so here's a brief recap of our trip. and by brief, i mean BRIEF because who can really sqeeze 13 days of vacation into a single blog? not me! the first couple of days we were there we just kind of lounged around the apartment. we ran the 5K in the kona family fun run (there was also a marathon & half marathon in it) on sunday morning. it was pretty stinking humid cause we were running on a road right next to the beach. but it was so much fun! i ran with drew's mom most of the time while drew & his brother-in-law, scott, did their own thing. none of us finished in amazing record time, or anything, because we were really just trying to get our 30 minutes of cardio in.
every other day basically consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, deciding if we were going to lay by the pool or by the beach while i read my books. after swimming/reading (drew swam, i read) we would meet up with the rest of the family (drew's parents, sister, bro in law, and our 2 nephews went too) for lunch. after lunch i'd usually take a nap while drew swam more or played golf. and after that was more swimming/reading, or dinner! every time we went to the beach we saw sea turtles. drew even had a minor run-in with one in the ocean while he was swimming with bryson. i guess the turtle swam in between them, hit drew's leg with his leg, and that freaked bryson out enough to want to get out of the water. i think drew was a little freaked, too, though! :)
the hilton resort was right next to our timeshare, and we had access to it because our timeshare is owned by the hilton. it had the most amazing pools, restaurants, shops! i mean it! they had a water taxi service to take you down the canal so you wouldn't have to walk so far, and they also had a train! yes! a train! in case you didn't want to ride in the boats down the canal, there was a little train to take you throughout the resort! we could've lived there! in fact, maybe we'll move there. HA!
one day we got up early and drove up to the north tip of the island. drew had talked me into going saying there were 100ft waterfalls! so we made the 90 minute drive up with his parents stopping for coffee (gross!) and when we got there, no waterfalls in sight. the only thing i saw was the ocean from the top of a mountain. yes, pretty. but definitely not worth getting up at 620am! (anyone who knows me knows i am NOT a morning person, i do not get up just for the sake of going out for breakfast, and i really don't like hiking to get to yet another beach--similar to one i could've seen near the timeshare after being able to sleep in!) so anyway, i was very disappointed. we had a good 20 minute hike down the mountain to see the water, and then a 20 minute hike back up (because i was basically sprinting to the top to get the pain over with faster). grumpy guts. yes, that could've been my nickname that day. normally i would've been able to take the disappointment better, but i had gotten sick on tuesday with a head cold. the thermostat in the apartment was either off, or on 50, and that gave me some serious sniffles & congestion. no exaggeration on the temperatures, though. there was a screw in the thermostat that kept us from being able to adjust the temperature. we only needed air on at night because the highs for the days were only hitting in the mid 80s. but i was sick almost the entire time we were there--so as soon as we got back, i was at the doctor & on antibiotics!
we also went to a luau. it was the only hawaiian thing i did the whole time we were there. the food was really good & it was fun to see the dancers & the costumes. my favorite, of course, was the man twirling the fire rod. wow. i still don't know how they do stuff like that! drew's whole family had already done all the 'hawaiian' things before, so i was lucky i got to really just relax.
anyone who has been to hawaii knows they have amaing sunsets! so we tried to always eat dinner right when the sun was setting so we could watch it. the days are pretty short....the sun starts to set at about 7pm. and it's pitch dark by 720pm. it's pretty amazing how quickly it goes down.
when i think of more details to share, i'll post them. for now, here are a few pics of our trip! drew's parents & sister took more pictures, so i'll post them when i get them! enjoy!
dinner on the coast in kona
the view from the mountain with no waterfalls!
drew & the hula girls
this is the view from our apartment...the king's golf course.
here's a turtle that was sunbathing almost every day we went to the beach.
drew & our 5month old nephew, corbin
bryson learning to "surf"
another one of the beautiful hawaiian sunsets!
