finally believed me when I said I would never take scuba lessons. It's just not something that interests me. Actually, the thought of going scuba diving is pretty creepy if you ask me. So, I'm really glad he finally did it. No better time than to scuba than in Hawai'i. I thought maybe if I saw him enjoy it or see his training stuff that maybe it would drive me to want to do it. I saw some of his DVD training, and I can officially say that I am so NOT interested.  Looks like a buttload of work and just painful. Yeeesh. But he seems to really dig it. I'm really glad. I think he'll have a blast with that.

So, a week from today, I will be on a plane headed to Honolulu. I bet I'm the only one that gets excited about long plane rides. That is awesome killer reading time. Hell, I might even get some work done on my script and/or book.

I also vow to post while I'm there more frequently and to include pictures even!