Today, we had planned for an indoor day, because according to the weather, it was going to be really wet with lots of rain. We slept in a little bit and decided to hit the gym before we sat down for breakfast. While running on the treadmill I was mesmerized by the view of the sky over the ocean. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was Mother Nature showing us pure, unadulterated, beauty. I was so taken with what I was seeing that I paused my workout, jumped off of the treadmill and ran outside to take a picture. Below is what I captured. I believe this will always be one of my favorite images.
It wasn’t a minute after I got this picture that the sky began to lift and the clouds started to vanish just as fast as they had appeared. The picture below was taken less than a minute after the first one.
And to show you how quickly the weather changes here, this picture of us was taken outside right after we finished our workout, about 10 minutes after the pictures above and notice how much lighter the sky is.
After our workout, we headed to our usual breakfast spot, where we had a relaxing breakfast while watching it gently rain outside. After breakfast, we headed back to our room to get cleaned up before our massages.
Just as we were walking to our massage appointments, which we scheduled, to keep us busy while the rain was coming down, the sun decided to come out and shine brighter than we had seen it since the day we got here. Go figure, someone likes to mess around with us, lol! We continued on to our massages and I could actually hear it raining during my massage, so I was relieved to know that we had made the right decision planning inside activities. When we got out of our massages and back to our room it really starting pouring and it even thundered. Thunderstorms are beautiful on the beach. I may not have liked the rain on our vacation, but the clouds you see on this island are some of the most magical things I have ever seen in my life.
After the storm, the sun came out and shone as bright as ever. I was a little hungry, since we skipped lunch, so we decided to go to one of the restaurants on the resort called The Veranda and have afternoon tea and finger food. It was actually really good and the tea was excellent. A Kahala blend.
After tea, the sun was still shining bright, so we decided to run back to our room quick, change into our suits and head out to the beach for some paddle boarding. It was about 4 o’clock by this time, so we wanted to get out there in a hurry before it started to cloud up again and/or so we were done paddle boarding by the time the sun started to go down. But, as our luck would have it, things didn’t go as planned. We headed to the station, rented the boards, paid for them and then they have to take us to the surf instructor so that he can get us our boards. There are usually a couple on the beach ready to go, but someone was already on them, so we couldn’t go out until we found the surf instructor and had him get us a couple. Well, I can tell you why people characterize surfers the way that they do, because it is absolutely true! They are all in their own little world and don’t have any reason to be bothered or hurried, even while on the clock. Plus I’m pretty sure they are always stoned, so that doesn’t help matters either. lol. The poor guy trying to find the surf instructor was running back and forth from one end of the resort to the other trying to locate him and it just wasn’t happening. I finally told Rich that he needed to go tell them to just give us our money back, he had been looking for the guy for over 20 minutes and it was starting to cloud up. After we went back and forth on whether to get our money back or not, the surf instructor finally appeared and started down to the beach to approach us, but he didn’t have any boards with him. I have no doubt that this guy was hiding in the back smoking some wacky tobaccy, because he was in his own little world when he approached us. This is how the conversation went:
Surf Instructor: Hey, what can I do for you two today?
Me: We just need paddle boards, so if you can get some for us, that would be great (I am instantly annoyed, I’m in a hurry, it’s getting cloudy and the guy wants to have a conversation about what we need, when he knows we paid for paddle boards over a half an hour ago).
Surf Instructor: So, yeah, I can do that. I can pretty much get you whatever you want. Do you have preferences on what kind of boards that you want or anything special? (And trust me, he is talking much slower than you are reading this, he is VERY relaxed)
Me: (Very agitated) Nope, nothing special, just regular paddle boards, any kind that will hold us up and won’t sink will do.
Surf Instructor: Yeah, okay, I can do that. Give me a few minutes while I go get a couple of boards for you then. (Just stands there and looks at us…still standing there)
Me: Yes, please, we are kind of in a hurry, we paid for our boards over 30 minutes ago and the sun is starting to go under clouds now. (He finally leaves to get the boards).
5 minutes later I see him walk out of the bathroom and head to grab the boards.
Another 5 minutes later, he has the boards in front of us.
Surf Instructor: Did you sign the waiver form?
Me: No, they didn’t give it to us.
Surf Instructor: Oh, okay. Well just stay here a minute and let me go grab them so you can sign them.
Rich: We need to get out on the water, the sun is going under, we wanted to be out there 45 minutes ago and now you are just thinking about getting us to sign the waiver. Just let us go out there.
And now, rather than continue the back and forth, just know that things were getting tense all around. Rich went from 0-60 in 1 second flat and I could see things starting to go down hill really fast. Finally he ran to get the waivers, we signed them fast and dated them for the rest of the week, so we wouldn’t have to sign every time and we went out. The sun was now 100% under the clouds, it was kind of dark, definitely not warm anymore and I could see Rich over there on his board fuming. I was no longer feeling this and just didn’t want to do this anymore. I paddled back and forth for about 20 minutes and finally told Rich that I was going in. I agreed to let Rich talk to the management about letting us paddle board for free tomorrow in lieu of Rich blowing his gasket on the surf instructor, and it turns out, we didn’t have to say a word. I think someone finally realized that this was his job and he may not have one if he continues (not) working the way he did this afternoon and he met us at the beach and was much more accommodating. He said that we could paddle tomorrow for free, without us having to say a word. End of story, Rich was happy, no one got hurt and life was good again.
We decided at this point that maybe we needed a change of scenery, plus Rich’s suitcase was repaired and ready to pick up, so we got showered and cleaned up and headed into Waikiki to pick up the suitcase and have dinner at Hy’s, which is a highly rated steakhouse. First we stopped to grab Rich’s suitcase and as I knew, were told by the guy working that the wheel was secured back on the case, but it was a temporary fix and that this case had seen it’s better days and was good enough to make it home, but after that, it really needed to be retired. I couldn’t agree more. Rich on the other hand, I bet he will use that damn suitcase until it completely pops to pieces. I am going to try as hard as I can to encourage him to get a new one, but as the joke goes in our household, he is a Fitzpatrick and Fitzpatrick’s never throw anything away and never let anything go to waste, so I’m sure a suitcase that will still hold clothing (even though you may not be able to roll it anywhere and it has actual holes in it) will keep getting used. I may have to throw it out of the plane myself if I see it on another trip!
We then went to dinner, where to keep in line with the rest of our day, the hostess at the restaurant acted as if we were a bother because we actually showed up for our reservation and when she seated us in the lounge to wait for our table, the bartender acted as if I were from another planet when I asked if they had a cocktail menu that I could look at. I definitely threw him, he stood there, looked at me, took a deep breath and said yes, and went to get me one. I’m sure he spit in my drink, but it still tasted good, so I had a couple. Although the service wasn’t quite up to par for the reviews that the restaurant had, the food was outstanding and I would go back. They had some of the best prime rib that I have had in a long time and it is hard to find good prime rib.
That my friends, was the end to our very exciting day. Stayed tuned to see what tomorrow will bring.
