When Work is Over in Hawaii

Now that I've explained a little bit about the work we do, I need to make sure you know that it is SO worth it!  We want to make sure that we experience a little bit of Oahu each and every day, so this post explains some of our adventures on the days we don't have off.


Wednesday, September 2
We began our first day of work on Wednesday, but stopped around 4:00 (couldn't take much more with the heat and humidity) and decided to venture out.  After eating sandwiches on the top lanai (porch) with this view...

 ...we drove with Denise and Art to Po'kai Bay Beach, just a mile or so down the road.  And this is what we saw there...

The sun was setting, and a children's hula class was performing.  Precious!

My favorite part is the little boy play in the sand ignoring the dancers.  Reminds me of when Alex first started playing Little League.  I didn't want to stop watching them, but I also didn't want to miss the spectacular sunset!

We walked out on a rock jetty and just sat for awhile enjoying our blessings.

Thursday, September 3
It rained and rained and rained on this day, making work a little harder.  The men still mowed and worked on the grounds, and we still cleaned rooms, but for every bit of mud we mopped up, we tracked in more.  But at the end of the day, we drove down the road just a little way and walked down to a beach where turtles are known to frequent.  We didn't see any on this trip, but we will return!  And we did see surfers!

When we reluctantly left there, we drove into Kapolei, a somewhat larger town nearby, so that Denise and Art could buy groceries.  (They hadn't bought groceries yet since on their first day after arriving they spent much of it traveling to Honolulu to get us from the airport and then showing us around.)  While in Kapolei we ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.  And just in case you need to know, "Buy one/get one half off" isn't good in Hawaii or Guam.  Read the fine print.

Friday, September 4
Because our first group was arriving, we had to get all work finished by early afternoon.  (You don't want to be cleaning and mowing when your guests arrive!)  So after work Tim, Denise and I went back to look for the turtles.  After consulting our travel guide, we thought we had a shorter route to that beach.  Not so.  But this is where we ended up.

This is what we dislike most about Hawaii--the crowded beaches!

We were walking along just as you see in the picture, when a big wave appeared suddenly and soaked us from the waist down.  They aren't kidding when they say "NEVER turn your back on the ocean."  We headed over to those rocks you see below the mountain and explored a little bit.

While Tim met a local and talked a LONG time, Denise and I found a path through the woods that took us on a somewhat sketchy walk back to our car, we bought lumpias (sort of like a skinny egg roll with meat and cheese in it) from a cart on the side of the road, and we hoped desperately that Tim would soon return.






Saturday, September 5
Saturday was our first full day with a group, so we didn't have much time between meal services.  But between breakfast and lunch, we did manage to make a quick trip to the Waianae Farmers' Market.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to say "Local DRAGON fruit".

 

Malassadas - a deep fried doughnut kind of pastry with cream in the middle.  Art made us.

We ended up with tomatoes, a mango, salted caramel kettle corn, and the malassadas.  We hurried back to set up for lunch, and were just TOO TIRED to go back out between lunch and dinner or after dinner!  All this work is interfering with our adventures!!

Sunday, September 6
Yesterday we served breakfast, then walked about 100 yards to the Waianae Baptist Church for the morning worship service.  The sides of the church roll up so the breeze blows through, almost like  having church outside.  The pastor and the congregation we very welcoming and friendly, and they knew we were from Pu'u Kahea and that we would have to leave early to set up for lunch.  That made it a little less awkward when we had to walk out.  I know that we'll visit again before we leave.

Our grand intention was to relax on the beach when dinner service was over, making plans for today, our day off, but no! Too tired.  Denise keeps saying, "I promise it wasn't this hard last year!!"  We've decided the biggest difference is the weather.  Time for those storms to move on and the trade winds to return!

And so it's 4:45 AM and we're heading out (early--hopefully to avoid the horrible traffic near Honolulu)  to see what we can see!