It Got Real Deep in There, Real Fast.

Hawaii: Saturday

It's like every day on this trip gets progressively better, at least for me. On Saturday, I'm on the beach at the crack of dawn again. We skip breakfast at the resort to just grab something on the road. Something on the road changes when we change our mind about what we want to do that day based on the new knowledge that if we want to attend the luau by 5:00pm, so a return volcano trip is out. Instead, we decide to do the black sand beach, but we do a lot of things BEFORE the black sand beach that are equally awesome.

We start with lunch at Daniel Thiebaut, which for many people (though not me) is fantastic. What is fantastic for me is two things. Firstly, the atmosphere is amazingly adorable and fresh and open and fantastic. Secondly, the house specialty drink is a lemon drop that's so, so, so, so good. And so we drink to shamus' birthday. And then there is singing for the birthday. It's all happy times.




After lunch, we head toward the Black Sand Beach, which is, needless to say, a beach where the sand is black from volcanic activity. But before we head there, we stop at Spencer Beach. We've heard rumor that this is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and you know what? The rumors are true. It's almost unreal that somewhere this perfect exists on earth. How does anybody not spend their whole life here? shamus tests the water. Pookie and I head on in. And by head on in, I mean Pookie in his underwear and I in my shorts and bikini top because when we left that morning, we were headed to the volcano so we didn't bring bathing suits. Of course, we didn't bring bathing suits after having just said, "What we've already learned is never go anywhere in Hawaii without your bathing suit." Didn't matter. It was heaven at Spencer Beach anyway.





Reluctantly, because it was so perfect there, we headed out to Black Sand Beach. Firstly, we stopped at a shaved ice shack to pick up some ... supplies (full story details are available if you want, just shoot me some email). But while we were in there, as shamus said, "Things got real deep, real fast," and the first of our many Hawaiian lessons are learned. The woman in the ics shack asks where I'm from, and I say Vegas. She asks me how I like it, and I say, "It's okay, but you can't stay there very long. You'll become what that city wants for you to become." And she says, "That's not where you are, that's who you are. You can't run from those things. You just have to be selective about who you surround yourself with." And shamus looks at me and says, "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I SAID TO YOU!!!!" And I say, "But it doesn't mean as much when you say it!" And it's all deep in the ice shack.

So we head from there to the Black Sand Beach.

I'm not sure what to say about Black Sand Beach except AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. I'm just going to post the pictures and let that be enough.



















There's also a most excellent story from this day. So, reluctantly, we realized we had to hike back up from the beach and head back to the resort. Firstly, let's just say that on this hot ass, long uphill hike, it starts raining. At first, like usual, I'm all like "Rain, gross." But then it feel so nice and so lovely and how else would I ever want to hike back up from a beach in Hawaii? Anyway, when we get to the top, even though Pook made it long before I did, he's tailing behind me when we're at the top because he's doubled back for a while. I walk by some, as Pookie described them, "red-headed Christian family." I'm still wearing this TOTALLY COMFORTABLE ensemble of bikini top, shorts and Uggs. Anyway, as Pookie walks by said red-headed Christian family, he hears this from the mother, who grabs her daughter and pulls her over:

"Look, look, I just want to show you before it's too late! Bikini top and boots!"

Pook's tempted to turn around and expand on the comment for her, but he's too amused, because unless you LOVE LA rockstar chic as your hiking look, your not going to love that look. I'm cool with it. We took a picture of the boots to commemorate.



So then, back to the resort, quick changes and showers and off to the luau. So fun. Firstly, there is the pre-luau drinking, when once again I say to the waiter, "Can you have him put some extra alcohol in my mai tai?" We also love our waiter, David. I really loved him until I inappropriately said while he was standing by us during a coconut shucking demonstration, "I totally know how to shuck a coconut, I just don't think it's the type or method they're talking about. Ha ha." Then I realized he'd heard that and I was too embarassed to really love him any more. We have a good time. It's stunningly beautiful outside that night, but you're probably tired of my saying that about Hawaii.

The luau show is The Gathering of Kings, and if you've ever been to a luau then you know this is a classy joint as far as luaus for tourists go. If you love dancing, and I LOVE dancing, then you'll love this show. It's a tad long, but pretty stunning in the dance department.

I'm also going to say as a teaser, that the most amazing photo ever was taken at this luau of the four of us. However, I have no access to that at the moment, so you will have to wait.

The highlight of the show was the fire dancer. I can't even describe. He was so unreal I just sat there stunned, unable to speak. I've seen fire dancers before, but he was truely a special thing. And because we were rolling like Halffs, we had priority upgraded seating and he was all of two feet in front of us.



Anyway, the night ends with more Trivial Pursuit, which was still nice and fun though it was louder and more crowded in the bar and maybe you shouldn't try to catch lightening in the bottle twice. But it doesn't even matter because it was still lovely and Sunday is one of the 50 best days I've ever had in my life. Stay tuned!