Sun 12/15: Storm On Oahu

I woke up at 5am and couldn't fall back asleep.  :(   I guess the sleeping in from yesterday morning was a fluke.  I'm still on Pacific time.  Lied in bed until 6 something, then Todd woke up too.  We opened up the curtains and saw that it was totally clouded over outside, and dark.

We turned on Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN.  Around 7:30 we went downstairs to the Lobby Lounge and got coffee, pumpkin spice latte, and shared a bagel for breakfast.

We also brought down the papaya and pineapple that we had purchased from the farmers market the day before.  They were not all ripe and sweet, but pretty decent.  The view from the lounge windows were not the same as yesterday at all!

After breakfast we went back up to the room and watched NFL football.  In Hawaii football starts at 8am!  Then Todd took a shower in the awesome shower.  Then I decided to take another shower too, because the shower was so awesome.  I told Todd it might be my favorite shower in the world.  Then Todd went out on the lanai to sit and read for a while.

After I got ready and Todd came back inside, we watched more football.  Suddenly we got a flash flood warning on our phones from the National Weather Service.

It was raining so hard and sideways outside!  The power even went out  for a couple of seconds, causing the TV to not totally work for a while.  We finally got the TV back but by then it was 11 and time to go downstairs and check out.  While we were checking out, we saw the ASP surfing trophy that everyone was trying to pose with.  We had to hang out in the Lobby Lounge again due to the severe rains.  

We had no choice but to eat lunch at Turtle Bay Resort, because driving anywhere in that heavy storm would have been unwise.  I bought a curry chicken salad sandwich for myself.

And a sirloin roast beef sandwich for Todd.

My sandwich was DELICIOUS!  After we ate, we hung out on the couch more. I fell asleep some.  Around 2 or so, the rain finally stopped and we decided to  leave.  We sailed through the roads with no traffic since the Pipe Master surfing competition had ended with a winner the day before. 

We were so excited because we found out that there is a Leonard's Malasada-mobile on the way to the airport at a Kmart parking lot in Waipahu!  We had a little bit of trouble finding it, but my eagle eye spied it when we got into the parking lot.  We parked at Kmart and stood in line.

I think this photo had Todd’s biggest smile from the entire trip of photos.  Leonard’s malasadas were his favorite from our 2011 trip to Oahu!

You order your malasadas and then wait for them to make them fresh and call your number.

We were so excited to get our hot fresh malasadas in our hands.  We ate them in the car.

I had a custard filled one, and Todd had a chocolate filled one.  Then he ate a custard one too and loved that one even more.

Then he ate a cinnamon one.  After that we saved some for later.

We drove to the Enterprise rental car drop off without incident.  Then took the shuttle to the airport and checked in.  There was a long line at security but it moved and we got past it without delays.  Then we walked a LONG ways to the mainland terminal to eat an early dinner at Kona Brewing Co., because that was Todd’s favorite pizza from our 2008 trip to the Big Island. 

We had the Captain Cook pizza and diet cokes.  The diet cokes here were $4.20!  The pizza was pretty good, but very cheesy.  Todd like it but didn't think it was as good as the ones we had on Big Island.  

We made it back to Gate 60 to fly to Kuhului, Maui.  Miraculously our flight was not delayed.  Earlier in the day they had to shut the airport down during the storm due to winds and lightning.  Our flight to Maui left on time and we were there in 35 minutes.  

Leaving Oahu…

We had  some trouble locating where to find the pickup location of the Advantage Rental Car.  There was a delay and finally we were able to get on the shuttle.  It was a short ride to the rental car center.  We were 2nd in line and it was pretty fast.  We got a Ford Escape SUV!  It was a nice ride to Kaanapali, but very long.  We stopped by Kmart to buy some water and Cokes.  It was 9:30 by the time we made it to Kaanapali.  We mistakenly drove to Kaanapali Shores instead of Kaanapali Beach Club next door.  Finally we parked in the underground garage and went upstairs to the lobby and checked in.  Got into the room and I was SO tired but relieved!  Basically got ready for bed and went straight to sleep.

A tour of the condo.  Some photos were taken the night we arrived.  Some the next morning.

The bedroom had a dresser and a big TV.

The bathroom was very large and impressive.  There were two sink areas on opposite walls.

And a separate jet-tub and shower.

When you first walk in, there’s a living room, and dining area.

Another big TV in the living room.

There’s a kitchenette right next to the front door.

The view into the dining/living area from the bedroom.

We stayed at this same resort when we went to Maui with my parents in December 2006.  That was before I blogged regularly.  That was a stressful trip.  It was supposed to be a trip to celebrate my mom finishing chemo treatments and getting better.  It was on that trip that I realized my mom was not getting better, but worse.  We did have some fun and I’m glad that I was able to spend time with her like that.  I didn’t know that two months later she would be gone.  :-( 

So Maui held some bittersweet memories for me.  That’s why we hadn’t been ready to go back there until now.  We went to Big Island in 2008, Kauai in 2009, and Oahu in 2011.  We finally went back to Maui to make some new memories.