Hawaii by Tent

Marisa bought me a surprise vacation for my 45^th birthday, a trip to Oahu. We made a pact to not “return” to anyplace we had vacationed before in 2014. We wanted to get a break from the same old places (which are same old for a reason, we like them) and get some new experiences and geography under our belt. She even went so far as to fly in Mom and Auntie Sue (the children’s favorite babysitters) to watch them so we could go “kid-free”.

The place she booked was a off the grid “glamping” location. It’s a couple of large safari tents with solar power on a couple’s land. The place is totally off grid, even their house has no power etc. So we were ready to rough it. Marisa really took to the challenge of “no-repeats” as we had never taken a trip like this, so we were both prepared for an adventure.

After a bit of airline ridiculous-ness (our flight was delayed for 12 hours – but when aren’t they lately), we arrived in Oahu at 11:30 local time. It was raining and dark. We had been prepared for the former, knowing that the forecast was for 100% chance of rain for almost everyday of the trip, but were planning on showing up in bright daylight. So we had not really put a lot of stock in the hosts emailed directions saying, “GPS cannot find us” and giving us very detailed directions. So we set off from the Honolulu airport after midnight, in the pouring rain.  We quickly got out into the country and it was pitch black. Once we got off the highway into the “off the grid” neighborhood, it was even darker. We found ourselves driving four miles an hour, squinting through the windshield and pouring rain trying to determine if the house where we thought we had to turn was brown with a green roof or green with a brown roof. After a few detours and several stops to open gates leading to the property in question (flashlight in hand) we made it and found our tent. Seeing the location this morning in the light I’m pretty impressed that we made it.

It was 130 AM in Oahu and, as Marisa likes to point out, 430 in the morning Boise time. We slept for about four hours (both like rocks) and were up to bright sunshine this morning. As eating is pretty much my favorite thing to do on vacation, after the morning coffee/red bull, we headed out to find our way around and grab some breakfast. We ate a great breakfast, at what our hosts later told us is the best breakfast place in town and wandered around a little bit. After a little bit of “GPS Russian Roulette” trying to find the grocery store, we came back loaded with supplies for our “tent”.  Our original impulse was to nap (another of my favorite vacation past-times), but neither of us was able to sleep. I got up and went out for a run and Marisa walked up and around the neighborhood, meeting our hosts in the process and deciding that we need to buy “a little piece of land” in the area so we can build on it when we retire. Scott came down to our tent and gave us a really nice rundown on the island, town and the tent we’re staying in and sent us off looking for some new stuff to check out.

 

We went and found a fresh fruit stand across the street from the beach and got some coconut, papaya, and fried bananas. We walked thru the trees and out onto the most beautiful, deserted beach we had ever seen. We sat in the sand and ate some fruit. Afterwards we drove up to Turtle Bay resort got some drinks and watched about 10 minutes of the worst Super Bowl ever- the highlight of which was the Seinfeld commercial. Then we drove back into town and got Hula Dogs for dinner (SOOOO GOOOD). Now we are back at the tent, trying to stay awake until it’s time to go to bed.

Tomorrow I think we’re going to go for a hike and maybe swimming/surfing at a place Scott recommended. We also might go and watch the Banzai Pipeline Pro-Surfers tour surfing competition that is here for the next three days. We both really like Oahu so far, much more than Kauai or Maui (the benefits of the forced vacation rotation plan). We can’t realistically hope for as gorgeous weather as we had today, but even if it rains I can’t think of a better place to get wet.