May. 14th, 2008 10:51 pm
Vacation video and trip report
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textualdevianceFinally have a few moments to post more about our trip. The video is some footage of the spinner dolphins we encountered. More on them in a few...
Actually, the trip was pretty awesome, all told. This was our fourth trip to Hawaii, and the second to Oahu (we've done Maui twice, too. Must be time to hit the other islands next.)
On our previous jaunt to Oahu, about five years ago, we decided to do the whole-hog touristy thing and stay on Waikiki. Well, sort of. We ended up staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is this utterly massive complex that's like Hawaii Disneyland. We only left the place a few times. But it was cool and we had fun. Only thing is, it wasn't exactly relaxing, as our first trip (to Maui) was (and our subsequent Maui trip, too.)
So, we decided that we wanted to split the difference, this time, and find a place that was out of the way, and therefore quiet and relaxing, but still close to civilization--and some Lost locations. We found that in the Marriott Ihilani, at the Ko Olina resort on the leeward side of the island. (Generally speaking, I'm not terribly fond of the Marriott chain, but in this case, it was the right place.)
The flight there was uneventful. I rented a DigE player and watched Juno and Gone Baby Gone (verdict: Overrated and underrated, respectively.) We got in a bit too early to check in right away, so we had lunch at a restaurant in Kapolei, a tiny little suburb about 10 minutes away from the resort.
When we checked in, we were blown away by the room. They gave us a spot on the top--17th--floor, with a spectacular view of the resort's man-made lagoon. The room was also huge, with an enormous bathroom and about six dozen pillows on the bed. Ahhhh, heaven. I was going to take pics of it, but we'd already trashed it the moment we came in. Oops.
We spent the vast majority of the week hanging out in the room or otherwise around the resort. We had quite a few room service meals out on our lanai, and several more at their cafe (never did get to their high-end place.) The food was outstanding. Practically an orgasmic experience.
The only real recreation we did at the resort was an afternoon doing some swimming at the lagoon. I thought it was too cold and too--ok, I'm a giant wuss--infested with sea life. I'm strictly a pool swimmer. I don't like unidentified things tickling my toes. Gah. But it was fun, anyway.
We read a whole heck of a lot. I finished Primal Shadows
and Maori (which I'd never gotten around to reading before) and also Bad Twin, the Lost tie-in novel. All had some connection to our location (islands, South Pacific, etc.) so it was fun.
Friday, we booked a morning tour with Wild Side Eco Adventures, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Absolutely fantastic time. Great crew, lots of fun, very respectful of the animals. I was too chicken to go snorkeling myself (that whole creatures-in-the-water thing) but M had a blast, and I had a blast watching him and just enjoying the bobbing around on calm water with beautiful scenery.
The next day, we drove into Honolulu and did a little more shopping (hint: Never try to go to the Ala Moana center on a Saturday. Parking is merely a lovely idea, not a reality.) and running around, and decided to go look for the hotel we'd almost booked (the Kahala--just on the east side of Diamond Head.) We never found it, but did end up driving around a large portion of the windward side of the island on highways 72 and 61. Which turned out to be a hell of an idea, as it was both stunningly gorgeous, and got us smack in the middle of some prime Lost locations territory. We had lunch in the town of Kailua, which I later discovered was where Evie had the house that burned down. We never did actually see any filming going on, but we did recognize several locations.
We also saw some truly kickass windsurfing going on:
We got back to the hotel and, sadly, started packing up and such. Then we had the Two Days of Air Travel Hell that we wish to never speak of again. Which, crazily enough, culminated in spending a night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. In the same tower we were in before. Facing the same direction. O_o!
We're just going to pretend that those two days didn't happen, though. The rest of the week was so utterly glorious that it really doesn't matter that it was such a cosmic fuckup to get us back home.
Now I can't wait to go back again. Damn shame it's so expensive to fly to Kauai (even in low season.) But we really can't afford it anyway, nor can we afford the time off. So it's just a few weekend trips close to home for the forseeable future. This really helped us recharge, though, which we desperately needed. I highly recommend Hawaii for that purpose.
Actually, the trip was pretty awesome, all told. This was our fourth trip to Hawaii, and the second to Oahu (we've done Maui twice, too. Must be time to hit the other islands next.)
On our previous jaunt to Oahu, about five years ago, we decided to do the whole-hog touristy thing and stay on Waikiki. Well, sort of. We ended up staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is this utterly massive complex that's like Hawaii Disneyland. We only left the place a few times. But it was cool and we had fun. Only thing is, it wasn't exactly relaxing, as our first trip (to Maui) was (and our subsequent Maui trip, too.)
So, we decided that we wanted to split the difference, this time, and find a place that was out of the way, and therefore quiet and relaxing, but still close to civilization--and some Lost locations. We found that in the Marriott Ihilani, at the Ko Olina resort on the leeward side of the island. (Generally speaking, I'm not terribly fond of the Marriott chain, but in this case, it was the right place.)
The flight there was uneventful. I rented a DigE player and watched Juno and Gone Baby Gone (verdict: Overrated and underrated, respectively.) We got in a bit too early to check in right away, so we had lunch at a restaurant in Kapolei, a tiny little suburb about 10 minutes away from the resort.
When we checked in, we were blown away by the room. They gave us a spot on the top--17th--floor, with a spectacular view of the resort's man-made lagoon. The room was also huge, with an enormous bathroom and about six dozen pillows on the bed. Ahhhh, heaven. I was going to take pics of it, but we'd already trashed it the moment we came in. Oops.
We spent the vast majority of the week hanging out in the room or otherwise around the resort. We had quite a few room service meals out on our lanai, and several more at their cafe (never did get to their high-end place.) The food was outstanding. Practically an orgasmic experience.
The only real recreation we did at the resort was an afternoon doing some swimming at the lagoon. I thought it was too cold and too--ok, I'm a giant wuss--infested with sea life. I'm strictly a pool swimmer. I don't like unidentified things tickling my toes. Gah. But it was fun, anyway.
We read a whole heck of a lot. I finished Primal Shadows
and Maori (which I'd never gotten around to reading before) and also Bad Twin, the Lost tie-in novel. All had some connection to our location (islands, South Pacific, etc.) so it was fun. Friday, we booked a morning tour with Wild Side Eco Adventures, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. Absolutely fantastic time. Great crew, lots of fun, very respectful of the animals. I was too chicken to go snorkeling myself (that whole creatures-in-the-water thing) but M had a blast, and I had a blast watching him and just enjoying the bobbing around on calm water with beautiful scenery.
The next day, we drove into Honolulu and did a little more shopping (hint: Never try to go to the Ala Moana center on a Saturday. Parking is merely a lovely idea, not a reality.) and running around, and decided to go look for the hotel we'd almost booked (the Kahala--just on the east side of Diamond Head.) We never found it, but did end up driving around a large portion of the windward side of the island on highways 72 and 61. Which turned out to be a hell of an idea, as it was both stunningly gorgeous, and got us smack in the middle of some prime Lost locations territory. We had lunch in the town of Kailua, which I later discovered was where Evie had the house that burned down. We never did actually see any filming going on, but we did recognize several locations.
We also saw some truly kickass windsurfing going on:
We got back to the hotel and, sadly, started packing up and such. Then we had the Two Days of Air Travel Hell that we wish to never speak of again. Which, crazily enough, culminated in spending a night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. In the same tower we were in before. Facing the same direction. O_o!
We're just going to pretend that those two days didn't happen, though. The rest of the week was so utterly glorious that it really doesn't matter that it was such a cosmic fuckup to get us back home.
Now I can't wait to go back again. Damn shame it's so expensive to fly to Kauai (even in low season.) But we really can't afford it anyway, nor can we afford the time off. So it's just a few weekend trips close to home for the forseeable future. This really helped us recharge, though, which we desperately needed. I highly recommend Hawaii for that purpose.
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