Vacations Aren’t for Sleeping…Apparently

On Tuesday, we woke early again at 5:30 am to hike up Diamond Head park. My mom apparently doesn’t believe in getting any sleep on vacations. The hike itself wasn’t too strenuous, though there was a decent amount stairs to climb up (mom counted over 200 stairs as she huffed and puffed up each one). The top of Diamond Head had some beautiful views of the island. We also were able to enter this tiny bunker with an even smaller entrance. After viewing the bunker, we headed back down the crater to our Air B ‘n B. 

View from Diamond Head

Inside the Bunker

We packed our suitcases and left to see the Bishop Museum. Halfway to the museum, our host called us and told us we left a phone charger in the room, so we headed back to retrieve it. We decided not to attend the Bishop Museum in favor of seeing the Disney Aulani Resort instead. I’m probably the biggest fan of Disney in my family and definitely didn’t want miss the opportunity to see a Disney resort in Hawaii. We arrived at the Aulani and went inside the lobby. The resort is probably the least Disney themed I’ve seen, but it was still impressive. We walked through the lobby and outside to the pool area. The resort had about ten different pools, a lazy river, and the beach for guests to enjoy. After looking through the gift shop, we headed to the Ala Moana mall to meet my friend Sean for lunch.

Disney Aulani

The Lobby

 

Aulani's Beach

Sean and I met in our First Year Seminar class during our freshmen year at Biola University. We were in the same major, communication disorders, and crowded in the corner of the FYS class with the only other guy, Caleb, surrounded by two dozen ladies. It was great to see Sean again and catch up with him. We ate at Shirokya (like a Japanese food court) and each ordered something different. I ordered a cheeseburger, but in my defense the authentic chicken dish I wanted was out of stock. Also the cheeseburger came from a Japanese vendor and had a Japanese name I couldn’t pronounce, so I’m pretty sure it counts as real Japanese food. After we ate, we said goodbye to Sean and walked across the street to the beach.

Lunch

Too many choices

Beautiful seating area

Mom and I put are feet in the water for a bit and I ran to save my nearby shoes from getting hit by the incoming waves. Zach walked around the beach for a while and later we all headed back to the mall to hang out until it was time for our flight. I walked around the different stores and visited the Disney store (cause you can never have enough Disney for one day) and met mom and Joe at Starbucks. Around 5:30, we drove to the airport to turn in our rental car (and inform the attendant it was missing a seat belt buckle) and waited to board our flight. Our flight was only 40 minutes long and really only about 25 minutes of it was actually in the air. We waited 40 minutes for dad’s flight to arrive and met mom outside with a new and bigger rental car. After driving for a bit we pulled up the villa my grandparents have rented out for the week and were greeted by family. It’ll be nice to enjoy some days with the family and get to sleep in past 5:30 am. 

For a different perspective, you can read my mom’s blog here.