It's time...Adam finally graduated from ASU with his MBA and it's time to move on with our lives! We planned a trip to Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands to celebrate Adam's graduation, our 2nd anniversary, and Sunny's birthday! Neither of us has ever been to Hawaii so we are excited to see another part of the world.
We are dreading the flight over and the 6.5 hours we will spend in a giant hunk of metal with hundreds of strangers. As expected, the airplane ride sure was miserable. :) First, we were seated in the row directly in front of the lavatories so you can imagine the fine aroma we experienced!! Next, Sunny sat next to one of the biggest guys on our flight. He seemed to want to cuddle the whole way over (LOL). What's worse, the two girls in the row in front of us did not stop talking the whole flight. In fact, we think the only time they managed to breath was in between their turns of talking. Let's just say we were excited when the wheels of the plane hit the ground safely in Hawaii.
First Things First
After landing, we grabbed our rental car, opened the sunroof, and headed for the most important stop of the day... shave ice (no, it's not spelled wrong it's shave, not shaved!). Unfortunately, we were rather disappointed to learn that the shave ice place we wanted to eat at decided to go on vacation until the middle of June. Good thing we planned a few other stops as well or our whole trip would have been spoiled :) We decided to eat lunch at a local ma and pa restaurant and were the only tourists there. It's always a good sign if all the locals dine there! After eating what Sunny thought tasted like ramen noodles, we headed to Costco to get some snacks and drinks for the week. We were glad to see that most food prices at Costco were similar to prices at home after having been warned that things were more expensive in Hawaii. Only the $6 gallon of milk had "sticker shock," so we decided to stick with Coke and water.
We took care of all the important stuff for the day and were ready to check in to our hotel. The hotel is beautiful, clean, and right on the beach. The lobby has no doors, giving the hotel a wide open feel. It also had a massive wooden kayak and Hawaiian murals on the walls. After unpacking our stuff, we decided to venture out and head to the movies. The theatres here are a little different than home. No stadium seating, just a curtain that closes off the individual theater, cash only and the ticket booth and snack bar share the same counter. We saw "Prince Caspian" and decided that it wasn't quite as good as the first, although our judgement could be a little off since it was nearly 2 am Arizona time by time we were headed back to the hotel. Driving at night is somewhat perilous, especially if you aren't familiar with the area because there are very few lights and lanes end without much warning. Luckily, you can't drive very fast and there isn't much traffic.
At this point, we still had not eaten dinner. One thing different about Kauai is the fact that EVERYTHING closes VERY early. Most places are closed by 6 pm. Our first night on the island, we decided to go crazy at dinner and ordered.... wait for it... McDonald's!! WOHOO!! We were living large. Actually, nothing else was open, but we at least tried to make the best of it and ordered it to go so we could eat it by the beach. Who would have thought you could turn McDonald's romantic??
Decided to turn in... Day two continues!!
