West of Honolulu

We finally met one of our hosts this morning. I woke up at 5a (still on PST) so I was on Facebook in my nightgown when he walked in...whoops! Oh well... He is a nice young man who works at the University of Hawaii in Research. Annie, the other host works nights at Nordstroms. He said they came in about 11:30p last night but we didn't hear them.

This morning we are headed to Hanauma Bay but the "Eash Factor" was in full swing and the beach itself was closed due to an electrical problem. We really weren't sure what that meant but we just walked around to some of the look out points and enjoyed the views. It does look like an amazing place to snorkel. There was a small but informative Visitor Center to see. If you are going to swim or snorkel there you have to watch a mandatory film before entering the water. I think that is wise as the coral is precious and should be preserved. 

Hanauma Bay

We continued along H72 and thought about a swim at Sandy Beach but the water was too rough so we ate our lunch there and continued on until we came to Waimanalo Beach Park. This part of the island is very peaceful and seemed like mostly locals around. I say that because they had ordinary beach supplies, not the type tourists typically have. We took a swim and enjoyed the pristine white sand. The water was a beautiful turquoise until the clouds rolled in and then it was almost sea-foam green in color, just beautiful.

Waimanalo Beach Park

We headed back toward Honolulu as we were to meet the VRBO person at 3pm. We probably spent too long enjoying this little side trip as we are tired and now we need to go to Wal-Mart and take the first wave of food to the Condo as well. After Wal-Mart I realized I didn't have the "binder" with me and that had all my check in information. I didn't even have the woman's phone number in my phone either. I have been distracted with my Mom not being well so I was definitely not as organized for this trip as some other trips. Soooo... it was back to the Airbnb and then calling the contact Sarah, then on to the Royal Kuhio. We waited an extra half hour for her but she finally showed up. She took us to the unit, it is not as nice as the pictures would have indicated, no surprise there. However, I will say she is very accommodating and got us everything we needed, including extra blow up mattresses since we are missing a sofa bed and bagged ice because the ice maker doesn't work. All these things are small inconveniences. It was next to impossible to find a place that held 12 people so we can't be too picky I guess. 

After dropping off the purchases so far we headed to a different Costco in Keahole (there are 3 on this island!) as we were told it is much less crowded. We got most things but we have found Wheat Thins are pretty allusive at Costco or the ABC Stores. We will make a trip to Safeway for those!

One of 3 trips up - This was the smallest trip!

We don't have everything on my carefully made list, but the rest will need to wait, exhaustion has set in. We did stay up long enough to see the fireworks from the Hilton displayed over Waikiki Bay. We are excited about tomorrow and the arrival of the kids!