Fun at the New Resort

Yesterday we checked in to our new digs at the resort and went exploring around the resort. It’s beautiful here, and huge. There are three high rise buildings at our particular site, and it’s booked full, and you’d never know it. There is a lot of space for people to spread out in. There are four man-made lagoons with beaches (shared by a couple of resorts), plus three huge swimming pools and four jacuzzis.

We got some shave ice, which is really tasty. John got Strawberry & Pina Colada and I had Guava and a Chinese plum flavor that I can’t remember the name of. It was really tasty. Here are a couple of pictures of us in front of one of the waterfalls at the resort.

After we got settled in, John went snorkeling and I sat on a chair and read a book. He saw lots of fun things; a crab and a seahorse, and a bunch of fish, including the state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, or the Hawaiian Triggerfish. Here’s a picture of one. This is not necessarily the one John saw. We’re not ruling it out, but as far as we know, it’s not the same one.

We needed to pick up some things at the store, so we headed off to Target and Safeway for some food and necessaries, so we wouldn’t have to eat out all the time. We have one of the smallest rooms here because all the bigger rooms were booked when we reserved our room. Fortunately, though, we have a small fridge, a microwave, a toaster, and a coffee pot, so we can cook stuff. They also have gas grills in the common areas, which we’re planning to use on Sunday. We bought stuff to make skewered teriyaki beef with potatoes, pineapple (we bought a whole one, it was locally grown) and mango. We might not skewer the mango, just might grill it in slabs or something.

We got back late and ate a quick pizza (ham & pineapple=hawaiian, of course!) and went to bed.

Our morning started off today with a walk down the walking path that runs along the beach. It’s 1.5 miles one way, and we did a round trip. We hiked onto some lava rocks at the end of the trail and saw some little tide pools and some little animals.

After getting showered, I changed into my suit and John got his work stuff and we headed down to the beach. On the way we remembered they were having Sundaes and Bingo and, checking the time, we realized that it was just about to start! So we headed down and joined in just in time to start assembling our sundaes.

We each got a bingo card and proceeded to not win anything. John got really close, just one away in almost every game, but they never called out “free space” so he never did get his bingo. At the end, though, they handed out the leftover prizes to people who hadn’t won a bingo and we came away with a little wooden toothpick holder. One table had three winners!

Then it was time to head to the beach. The weather has been pretty cloudy since we arrived at the resort, but it’s still nice to sit on the beach even when it’s cloudy. When we got to the beach, John discovered that the glare on his computer was too much, so he went back to the room to finish the work he had been trying to finish for the past two days. He just kept getting dragged off to do something way more fun than work. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on a lounge chair on the beach reading a book and listening to my iPod and people watching and trying to even out my farmer’s tan (I’m still using plenty of sunscreen, Mom, just heavier application of higher SPF on the already tan parts). It was a perfect afternoon. Only one person “bothered” me, and it was a lady asking if the book I’m reading is any good because she was thinking of reading it, but hadn’t heard may good reviews. I just sat out there by myself until John came out to tell me he was all done! Wo-hoo! He also brought a frozen drink and some garlic fries. Which was good, because I missed lunch.

There are lots of birds around here, and this is one of John’s favorites. It was hanging around while we were eating the garlic fries. I think it wanted a bite.

The cloudy weather has put a damper on one of the things I was really looking forward to, which is seeing a fabulous sunset. Today we got kind of close, and if the sun had just waited about another hour, the sky was clear right above us as the sun was going down. Here’s a picture of today’s “sunset” as best as I could get. According to the weather forecast, it looks like the weather will be like this all week. But, one of the advantages of being on the leeward side of the island is that we won’t see as much rain as the windward side, but we will be spending time over there. We’ll make sure to bring the rain coats.

A couple of other random notes:

There are a lot of BYU alums around here. John’s worn his BYU Phys. Ed. shirt around and it seems to draw the Cougars out of the woodwork. We met two couples on our walk this morning alone.

When we talked to Ruby the first time after we got here, the first thing she asked me was whether or not we played in the sand. I told her I did a little bit. She asked if I built a big castle or a big tower. I told her I didn’t. She said, “Well, what did you build then?” I told her that I didn’t really build anything, I just played a little in the sand with my toes. To that she said, “Oh.”, in the most disappointed tone of voice possible. I think she believes this trip is a complete waste of time if I don’t build something fabulous. To Ruby, the beach is one giant sandbox, and the opportunities are endless.