Rough Nights

I interrupt these posts about Hawaii to complain make some statements about pregnancy.  I am now well into my last trimester.  30 weeks and 4 days to be exact.  Last night was rough.  And the night before that too. I got up 4 times to use the restroom.  Then this morning I woke up with pretty much every part of my body aching.  It's only going to get worse from here. I'm getting so close.  Two months can't go by fast enough!  That's all for now:) 

Kauai Day 4

After spending the night in our luxurious hotel, I awoke refreshed and rested.  Darren woke up early for his conference-and I slept in while Paul roamed the hotel and pools.  It was wonderful.   And Paul was happy as could be acting like a little adult, being able to walk around on his own. I had been so exhausted, so I was thrilled to sleep in.. Paul and I got ready and headed into Old Koloa Town for some shopping.  Paul was my buddy for half the day.  We went to tourist shops, art shops and got 2 snow cones.  All before noon.    

Darren had classes till about noon. Then we headed off to snorkel.  The first place we went was Lawa'i Beach.  The snorkeling was good- but not amazing.  And there was a current that made me  nervous.  Everywhere in Hawaii I heard about the dangerous currents and riptides. You hear from everyone and read about all the visitors that drown.  It definitely made me a little nervous and more cautious than usual.  Especially being pregnant.   I didn't want to take any chances. So as soon as we felt that water taking us to the side we headed in for shore.  Even still it took us a ways down the beach and we had to get out on some rocks.  Getting out of water with flippers onto rocks at 7 months pregnant is not easy! I let the tide carry me up and then lay on my belly while the tide went back out.  Then I would grab my flippers and book it onto shore before the next wave. I am sure I looked really silly every time I got out.  Like a walrus trying to get onto shore or something.  I always felt so heavy on land after being in the water.

We stopped at a food truck for  a delicious late lunch before heading up to Polihale State Park. We had decided before hand we would go "cheap" for lunches and eat out at food trucks.  Little did I know a lunch would be $14 each.  That's $42 for a "cheap" lunch for the 3 of us.  At least the food, atmosphere, and company was amazing.   Those food trucks had the best shrimp and fish tacos I have ever had!

I'm not really a car person.  I don't know or care about cars.  As long as it's reliable and gets me where I want to go.  I hate it when people use cars as status symbols.  Anyways, if I were to get a fun car, this would be it.  Well, a  Jeep of some sort.  I love Jeeps.  I think they are so fun.  Since I knew we would be driving down a dirt road to this beach I used it as an excuse to get a Jeep for our rental car. It was so fun! It reminded me of being 18 driving my dads Jeep Cherokee to Nutty Putty on a date with Darren.  It made me feel like a teenager again. We even drove on the sand- which afterwords I heard was a bad idea because people get stuck all the time.  Good thing we didn't get stuck! Darren had a great time taking pictures of me with my Jeep.

This beach is right on the edge of the Na Pali coast.  In some of the pictures you can see the gorgeous mountains in the background. We hung out till sunset- and watched the sun turn green. Have you ever seen that? In Naples I learned that if conditions are just right there will be a green flash second before the sun sets.  Of all the sunsets I've watched on the ocean in Florida, I only saw it happen once.  It was amazing! We watched for it this time, and instead of a flash, the sun actually looked green for about 2 seconds before it set. It was so cool! First time I've seen that!

The end to a great day.  Darren drove home and it was so fun driving the jeep over the dirt road.  We had the windows down and the music playing and life was good.

When we got back to the hotel Paul found some amphibians.  Have I told you how he was looking for lizards pretty much the entire time we were there?  It's like he was obsessed with them! He was thrilled to find these frogs.  I think he found like 8 of them or something. He also found these cool land snails! Good thing they were alive- or I would have stolen those beautiful shells.

That night Darren and I went out for a late night appetizer and dessert at a restaurant that is raved about.  It's actually at the hotel we were staying at.  The atmosphere is a amazing- as it is right on the water. Not the ocean- It's a man made Koi pond.  But beautiful non the less.

The creme brulee I got was actually the worst I've ever had.  I didn't even eat it- I took it back to Paul who also didn't eat it.  At like $14 I had expected something delicious. What a disappointment! We had a good time though, our appetizers were... interesting.    I was glad we had eaten dinner before hand and just went for a snack and dessert.  At least my date was REALLY handsome! Oh, and I wore my flower lei that I was excited about.  You have to have a great time if your wearing a flower necklace, sitting in a beautiful restaurant in Kauai with the man that you love!

Kauai Day 3

The flight to Kauai was possibly the shortest flight I've ever been on.  We went up- then started our decent.  We got to Kauai about 3 in the afternoon.  I loved Kauai, it was defiantly a lot more of what I imagined Hawaii would be like.  Oahu- not so much.  We rented a jeep, cause that's my favorite kind of car, and we were off to our hotel after no time at all.  Of course- we had to stop at a fresh fruit stand along the way.  We introduced Paul to what REAL, ripe mangos taste like- heaven!!

 The Grand Hyatt is where Darren's conference was at. So we got a really good rate.  It was the most beautiful hotel I have ever walked into- let alone stay at! It had a very outdoors feeling- with this HUGE courtyard in the middle open to all the sides of the hotel.  I have no idea what they would do if there was a hurricane!  All of the hallways have open balcony's with no windows.  The breeze flows through the whole hotel.  You never feel inside.  It was amazing.  When we arrived they gave us Leis.  I got my first flower lei! I was so excited! 

The pools and grounds of the hotel were amazing.  It haI felt like we were at a water park! They had 3 levels with different pools on each level.  There was a lazy river and a big water slide.  My pictures don't do it justice, so here are some pictures from the internet.

The hotel was also right on the beach- and I never got in the water.  I don't really usually get in the water unless I'm snorkeling.  Darren and Paul got in plenty of times and had a blast.

Although staying in a fancy hotel was fun, and beautiful, I decided I don't ever need to stay somewhere that nice again.  I think I would just rather spend the money elsewhere. But then again, if we won a free trip to a hotel that nice I wouldn't turn it down:)

Hawaii Day 3 Deep Sea Fishing

Day 3 was not so fun for me.  We went Deep Sea Fishing.  It was the #1 thing Paul wanted to do.  And I have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) so bad, I couldn't not go- what if they caught something huge and I missed out??  So we all went and Hans came and brought his 2 oldest girls.  We started early- 5:30am to be precise.  It was a beautiful morning and we all had high spirits.  There was excitement in the air.

That's Honolulu behind us.

We were having a great time.  Boating on the open water, beautiful day.  We visited, laughed, and took in the fresh air.

Me- 27 weeks pregnant! Enjoying life:)

After about 3 hours of not catching anything and constantly rocking it began looking like this.  And then we started throwing up.  Han's poor girls were miserable.  They both threw up a couple of times.  I had NEVER thrown up on a boat- but I just could not hold it in.  I ran Port Side and puked my guts out- while being sprayed in the face with salt water.   It was not fun. And honestly quite embarrassing.  It kept coming and coming! I was glad it was just us on the boat.  Throwing up in front of people is not my favorite thing to do.  I felt a little better after that- but we were stuck on that miserable boat for another 3 hours!! I was only 1/2 way there.  I'm getting sick just thinking about it!  I felt like I had just payed someone an enormous sum of money to torture me for 6 hours.  It was AWFUL!!! 

 After about 3 hours we turned around empty handed for the 3 hour drive back. As we got about 20 min. from shore, we passed the "Last Chance Bouey" where you have to start taking your fishing lines into the boat.    It was so hard to believe that with 6 fishing lines out in the water driving around in the ocean for 5 1/2 hours we didn't catch a thing!  It was very disheartening.  Right then one of the poles snagged and started to bend.  We caught something! Paul ran to the line and started reeling it in.  It was hard! So he turned it over to Hans.  I took a turn and so did Darren.  It was defiantly thrilling and fun to see what was on the end of the line.

As it got close to the side of the boat our captain hooked it and pulled it in.  Then he hit it over the head with a wood club. He was fast! There was a lot of blood.  And it was stinky.  Not my favorite, but it was exciting and I was thrilled for Paul! I was so happy we were not going to be going home empty handed! That would have been the worst! 

  Paul had bits of blood all over his face. He didn't mind a bit!  We were thrilled! This fish is called a Wahoo.   Most of the Wahoo in the U.S. market comes from Hawaii, where the fish is nicknamed “Ono,” the Hawaiian word for “delicious.”

YEAH!!!!

Our captain cut up the delicious 19 pound Ono for us.  We didn't want to take any home- so Hans got the meat.  He made fish tacos with it the next day and said it was delicious! I hope it made up for his girls having such a miserable time! I was so happy to be back on land! Although I knew I would feel like I was rocking the rest of the day- which I did.  The crazy thing is- I told Darren as sick as I was on that boat- on a scale of 1-10 it was a 4-5.  Morning sickness is anywhere from 8-10.  I would take seasickness over morning sickness any day.  But I would rather not have either and I told Paul I am NEVER going deep sea fishing with him. Like ever.

We had a short time before we needed to catch our flight to Kauai.  So we went to eat lunch at the mall in Honolulu.  It had a section that was all Japanese,.  It was like literally being in Japan. Since Darren and Hans served their mission together in Japan it was extra special for them.  We went to eat in the Japanese food court.  So many yummy choices! I didn't really eat anything since I still felt sick from the boat.

On the way out we passed a Japanese bakery, with all sorts of delicious pastries.  I bought like 1 of everything.  It was the only things that sounded good!  We tried all the different treats in the car ride back to the airport. Then we were off to Kauai!