Friday, July 18, 2014

The End of the Adventure

Well, the time has come. The time being the 6 HOURS I am spending chilling out. All alone. In the Phoenix airport. Waiting for my flight to SLC after my wonderful adventure to Hawaii. I figured I'd use the time to give you the rundown of the rest of my trip.

Tuesday: Now, having had our numbers cut down to 3 and being on the dry side of the island, it was our first real beach day. The sun was shining, the tank was clean . . . and the sunscreen wasn't waterproof. The story is this: Michele had sunscreen, SPF 50, that I used. Put it on, waited about 15 minutes to go hop in the water, but then I immediately spent much time out in the waves with Kate. It was lovely. And then I went to relieve Michele of her stuff-watching duties and laid out in the sun and read. That was also lovely. We then went to get lunch, where I had the BIGGEST PANCAKES I HAVE EVER SEEN, and they had fresh blueberries baked into them and on top and were delightful. Kate noticed that I was a little sunburnished, but it was just my face and arms and so I was like "No big." Then we went back to the beach and repeated the morning routine: put on sunscreen, wait, and I go get in the ocean, and then go lay in the sun. At the end of the day, Kate and Michele come back and say "We have good news and we have bad news. The bad news is the sunscreen wasn't waterproof so even though you waited and reapplied, you essentially haven't been wearing sunscreen the entire day." So much for trying to prevent skin cancer. By the end of the day, I was a walking advertisement for it. haha. That night, Michele and I nursed my hot pink body while Kate swam with Manta Rays. I was going to go with her, but, you know, serious sunburn. Pain. All that.

Wednesday: Although I wasn't going to let a sunburn ruin my trip, I did need to take care of my body. I decided to opt out of the morning activities, and let Michele and Kate go off and do their beach thing. Honestly, I love the beach, but I get beached out very easily and my body REALLY needed a break. But the best thing is that night. That evening we drove up to Mauna Kea and went to the observatory. Basically, we hiked up the top of a cinder cone (Intensity level: HARD due to being out of shape, high elevation, and mostly having a hard time walking due to sunburn on the backs of my thighs. Oops) and watched the sun set and then star gazed. The most stars I've ever seen and the most beautiful night sky, which is saying a lot because I've been in the middle of nowhere before, but this was magical. And cold. But mostly magical. Stars and a volcano. Two of my favorite things.

Thursday: Our last day in Hawaii. We headed out early so that we could try to make parking for this limited-access beach that Michele really wanted to get to. We didn't make it, but instead we found a small cove that was perfect! It had lots of great snorkeling for Michele and Kate and a lot of shade for my (still) burned-out body. Ha. Burned. We ate some great food--Hawaii has fantastic goat cheese--and ice cream, where a new local who just moved from Portland and who is probably the only person on Earth (not including celebrities) that all 3 of us could agree was cute. Then we tried the limited-access beach again and got an open parking spot. It really was beautiful. It was a fantastic way to end the trip: a chill day, mostly just spending chill time with each other on the beach. At the end of the day we headed out to the airport. The rental car had to be back by 7, but our flights weren't until 9 (or in my case, 10:45) so there was a lot of waiting. And lots of the cutest little kids all day erry day on vacation with their parents in Hawaii.

And that brings you up to date! My sunburn is well on its way to getting better. But I miss my girls. I mean, Hawaii was wonderful, but honestly, it was just the place that we happened to gather for this wedding. They were the real reason for the trip. And they were the best part.

So if you want a sum-up of the trip, here it is:

  • Great conversation
  • Good food and scenery
  • Horrible/Wonderful singing at the top of our lungs in the car
  • Lots of really bad jokes
  • The best company

1 comment:

Clayton & Amanda said...

You were in Phoenix?? For 6 hours?! Um, hello! Call me next time! :)