A Day-By-Day Description of Hawaii
July 18, 2003 - 11:27 p.m.

That's only a small percentage of my worries too. I also had over 360 entries to read on livejournal cuz I'm a community addict. I'm an addict in general. It is really quite sad that I spent hours on end reading diary and journal entries. I am a sad, sad human being. What's even more sad is the fact that I was looking forward to doing it during the last couple days of the trip.

Now certain people have informed me that I must write an essay about what occurred in Hawaii. And, well, I would even if I weren't told to cuz I wanna remember it as well as I can in the future by reading this entry.

Wednesday morning was the longest morning of my life because we got up at 6:30, took a five hour flight, and by Hawaiian time it was hardly noon when we got there. It seemed everyone's flights arrived at the same time, and my cousin was there to lei us. My parents went to get the rental car while I sat and guarded our freakishly large amount of luggage. We drove the 20 or so minutes to our condo, and discovered it was rather huge, had a great view of the ocean, and a nice pool. We were all hot and stinky, so we went for a dip in the pool which I found out was an ant graveyard. There were a lot of dead bugs floating in the water. We then drove up the highway a bit for dinner. We ate at a yummy restaurant called Cafe Pesto, and it was the first time I ever used the word "superb" to describe food. You should really use that word sometime. It's fun. After dinner we walked to the nearby harbor and watched the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. And of course we didn't have our cameras with us. Ugh. I made sure to bring my camera with me EVERYWHERE I went after that.

Thursday we decided to go to Kona and do some shopping. I bought myself way too many shirts (three), but two were two for $12 children's shirts, so that's ok, right? We then went for a dip in the pool again cuz damn, humidity sucks. That night my uncle was cooking a Malaysian dinner for everyone who had already arrived for the wedding. My aunt was supposed to help cook too, but she had bronchitis (sp?), so my cousin Farah took her place. The food was very yummy.. I could get used to Malaysian food. It's all spicy and stuff. I like spicy a lot. That was when we first met everyone going to the wedding and wow, everyone there was so good looking. I felt very out of my element. Everyone my age stayed in one group of people, but I turned into shy antisocial Laura and became my parents' shadow for the night. At one point my dad and I were sitting on a couch in a room with no one in it playing cards. We are such losers.

Friday my dad went golfing, and my mom and I decided to take a little drive and then check out some beaches. We got subway sandwiches and ate at one park and then swam at another called Spencer Park. It was like the only non-Hawaiian name I saw on anything there besides.. uh.. volcano park. What else are you gonna call a park where a volcano is though? That was the day my sister and her boyfriend arrived. That night they were having a dinner for the adults, and the young people were supposed to meet at a resort for "drinks". My mom was already getting on my nerves at this point, so I was happy to spend some time with Karen and Keith. We went to eat at Cafe Pesto again cuz my mom suggested it, and I liked the place. Karen and Keith were not impressed by the high prices, though, and Keith kept making jokes about how our waitress was ready to kill someone. Every time she'd walk away he'd go, "reereereeree". We then headed to meet everyone for the aforementioned "drinks". We ended up going back and forth three times to sister resorts before I finally recognized someone from the wedding party. Karen and Keith had two mai tais each, and apparently they were about 90% rum, because they both got completely drunk rather quickly. Keith is the most amusing drunk. He has this mission to get me to drink, so he was telling me stories about getting drunk in college which involved drinking corona out of pumpkins. It was highly entertaining. My parents came to pick me up and insisted Karen and Keith come back to the condo with us instead of going to the house the wedding was at to party with all the young people.

Saturday my parents and I went to Kona again to go on a dolphin watching boat ride. It was cool cuz we got up close to a school of about twenty dolphins and learned all kindsa stuff about the big island. There was a kid my age who worked on the boat and kept talking to my dad. He was very yummy. I couldn't tell if he was with the chick who worked on the boat though. That night was a gathering at yet another resort for drinks, but this time people of all ages went. Afterwards, I went with Karen and Keith to a party at the house cuz I felt like I should at least attempt to be social. The party sucked. All the people my age were getting stoned and grinding each other on the dance floor while the people my sister's age were sitting at a table watching them. I sat with the people my sister's age, of course, and realized for the billionth time over that I'll never fit in with people my age. My sister code-named the people my age the "MTV kids", and Keith kept making jokes because he was feeling old like, "Dude, grad nite was, like, SO COOL!" We left the party at about 12:30.

Sunday Karen, Keith, my dad and I decided to drive around to the other side of the island and see the volcano. My mom opted not to go cuz she wanted a day off from being touristy. We stopped by Akaka Falls and spent the rest of the vacation saying that name cuz it's damn funny. We felt rather stupid cuz we thought the falls were these tiny waterfalls we saw while walking the path, and then we got to this huge-ass waterfall and were like, "oh, so THAT'S Akaka!" We then went to a black sand beach cuz uh... where else can you see a black sand beach. It was really cool, but the water was too dangerous to do anything other than wade in. We had to walk over cooled lava to get there and back, which we found purdy cool. Finally we got to the volcano park near sundown which was our goal. Everyone told us that was the best time to go. There was a loooong line of cars near the path to see the lava flow. We walked a good mile from our car to where the real workout began: walking two miles one way over cooled lava. We were kinda already delirious because of the hikes to the falls and the black sand beach, so the whole experience was rather crazy. By the time we got to the lava the smoke in the air was getting to my lungs, and I was finding it hard to breathe. It was a beautiful site though. Seeing lava flow from a volcano is a once in a lifetime experience, and I'm glad I did it, even if I was aching for a few days afterwards. The hike back was even worse because by then the sun had set, and we only had one flashlight. My ankle gave out about five times, and I'm surprised I didn't sprain it again. We made up witty code-names for different kinds of lava we were stepping over to warn each other, and tried to be as light-hearted about it as possible. It was truly an amazing experience.

Monday was the day of the wedding. We went to the Hilton for breakfast/lunch, and then got all dressed up for the big event. The wedding was at an amazing house that Nadia and Zac rented out for the week. It was like something out of the Real World, which I guess is why the MTV kids went so crazy. It had seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, a pool, and a nice backyard where the wedding and reception was held. The wedding started about an hour late cuz rain kept coming and going and my cousin (the bride) was wiggin out. She cried during the entire ceremony, and when a rainbow appeared and she saw it, she cried even more. Her new husband was rubbing her hands through the entire thing and smiling. It was so cute. They snuck a kiss in before they were supposed to and someone in the crowd yelled, "CHEATERS!" I got lots of good pictures cuz I was near the front. It was a beautiful wedding. The reception was crazy. It kept raining off and on, and everyone danced in the rain. Mostly everyone (but me of course) got drunk off their asses, and wow, watching them dance was so very entertaining. My sister, however, got too drunk and spilled an entire cup of vodka tonic on my skirt about an hour before we left. I got very pissed at her. It felt like I was walking in a puddle. Seeing my sister that drunk was just weird.

Tuesday Karen and Keith left early, and my parents and I went to Hapuna beach, which the hot guy on the dolphin boat told us was the nicest beach in Hawaii. The water was great, and we swam for about an hour. It was a very relaxing day.

Wednesday we took our flight home, and the rest is history. It was a great trip, and I really wanna go to Hawaii and explore some of the other islands again.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna leave you without pictures. My friend Matt kindly hosted all of my images here, and you can find my sister's pictures (which include drunken dancing unlike mine cuz my cam got full) here. Enjoy!

I think I covered everything I wanted to. Phew! I hope everyone had a great week. Ta! ~BOB

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