Hawaii

Everything is miles from our hotel – no big deal because we don’t mind driving and it’s pretty easy to find your way around here, but it’s interesting. The whole island is covered in hotels and resorts, but ours is in an area with nothing but. It’s a coveted area to stay, too! Apparently most people like the isolation and not seeing any of the towns or locals. Matt said the last time he came they barely left the resort and he spent almost all of his time at the hotel pool, drinking. lol
We needed to go shopping, so that's what we did in the morning.
First we hit the Wal Mart to replace the toothpaste, sunscreen, and lotion that was confiscated by the power hungry security personnel at various airports. At least I talked them into letting me keep my Vaseline and foundation, right?
We also picked up some Ziploc bags for all of our liquid items to ride in on the way home (because apparently a thin layer of plastic sealed with a zipper will keep any dangerous chemicals from doing their intended job. Or at least slow me down enough that a hero passenger can take me down.)
There are still chickens everywhere. In the parking lot I saw a couple underneath a car - and after that made Matt check under ours anytime we went anywhere.
After Wal Mart we went to an outdoor flea market that we learned about from an employee here at the hotel. She gave us directions that were right on – very cool. We picked up some souvenirs for the kids, etc. The market was a lot of fun. All of the merchants are locals and are so friendly and funny. One guy that we bought some things from was really cute. He said "Do like Kauai?" we said yes, of course. Then he said "good! I always tell everyone, if you like Kauai, send your friends to Maui!"
So cute! I can imagine that they don't want the tourist industry to grow TOO much more! It seems to already be thriving, and this is supposed to be the least tourist-y of the islands!

After shopping we looked for lunch. The restaurants on this island are a joke so far. You have basically two choices, to spend a fortune ($30 a plate, easily) at a Bar and Grill (dozens and dozens of ‘bar and grills’ in this town), or pick a hole in the wall and keep your fingers crossed that they aren’t using road-kill-chicken in their dishes.
We finally settled on Bubba’s Burgers – a resounding disappointment. I had a Teriyaki Burger and Matt had the Big Bubba. Both were really, really…not good. At least we were full after.
We are sure that there's good food on the island - there must be! But we haven't found it yet. It's like a mission now, lol.

Before heading back we stopped at a Safeway for a few groceries – bread and lunch meat for lunch for our hike, steaks to barbecue for dinner, a pineapple, etc. Then we came back to the hotel.
First we cut into the pineapple. It was all we could do to stop ourselves from finishing it. So, SO, SOOO good was this pineapple…
I’m sure part of it was because we haven’t had anything to eat that we really enjoyed, but part of it was definitely because it was the most perfect pineapple ever grown. I’m sure of it.

I called home and spoke to Deanna – who said the kids are doing great – and to Tessa, who sounded great. Then we changed and went to the beach for the afternoon.
I cannot believe that this isn’t peak season. The beach – which was small, but still! – was crowded like you wouldn’t believe. People everywhere, I’m not kidding. Our hotel leads to the beach, so there’s groomed grass and then a sidewalk, then sand. All along the grass were lounge chairs, turned to face the water. There must have been 4 dozen of them, a senior citizen in every one.
This is very much a family hotel. It’s all middle aged parents, hundreds of children ranging from 1 to 15, and a million old people. We haven’t seen ANY one even close to our age or without children. It seems like you can always hear a young child crying. If one stops, another starts. There are almost more kids than chickens…almost (seriously – there are chickens everywhere!)
Anyway, seeing all the kids makes me miss mine. I’m still irritated that we didn’t bring them. I think I would feel differently if this were a different type of resort – more people our age, less kids…we're having a good time without them, and I feel confident in their care and safety. I'm happy we didn't bring them - time away is good for everyone, right? But seeing children everywhere makes me think of them all the time. It's really only at the resort, though - I haven't seen kids anywhere else.
After the beach we sat in the hot tub for a bit, but were soon chased away by old people. One, in particular, was really creeping Matt out. He had the worst toupe ever, lol.

We changed in our hotel room into our nicer clothes and prepared to hit a Bar and Grill – fingers crossed for our first good meal, because seriously, we were starving at this point.
We stopped at a Blockbuster and bought a few movies, because there’s a complete lack of entertainment here (no pay-per-view movies, adult or otherwise! lol), then asked an employee to recommend a restaurant. She pointed us to The Plantation, which just happened to be next door to our hotel.
So there we went, hoping to find something good...it was a disappointment.
I can’t even explain how irritated we are by the food situation here. It sucks! And we’re such food people…we just want to EAT! The only thing we’ve had worth eating is some Haagen Dazs Pineapple Coconut ice cream that we found in the hotel marketplace our first night here. It’s to die for – we’ve already eaten 3 pints between the two of us!
Tonight Matt joked that this will be the only vacation we don't gain weight on!

We started Superbad - one of the movies we bought at Blockbuster - but I fell asleep about halfway through. On the agenda for tomorrow is hiking! We're excited.