Big Island Getaway

Big Island Getaway!

D is at work, Vic and Mike are on a plane back to Denver, and I've just completed putting together this online album with a compilation of the best pictures from our trip. That I narrowed the 556 pictures from my camera, D's camera and Vic's camera down to 60 is quite a feat.

We stayed at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay, which was apparently designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I actually quite liked Big Island and could see myself living there; D and Vic & Mike much preferred Maui.

Our hotel

So, without further ado, I bring you ... Big Island Getaway summary:

Lost Luggage
When we arrived on Big Island, both of Vic and Mike's checked bags came out and neither of ours came out. I was calm at first since the Hawaiian Airlines people seemed to think it would just be on the next plane in from Honolulu (our connection) and said they'd deliver the luggage to the hotel. It never arrived. We called the next day and they said our luggage tags had been cancelled before leaving Portland and they'd call back. They never did. We finally decided to go shopping since we didn't know when our luggage would finally show up and couldn't get any answers. We spent a bunch of money on replacement clothes and toiletries, only to have the luggage show up at 9 PM that night. An entire day wasted to shopping - grrrrr. Vic and Mike are to be commended on their patience with us since a day of their vacation was burned, too. It turned out to be good since I got a bathing suit I very much like at Ross and D got some nice clothes from Macy's. We did have to buy another bag to get all the extra stuff home. Oh, and in case you're wondering, here's what happened to our luggage: the wrong bag tags were put on it in Portland, sending our bags under some other guy's name to Honolulu. We assume they found our bag tags laying around and, therefore, cancelled them. I will always check the bag tags the agents puts on the checked luggage from this point forward.

Me in my new Ross $20 swimsuit & skirt

Food!
As usual, we ate our way through the vacation. We ate sushi, sushi, and more sushi. Yum! We had the best sushi I've ever had at Kenichi's. There are locations in Kona (where we were), Aspen, Austin, and one coming soon to Dallas. If you're ever near any of these locations and like sushi, it's a must have. It was so good that we had to implement the first Sushi Draft because the first night we went - yes, we went two nights in a row - some people were a bit overzealous ... OK, that was probably me. Anyway, we took turns and each of us selected two pieces until all were equally distributed. The waiter thought we were crazy.

We also ate at The Hualalai Grille by Alan Wong, located in the Four Seasons resort. The food was absolutely amazing. Very complex and unique flavors. D realized after we were eating that we'd see Alan Wong on this season's Top Chef. Again, if you're ever on Big Island, I highly recommended this restaurant.

For Valentine's Day, we'd not made reservations and all restaurants were booked, so we headed out to one of three restaurants on that side of the island that doesn't accept reservations: Outback. It was surprisingly good with excellent service.

The only other food to note was the brunch buffet at Pahu I'a, again in the Four Seasons. It was stunningly good and had a superb view from the patio. We decided it was good we didn't know how great the atmosphere at the Four Seasons was earlier in the trip, lest we feel sorry for ourselves.

Activities
Other than our forced shopping trip, we played a lot of Scrabble by the pool, read various books, and did crossword puzzles. Perfection!

We also booked a sport fishing trip which turned out to be quite successful. After about 2 hours on the boat, the line finally snagged and D jumped in the chair. He reeled in what was estimated to be a 6.5 foot Short Nose Spearfish, which is an extremely rare fish found mainly in Hawaiian waters. The guide asked D if he wanted to trophy it and D said no. The guide then kind of prodded me to see if we wanted it, but I also said no. I can't imagine not releasing it since it is so rare. The other two trips of people out that day didn't get a bite at all and they seemed to be the types that would want to trophy such a fish, so it was kind of ironic that we caught one of the rarest. It was actually pretty quick to pull the fish in, so Mike didn't get any time in the chair and we didn't snag any others. We saw lots of whales while out on the boat and had a good time, but I have no interest in going fishing again. It's rather loud and gets a bit old.

A shot of the fish as the guide tries to remove the hook

The Sea Cave Kayak tour was rescheduled for later in the week and turned out to be a bit of a bummer. The currents were pretty strong by the shore, so we couldn't go into the caves or get up on the cliff. Thus, it was a basically a very expensive workout. I suppose the "highlight" of it was that D & I flipped in the kayak while we were tied up with the other kayaks while people prepared to snorkel. I hadn't been planning to get in the water before I was rudely flipped into the water by a combination of a sudden wave and D's leaning (we think). Then, Vic flipped her kayak and grabbed onto ours on her way over, bringing us over again. Finally, I flipped it again after having just gotten in it. Not a successful trip. We did see a sea turtle in the harbor.

Flight
The flight home was made much faster when we discovered playing Scrabble in-flight makes the time fly by. I lost a tile on the plane, but other than that, it worked out just great!


Overall, we had a terrific time and even with the minor annoyances (bad kayaking trip, lost luggage), it was a trip to be remembered!