Ready or not... Here we come to.... DENVER?!?!?

Saturday June 11, 2011

Our early morning flight to Denver would meet us up with the entire Thomson family - Rick's mom and dad, 2 sisters and their husbands, and 4 kids aged 7-12.  Rick and I had a much longer layover, so we made our way around - Rick needed a massage to get his back ready for the long flights and I wanted to shop at Jet Pets - an airline themed pet boutique.  Rick's massage went well, Jet Pets was closed.  Boo.  On to Pour la France Cafe for a lunch and hella Colorado beers - Breckenridge Irish Red for me, Black Butte Porter for Rick.

Met up with the entire clan about 11:00 am and waited.  And waited.  Delayed mechanical.  Boarded the plane. I looked out my window and the ramper gave me a head shake and a thumbs down.  Just then, I noticed them offloading our luggage.  Cancelled the flight.  WHA? Now we're on to the Airport Ramada for the night at United's expense.

Rick, bro in law Arnie, and I bided our time at the Sporting News Grill where we partook in their $6 pitchers of Coors Light.  Other bro in law Steve joined us at the hotel's wonderfully concrete indoor pool with a 12 of the Silver Bullet.  It was fun to drink, listen to music, and catch up on things, but it should've been in Maui!

United put us all on the same ship (767-322) the next morning at 8... ON OUR WAY!

Finally ON OUR WAY!

Sunday June 12, 2011

Boarding and takeoff of UA301 take 3 was uneventful.  TAP THE ROCKIES!

Rick's brother in law Steve won the "Halfway to Hawaii" game by correctly writing down what time we'd be, well, halfway to Hawaii! *duh* He received a ukulele CD that I don't think we ever listened to.  Honorable Mention went to a woman who simply answered "yesterday."  She got the better prize - a bottle of champagne.  Drinks were free throughout the flight because of yesterday's cancellation, so it was a pretty decent ride into Maui.  Rum and Cokes all the way!

I'd never seen people run off a plane so fast before but they must've jumped out of windows or something in Maui.  While I was waiting at baggage, Rick surprised me with a yellow lei that smelled AMAZING!

Yeah, I'm just a bit tired, don't ya think?

On a random note: there are chickens everywhere.  Yes, CHICKENS! Just like the ones all over Lafreniere park down here in Metairie.  Anyhow, rentals were picked up and we made the 30 minute drive to Lahaina.

Wai Ola Vacation Paradise

Sunday June 12, 2011 - Wai Ola Guest House (click on the title above to see their website)

This is where we ALL stayed while in Lahaina,  It was just what everyone needed - separate suites for all 4 families, a common kitchen and living room, laundry access, multiple decks, BBQ area, and a really great pool and spa area.  There is a quiet "honeymoon cottage" to the side of the house.  We all thought the "honeymooners" Rick's mom and dad would want the extra luxuries here but they didn't.  Carrie and Rick are BANISHED to the honeymoon cottage.  No complaints from us! The pool and spa is beautiful and even I swam in it a ton.  If you know me, you know I despise being in the water, but I was having fun with the kids.  We spent the day getting acclimated, buying groceries, and discovering the owner, Jim's, birds Loni and Loki.

Morgan, Me, Mikayla, Katie, Bob

After grilling burgers at the house, we went to Kaanapali Beach to see the sunset.

Vow Renewal Day!

Monday June 13, 2011

Rick, Barb, Arnie, and Morgan all got up at 3 am to see the sunrise at Haleakala.  Not something I really wanted to get up early for.  The pictures are great but Rick says I should be glad I didn't go because: a) it was freezing cold with very high winds on top of the (dormant) volcano.  Even those from Wisconsin had trouble with how cold it was up there. and b) the winding roads were sickening.  Rick also commented that the staff there told them it was the worst looking sunrise in weeks.  Oh well.

One of Rick's pics from Haleakala

This trip was, technically, for my in laws' 45th wedding anniversary.  They planned to renew their vows in a nice ceremony on the beach.  The original plans fell through the day of the ceremony when the wedding planner just stopped taking their calls - long story in itself, but not one that needs to be told here.  Luckily, someone was found that would do a ceremony that very night on Baby Beach in Lahaina.

It was a great ceremony.  Very touching to see my in laws still so very much in love.  Bob (father in law) surprised Sally with a new wedding ring.  She was very shocked! She was even more shocked that all of us except for her had known about the new rings since day 1!

The entire Thomson side of my family

After the ceremony, we all had reservations at Kimo's in Lahaina Town (http://www.kimosmaui.com). Great food and service.  We all had too many mai tais.  They were just way to damn good! Rick decided he wanted to try the Wicked Wahini which was, indeed, wicked.  Glad I just had another mai tai.

Road to Hana... Well, not really.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Rick was up early to pick up the convertible for our drive on the Road to Hana.  Our first stop was the village of Pa'ia and Anthony's Coffee Shop.  Here, they make excellent picnic lunches for people driving the Road to Hana.

We started on the winding road and stopped at Twin Falls.  The hike to the falls was over a mile - something we weren't expecting.  I'm really not a nature kind of girl, so I was rather miserable yet trying to make the best of it.

(L) The main falls of Twin Falls... we didn't make the extra mile hike to the other one.

(R) Me being as one with nature as I possibly can.  Not sure what it is, but I liked to think it was a huge agave - mmmm, tequila.

The Road to Hana itself is 60 miles of VERY tight, winding and narrow road.  We made it to mile 4 before I started getting really nervous and sick.  We turned around and decided to just use the convertible to cruise around Lahaina all day.  Those wonderful picnic lunches were consumed on the upper deck of the rental house! Mmmm... Maui Onion Chips!

The remainder of the day was spent snorkeling at Ka'anipali where Rick happened upon a small sea turtle.  We swam with him for an hour or so.  I can't believe the people who thought the poor turtle was there for them to grab at and touch.  FYI, it's a $5,000 fine to touch a sea turtle in the wild.  Poor little guy.

Shopping, Shave Ice, and Sh.... (Luau Night)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

This morning, I went souvenir shopping in Lahaina Town with my sister in law Barb and niece Morgan. Rick stayed behind to enjoy the house alone while his father took the younger kids to the Maui Ocean Center.  Arnie and Steve went golfing very early.  Diane and Sally went snorkeling.  I found some fun, cheap sundresses for Fiji and tried to shop for everyone back home, but I just couldn't imagine dragging everything on to Fiji.  After shopping, Barb and Morgan got shave (not "shaved" they make a huge deal of that!) ice and shared with me.  It was heavenly! Difficult to think of a pile of shaved ice with flavors described that way but there really are no words for how good it was.

This isn't our picture, but this is exactly what it looked like - HUGE!  Vanilla ice cream underneath, too!

All of us went snorkeling in Kapalua for the afternoon.  Rick came upon 5 VERY large sea turtles (honu).

Only 2 of them - the biggest was twice the size of these.

Being as afraid of the water as I am (only because I can't hold my breath underwater like normal people because of nasal/frontal sinus issues), it usually takes a good 15 minutes to suck up the courage to even put my snorkeling equipment on.  This time, I actually didn't think twice about throwing on my snorkeling equipment and jumping in in less than 5 minutes of Rick yelling for me to come see the turtles.  Heck, I didn't even take the time to put my snorkeling vest on - a first for me - and now I don't think I'll ever use a vest again! Anyhow, YAY! After all of the turtles except the largest one swam away, I was feeling pretty good about my snorkeling skills.  I found a lone, glowing fish and decided to just follow him wherever he went.  Lame, maybe, but it's very rare for me to enjoy being in the water, so I just went with it! This was the type of fish I followed (Picasso Triggerfish):

From Wikipedia 

Tonight, I was really looking forward to the Grand Lahaina Luau.  Having lived in tourist cities and currently living in an over sized tourist city, I wasn't ready for the island's largest tourist trap.  It rained most of the time and they seated us in an area that looked like an outdoor cafeteria - complete with... wait for it... PLASTIC RAIN PONCHOS! I was imagining people walking around Cedar Point and Bourbon Street in those stupid things and here I was, needing to wear one.  Oh well, everyone else was doing it, right? There's a picture of Rick and me being really goofy in ours, pretending to be walruses with our drink straws to entertain the kids.  I'll put it in this post as soon as I find out who has it.  It was classic.  I must say, the kids had a great time.  I don't think I saw them without smiles all night.  Another cool thing was the rainbows.  There were some amazing rainbows that appeared throughout the night.  The food was incredible, too.  I won't say too much about the Polynesian dancing because I think I'd be hypocritical.  I can't dance, period. However, I've seen better Polynesian dancers at Disney.  I was hoping that native dancing on a native island would blow me away.  But it didn't.  Let's just say it was all a bit "Love Boat-esqe."  

A Maui Day to Ourselves

The rest of the family went on the Molokini Snorkeling tour.  We thought we'd get our fill of snorkeling later in Fiji (didn't happen, but oh well).  We lounged around the house with coffee and mimosas deciding that we would go to the Maui Brewing Company for lunch and then go parasailing at Whaler's Village.  We arrived at the Maui Brewing Company as soon as they opened their doors for lunch. All of Maui Brewing Companies beers are poured then served on a frozen bar:

We started with their Hummus Trio: Sundried tomato, roasted garlic, and balsamic hummus with grilled vegetables and pita bread.  All were great.  Then, we shared a Cuban sandwich and a Mahi Mahi sandwich.

Feeling an early buzz, it was time to go parasail! But we didn't see anyone parasailing.  It was really windy, so we went to talk with the guys at UFO Parasail where we had a 2:00 reservation.  We had to cancel that idea - too windy.  But, there was some shopping to be had and a sale at the Coach Store.  I finally bit the bullet and bought the new Poppy perfume and found $100 shoes on sale for $40.  Good times.  Rick had gone back to get our parking ticket validated and somehow found $200 in a bush.  I'll let him tell that story.

Sweet man Rick is, he runs straight to a jewelry store, then when he doesn't find anything he likes, remembers I'm still at Coach.  I don't think I'll ever hear him say "Here's $200 I found.  Go buy that purse you were looking at" ever again! In hindsight, we could've done something else with it, but sometimes you just go on impulse.  Sometimes I wish Rick would think of himself first in situations like this, but I sure am a lucky girl.

After this adventure, we went to have drinks and appetizers at Cane and Taro.  Dinner was at the house that night and we were in bed early to be on to Honolulu in the morning.

Quick Flights to Honolulu for Lunch and Goodbyes

June 18, 2011

Our Hawaiian Airlines flight  from OGG-HNL was uneventful.  We were all put on a bus to the Waikiki Outrigger on the Beach hotel.  Only one room was ready, so we stowed all of our stuff there and went to  Duke's Waikiki.  Here, we imbibed on several Duke's Blond Ale.  Most everyone ordered the lunch buffet, but I ordered sashimi appetizer and fish tacos.  Both were pretty good.

After lunch, we walked through the International Market Place Waikiki.  It would be a great place with kids for souvenir shopping.  I ended up doing my Hawaii shopping at the ABC Stores.  Rick and I continued our walk for awhile, stopped in at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville for a beer, then decided we'd be better off back at Duke's drinking the Blond Ale and watching the kids play on Waikiki Beach.

Waikiki at night

ON... OUR... WAY... TO... FIJI! FIJI! FIJI!

We made it back to the Honolulu airport by 9pm and still had 3 hours till our flight.  Ate Burger King and just messed around.  CO955 HNL-NAD was boarded.  Everyone had a row of 3 seats to themselves (YAY!).  There was a bit of a snafu when the boarded passenger count was off by one.  it took about 15 minutes to fix.   Once we were in the air, we were loaded down with food and snacks - something nobody's used to getting on an airplane these days.  The CMI (Continental Micronesia) Guam-based crew was nothing like I ever experienced with my mainland Continental coworkers.  Amazing people.

After a 6.5 hour flight, we land in Nadi 10 minutes late.  We picked up our bags to take them to the Pacific Sun counter.  There, you have to get on the scale to be weighed with your luggage! Thank God the numbers were facing only the airline agents.  Rick and I took our turns on the scale of doom and we were sent to a small, dirty holding area.

Our flight was called on time and we walk up to this:

DH Twin Otter! Too cool!

(L) Inisde the 12 pax twin otter

(R) I was doing my best to video the takeoff and landing, but it was raining.

The ride was noisy but smooth.  One hour to the island of Vanua Levu and the village of Savusavu.  This was our sight upon landing in Savusavu:

One gate, no lines, no security, and outhouses for bathrooms.  On either side of the airport were grazing cows!

Arrival at NAMALE!

Sunday, June 19, 2011 (we "skipped" all of Saturday by crossing the International Date Line)

Bobo was at the airport with the resort van ready to take us to paradise! The drive was slow because of very high speed bumps placed on the roads of the village, but we were there in about 15 minutes.

We're here!!!

As we exited the van, we were greeted with leis and music.  I knew this was all going to happen, but I was still really emotional.  We were seated at reception with a fruity breakfast drink when I noticed the key holder said "Dream House."  Sure enough, we'd been upgraded by our travel agent.  Check out Leslie Bryant Travel on Facebook.  Needless to say, we're in shock as we'd booked the next to the bottom of the room classes and this was the best of the best (out of 18 rooms, mind you).  Before we are allowed to check in to our HOUSE, they suggest we go eat breakfast (it's only 8:00 am at this point).

DREAM HOUSE!

Please excuse my mispronunciations, wrong words, and our giddy excitement.  This video was taken about 2 minutes after we arrived in the house, and we're a bit crazy!

More on the Dream House

After the making of that video, we were still flying high and very giddy.  What to do at 10 am in Fiji? Pop open the Fiji Gold beer and jump in our fantastic 15 by 20, 5 foot deep pool - all ours! Nobody else allowed unless we invite them!

We eventually made it to lunch where we discovered their tropical drink menu.  After a couple of Ocean Blues for me and Down Unders for Rick, we had a lunch of celery and papaya soup and fish skewers.

Back in the Dream House,  We decided to partake in the mini bar some more while we figured out how our Apple TV worked.

There's a wall of windows in front of the couch with a very large pull down screen for the Apple TV projector.

At our first dinner reception, we had more of their special drinks and Salemo convinced me that I had to have HIS margarita.  While sipping our drinks, we were treated to the village children's choir, then seated for dinner.  I know I had lamb, I think Rick had another type of fish and some prawns.

Village children's choir

We ended the night with Napoleon Dynamite and a bottle of Yellow Tail Sparking White.

As the Days Run Together...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Our mornings involve breakfast brought to our pool deck and a quick swim.  Mimosas and pressed coffee are also a staple.

We decided to check out the Kava Bowl this morning.  It's a recreation center with virtual golf, bowling alley, air hockey, Apple TV, an Internet room, stacks of board games, and a fully stocked help yourself bar.  We did 9 holes of virtual golf.  The bowling alley was malfunctioning.

Rick wanted to check out the snorkeling, but I was afraid because I'd have to jump in off the side of the boat (yay me), so I went to get a mini mani pedi.

At dinner, it was kava night.  Alcohol isn't allowed in the village because they follow very strict Christian rules (very close to the American Nazarene Church), so they grind the root of the plant and add it to water to get their drink on.  I had to try this - tastes like dirty, lukewarm water and makes your entire mouth numb! It was fun to participate in the ceremony, though.  The Kava Boys said, "Drink kava, sleep good tonight!" I actually had sitting up in bed screaming nightmares after kava - go figure.  In the States, you can buy "Kava Kava" in the vitamin section of stores for sleep - same thing, just not as potent.

(L) Chick in the bright pink shirt and white skirt is me.

(R) Kava Band Boys

Horsing Around

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Rick went diving this morning and I went horseback riding.  I was too scared to have the camera with me and I'm glad I was.  My horse, Andi, was very temperamental and wanted to RUN the entire time.  I got back into the groove of riding on a running horse after 5 minutes, but it wasn't the leisurely ride I was looking for.  Neither me nor Emosi (the staff member who was riding another horse named Chocolate) could get Andi to calm down! I rode with Emosi along the beach, down the road a ways, and around the back side of the resort.  It did end up being relaxing once I figured out how to get the horse calmed, but my backside hurt for 3 days after that.

My ride only took 45 minutes and Rick would be on his dive until noon, so I went back to Kava Bowl to play more virtual golf and spend some time on the Internet.  I took my supplies for mimosas to the public pool looking over the beach (only us and 3 other rooms had their own pools) and read for awhile.

A bad pic of one of 2 pools available to those who didn't have their own (should've been us!).  This was the nicer one.  Very secluded.

We had our dinner delivered to the Lasa Lasa conference center.  The entrance was lit with candles and the path to our table was lined by flower petals.  We don't have a single picture of this dinner! Lasa Lasa also houses an indoor basketball court.  By the time we had finished a bottle of wine, we were playing a pretty hokey game of basketball!

GOLFING! badly.

Wednesday, Jun 22, 2011

After the usual breakfast, we hopped in a van to go to Namale's par 3, 9 hole golf course.  This was my first time on a real golf course, so I was pretty excited.  We only purchased 3 balls each and I lost all mine in the high grass by the third hole.  Yeah, no laughing, I was struggling.  Rick lost all of his golf balls by the sixth hole, so we had to cut it short.  After some calculations, we figured out I would've ended up at 40 over par.  Yikes.

(R) See the grass on either side? That's how all the fairways were.  Once your ball was in there, several staff members would try to help find them, but it was never a winning proposition.

Lunch was at the blow hole and was preceded by Salemo's margaritas in the main dining bure.  The tide wasn't quite low enough for the natural water show to be spectacular, but it was a nice afternoon.

Dinner this evening was back at the main dining bure and featured a village family Meke.  It involved traditional dancing and singing.

We now had a house guest: a black and white cat the resort staff called "Snowball."  He stuck around until the staff chased him off later in the week.  He'd spend his nights sleeping on the door mat and one morning he had made his way to the guest daybed and spent all day there.

My buddy Snowball

Waterfall Day!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

It was another lazy morning of breakfast on our pool deck and lounging around the pool.  Today, we had a late lunch scheduled at Namale's private waterfall.  As usual, we started with drinks in the main dining bure, then we hopped into the van to ride to the waterfall.

The walk from the van to the waterfall

We ate our lunch then I got brave and dove into the water first.  It was something I figured I might never do again, so why not?  The water was very cold but refreshing in the 100% humidity and the waterfall was the world's best back massage.

Last Full Day...

Friday, June 24, 2011

We actually left our house for breakfast this morning and we had it catered at the Lovers' Deck.  This is a 2 level deck overlooking the blowhole.  The top was where our table was set up and the bottom has a hot tub.

By this point, I was miserable from insect bites.  I'd wear 2 layers of Ugly Bugly (a very thick, nasty bug repellent) and still have terrible reactions to bites.  I went to soothe myself in the pool and Rick "secretly" consulted with the spa to see if they could do anything for me.  I ended up with a Bali Spice treatment.  It was a 2 hour skin treatment where they scrubbed my entire body with a scrub that was left on as a clay mask and finished with a massage/skin treatment.  I felt so much better!

Tonight, we scheduled "Moonlight Magic."  They open the spa only for us at 6:30 pm - it was lit only by candlelight and there were flowers everywhere.  We changed into robes and were given a milk foot soak and sugar scrub while we drank champagne.  We then had a 90 minute couples massage.  After the massage, we were led into the hydrotherapy room where we had more champagne, fruit, and hot appetizers.  We had free reign of the hydro room until 9:30, but we left around 9:00.  

Candlelit hydration room

Part of the Moonlight Magic was that you had a catered dinner of your choosing in your room afterward.  We had spoken to Rupeni, the food and beverage manager earlier in the week and told him we were interested in all kinds of seafood, especially Fijian ceviche called "Kokoda."  Back in the room, we had lobster bisque, Kokoda, huge Pacific lobster tails, mussels, fish, clams, and shrimp - so much food! We also had champagne and white wine.  All week, the staff was very good with my nut allergy (they went out of their way to accommodate this!) but tonight, both desserts contained nuts.  Boo.  No biggie, I couldn't even finish my wine I was so full.  The staff had also drawn a bubble bath in our big whirlpool tub, but after spending all that time in hydrotherapy, I didn't feel like doing anymore soaking!

Kokoda - Fijian ceviche

Goodbye Namale.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

The morning was supposed to start off with breakfast at the hanging bed, but it was pouring rain all morning. Again, not a problem, just bring it to our house! Rick went out for one last snorkeling attempt and I decided to brave the scary private reef access and take a reef walk.

 (L) Beginning of our private reef access

(R) The scary part of our reef access!

I had a peaceful walk and returned to my usual morning mimosas.  Rick had one when he returned from an uneventful snorkel and the morning was spent in the pool.

We spent lunch taking our last picks from the specialty drink menu and avoiding the rain.  At 3:00, it was time to leave!

(L) Last lunch - table/sea view

(R) My favorite drink: Ocean Blue - white rum, creme de cacao, blue curacao, heavy whipping cream, coconut rum