A Life Of We: Delayed Hawaiian Honeymoon: Part 5

Wake up time: between 3:30 and 4:30 AM Hawaii time. Energized to go for a walk. Eddie and I decide that we want to figure out where all these runners are running to and from. We've seen signs that say Beach Walk. Beach Walk? What is this Beach Walk? Turns out, the Beach Walk links many many many properties together along the beachfront, making travel from one place to the next quite simple without a car. It took us five days to figure this out. Going to breakfast and exploring other resorts would've been a lot easier and quicker had we'd known. Instead, we'd been ignoring the signs and driving everywhere. I was so excited to find the Beach Walk that we walked kinda far. Far enough for Eddie to get the same look on his face as when he was in hour five of the flight--that look that said, Yup, I'm about done with this. So we walked back, starving for breakfast.

We'd driven ten minutes to get to the Castaway Cafe the other morning. It was less than a two minute walk from our hotel room.

Bushes!

Heh heh heh

The restaurant at our hotel did not share the urgency to relieve us of our hunger. Enter The Longest Breakfast Ever. No, we did not want the buffet. We wanted a la carte choices. The waitress took forever to come over. Finally, she took our food and drink order together. Eddie ordered a Sprite because Sprite is clearly for breakfast.

The Sprite never came. However, our food did, and it was delicious.

Now this is the kind of breakfast Pleasant Holidays should serve--it has fruit.

Instead of our waitress coming back to check on us, we had birds instead.

We were outdoors-ish, but the birds were freely flying into the hotel restaurant and back out. They surrounded us. Eddie ate slowly so he would be able to have a beverage with his meal, but even so, he finished without getting his drink.

The waitress came over with the check the next time we saw her. We don't know where she'd been considering there weren't many people eating breakfast, and most who were there had the buffet--you can totally tell when someone has ordered the buffet from the number of dishes they have in front of them crammed onto the table. The check did not include his Sprite, but it did include two coffees.

Twenty minutes later, she comes back and I explain: This shows two coffees and neither of us had coffee. She apologized and went to change it.

Fifteen minutes later, she comes back with the corrected check.

Fifteen minutes later, she comes back and I explain: This shows one coffee and neither of us had coffee.

She apologized again, and this time it did not take fifteen minutes for her to come back with the corrected corrected check.

At least the food was correct. And yummy. Because Hawaii is all about eating.

Before the trip, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hike out to Iao Valley, which wasn't very close to us (but we had a car that we were using to drive to things that were two minutes away by foot, so....). Tim the Tour Guide from the Road To Hana had suggested it as something to do while we were there, so we went. Ooh, it was amazing. Driving into it, the trees started to swoop over the road and then we emerged into, well, a valley. We weren't at all concerned about the warning signs though we probably should have been.

We stayed on the path and the flood did not flash. We climbed up first, and then we climbed down and down some more. Then we left. It wasn't a very long excursion, and when we first got there, we were like, it's starting to rain and we didn't take any rain gear or anything with long sleeves. We were completely unprepared for anything other than sunny times. Luckily, it was perfectly fine and the misting stopped as soon as it started.

A majestic view of the parking lot

Since we were in the vicinity, we drove off to find The Tea Box, a store I found that sells tea and stuff for writers. So basically, it's a store that was made specifically for me. I found two addresses for it. We drove to the first. It wasn't there. Everything around the address was either shut down or simply closed for the day. Then I realized, Oh, it's Memorial Day. Thankfully, though, The Tea Box was simply relocated to a local outdoor mall / shopping plaza. It did not have all these writing-type things that the website said it would, BUT it had tea. All kinds of tea and tea-related items. There was a woman behind the register who told us the tea flavors were available at the counter, and there was a guy behind the counter who called us over and was like, We don't do shy here! His name was Cory (I think), and he asked for our names, told us we were all friends now, and told me to start smelling the tea. And I did and it was great. I found turmeric ginger tea (not tumeric), a tea that I've wanted to try ever since Whole 30, and tried that one. Cory set the timer to steep it, and I explained to Eddie how the way I leave the tea bag in my tea the entire time I drink it at home is the very incorrect way to make tea. Cory ditto-ed that with a guarantee that he steeps to perfection. And he did. It was delicious! He told me that the honey they had would go well with it, but I didn't want to add sugar to the entire cup, so I put some honey on a stirrer, tasted it and took a sip. Oooh, tea heaven. He was so right. But I liked it without the honey, too, and that's how I had it. Eddie? Did not have tea. (He also never got that Sprite from breakfast, so today was not his day for beverages. Instead, it was my day to eat and drink. Again.)

On the way back from that side of the island, we decided that I should get something from The Fish Market. Eddie knew it was something on my list that I wanted to do because I'd been hearing about it on a podcast I listen to (Patcast, the lead singer in Train's podcast--listen if you like music and fun), but I wasn't sure we'd have the time or if we could go considering I'd be eating by myself unless by some miracle The Fish Market also served PB&J or pizza. We went anyway because we also realized that we'd probably never come back to Maui. When we got there, we then remembered once again that it was Memorial Day. I'd not be eating at The Fish Market. Ever.

What does this sign say?

Oh, it says my dreams have been crushed.

[This is the part of the story where Pat Monahan and the good folks at The Fish Market take pity on me and bring me back to Maui for free so I can have a fish sandwich. I'll pay for the sandwich. The trip need not be long. Please and thank you.]

Upon returning to the hotel, we relaxed poolside for a bit. We didn't actually go in the pool because we'd reached our water quota on the first full day when we went into the ocean up to our knees.

Not having a fish sandwich earlier in the day was probably in my best interest because later that night after the being lazy in the sun session:

It's a LUAU!!!

One of the main things on Eddie's list of things to do in Hawaii was to go to a luau. I was puzzled by this item since luau fare is usually pork and veggies and fish, and Eddie does not like any of those things, but the entertainment factor was what he was interested in. So I'd booked VIP tickets to the luau at our hotel, The Myths of Maui. VIP meant we didn't have to wait on a long line and we were guaranteed seats up front.
Eddie liked the VIP very much since he does not like waiting on long lines. I'm a good wife.

We each got two leis. One was the same for each of us, shells. The others were flowers for me and bead thingies for Eddie. I really don't know what they are. Lava rocks?

We got free unlimited drinks. I had a Blue Hawaiian. Eddie had Coke. He also got a tiki glass to drink out of. Finally, the beverages were going his way. The night was windy, so when we went up to get food, Eddie and I took turns holding plates and holding down my dress. The buffet line was long, so it was quite tricky, especially since the two of us came away with three plates for the two of us. This particular luau has a keiki menu, which means Eddie was able to get mac'n'cheese and chicken nuggets. I'm a good wife.

I indulged in Asian shrimp salad, banana mandarin salad, lomi lomi salmon, poi (it's okay), sweet Hawaiian Ti Rolls (Eddie had one of these, too!), pan fried Panzit noodles, vegetarian fried rice, Molokai sweet potatoes (they are purple and they are delicious!), shoyu chicken, Kalua pork, and Island fish (I told Eddie this was chicken at first and then warned him it was not as soon as I bit into it, and he was like, I'm way ahead of you, and I saw it pushed to the side on his plate).

Then we had dessert. Eddie had three pieces of chocolate cake. I had some of that plus white cake with coconut, mango tart, and haupia, which is coconut pudding with a Jell-o consistency.

Then the entertainment began. The MC for the night entertained and entertained with witty banter and informative background about the dances. After teaching some of the audience how to hula, the dancers took the stage. Amazing. Two of the dancers, we are pretty sure, were in the hula show at the mall, too. That must be a pretty great job--hula dancing in Maui.

As the sun went down, the fire came out. Dancing with fire seems pretty tricky. They threw fire. They twirled fire. Fire everywhere. Pretty amazing.