We Made It To Hawaii!
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March 4
The long-awaited trip to Hawaii was finally here. After the unnecessarily long bus ride to Dulles airport, we got our truckload of baggage checked and anxiously waited in the terminal for our flight. We happened to spot Sandra Day O’Connor and her bodyguard entourage on our flight to San Francisco. Upon arrival at San Francisco, Sara (Larquier) and Elea (Crockett) attempted to run down Sandra D. to get a photo, but to no avail. The flight to Honolulu was delayed due to the fact that the air pressurization system wasn’t working and in the Captain’s words, “And we need that.” So the team entertained themselves in the terminal with some hacky-sack, crosswords, and the fine foods of San Francisco such as See’s Candies and Clam Chowder in a bread bowl.
After boarding the plane for the second time, we were finally off to Honolulu. Jess (Taylor) won the Halfway to Hawaii Game on the plane for guessing the time of day we would be halfway between San Francisco and Honolulu. Ironically, her wonderful Grand Prize was a basket of Macadamia nuts, which she is allergic to! As soon as we got to Hawaii we got lei’d! By Brooke’s (Sorber) grandparents that is. And as if the day couldn’t get any longer, the door to the luggage wouldn’t open and we had to entertain ourselves with more hacky-sack. Just when we thought we were home-free and only 8 miles from our hotel, we managed to get lost on the way to the hotel and practically toured the entire island of Oahu. With jet-lag setting in in a big way, we finally got to bed around 3:30 a.m. only to wake up again four hours later.
March 5
After a brief nap, we started our first day. We set off at 9 a.m. to a few random scenic lookouts on our way to a secluded little snorkeling cove called Eternity Beach. The crystal blue waters were a little rough, but we managed to see several tropical fish and a few sea turtles. Then we went to lay out on the sand and play in the waves. Some of us got a little beat up by the big waves and others got a little too much sun.
After washing all the sand out of our bathing suits, we loaded the bus to Germaine’s Luau. Our wonderful host, Cousin Aka, entertained us the entire time with jokes, tales of Hawaiian culture, and several Hawaiian songs. The team also contributed a few songs, which is a typical pastime of our bus rides. But Aka was a true Hawaiian character and we all became very fond of him as he shared interesting stories about himself such as that he use to build grass huts, and that his two life goals were to live to the age of 50 and be on the Oprah show. The actual luau was also a great time with good food and authentic Hawaiian dancing. Whitney (Holstun), of course, jumped at the chance to get on stage and try and learn the hula and did us all proud by shaking those hips. We didn’t want to the bus ride home with Aka to end, but we made it back to the hotel and were finally able to get some much needed sleep.