Hawaii

I've been home for a few days now and think it is time to get a post going. It's nice to have something post worthy to get my butt in gear and update this thing. It will probably take everyone over a month to see that I've updated, since I am private and people have learned not to check my blog that often. I'm lame, I know. Maybe I should do an April resolution to update more.
Back to Hawaii.
My dad and step-mom watched Nathan while John and I were gone, and for that we are so grateful. I loved having the time, just the two of us and most importantly, I would not have flown with Nathan on my lap for 9 hrs!!
We left Madison early on Friday morning and arrived in Hawaii at 4:30 their time. It was already 8:30 by WI time, but it was nice to get a little extra daylight to enjoy our first day.
We asked at the front desk of our hotel and we were given some restaurant options. The first night, we went down to one of the suggestions, which was The Sheridan Hotel restaurant. We were told they had a nice buffet. I am morally opposed to most buffets, but was assured this was not a health hazard. They were right! We went in and were seated for the buffet. The food was incredible. Best crab cakes I've ever eaten. Prime rib, crab legs, sushi bar, wonderful desserts, etc. The more we ate, the more we wondered about the price. We decided that it might be about $30 a person. Got the bill............$109 for two buffets and one pina colada! Too bad, because I was hoping it would be our nightly dinner spot.
After dinner, we walked on the beach right outside the restaurant.
One of the really nice things about Hawaii is that the beaches are all public. No one can own a beach. So all the hotels that sit on beach front property, have beach access. Also in the home areas, they are required to place a beach access quite frequently.
Day 2: We woke up at 5:30am. I convinced John to get out of bed so we could go see the sun rise. I figured that we would quickly adjust and certainly wouldn't be waking up so early again. Oh, that I had been right! We drove down to a beach and watched a man in his 70's rake a public park and go swim in the ocean. We found out that he went swimming every morning. Apparently it was very rocky at that spot, so he had moved the rocks and created a path (in the water) to walk on, until he reached deep enough water to swim. Even as the waves moved rocks into his new path, he would continue to move them. He had no responsibilty for the park, but wanted to make sure that it stayed clean and beautiful. As I watched him swim, I was impressed. I'm sure he could have found a beach that was sandy and avoided the rock situation altogether, but he was obviously not afraid of a little hard work.

Sunrise in Hawaii
Since we were up, we found breakfast and started our day. We went and rented snorkel gear and found a spot to go. They give you a pretty serious talk about not touching, stepping on, moving, or disturbing the coral in any way. The spot that we went to ended up being quite shallow and I almost never got to use my flippers. I was too afraid I'd step on the coral. The fish were pretty. In my next life I'm going to be a marine biologist.
Then we went back to the hotel and showered and changed. Note to self: next time traveling to a beachy location, pack twice as many clothes. One set for the morning/beach and another to feel human in the evening after you've washed the beach off.
That evening we headed off to our evening Luau. Aloha!! Good food and great entertainment.
I have a new crush on this fella.


And this one too!



More later!! We had a great trip and were so happy to spend time together, just the two of us.