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I had shopped around trying to find the right price with the right flight times and thought I\u2019d found it.\u00a0 We left Orlando at 8:50am, so didn\u2019t have to be at the airport too early (although I\u2019d worked until 4:30am). \u00a0Flight left on time, but as we neared LAX we found they were having bad weather so we had to circle until we could land.\u00a0 This would have been fine if we\u2019d had more time between flights.\u00a0 Now we were down to an hour, and had to run 4 terminals to get to our next flight.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 After 12 hours in the air we did make it into Honolulu a few minutes ahead of our 5pm landing.\u00a0 Our bags were the first off\u2014all\u2019s well\u2026until we had to wait, and wait, for our town car.\u00a0 I had booked a car through Honolulu Airport Shuttle and after calling them, and waiting awhile longer, the car finally showed up.\u00a0 Not impressed.\u00a0 He said he was slowed down by traffic.\u00a0 Hmmm, they live there, they know the traffic\u2014oh well, we\u2019re off to Aulani and we were there in probably 30 minutes or so.<\/p>\n
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Aulani is on the leeward (drier) side of the island and the driver said it seldom rains there.\u00a0 \u00a0As we entered the area where Aulani is found, Ko Olina, everything changed from brown to green\u2014with lots and lots of flowers.\u00a0 That\u2019s the one thing that stood out to us everywhere in Hawaii was all the flowers, on the ground and on the trees.\u00a0 What a beautiful place!\u00a0 We were greeted at the door with leis\u2014mine was purple orchids and Rick\u2019s were Kukui nuts.\u00a0 Check in was quick then we went to drop our stuff in the room so we could grab a bite to eat.\u00a0 Our 14th<\/sup> floor room was amazing.\u00a0 We had an ocean view parlor suite that also looked down on the lazy river as well as a great view of the ocean.\u00a0 Our room had 1.5 baths, a whirlpool tub, 2 TV\u2019s, mini fridge and coffee maker and a toilet\/bidet.\u00a0\u00a0 Sliding doors go out to the balcony from the living room and the bedroom and since it\u2019s an end room we have a beautiful view all round.\u00a0 I could easily live right there!\u00a0 We headed down to the Olelo Room for Kobe sliders, then to bed.\u00a0 With the time difference it was really late according to our body clocks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jan. 24<\/p>\n We had breakfast at \u2018Ama Ama, which has the most gorgeous view of the ocean!\u00a0 How nice that would be to have that view to work in!\u00a0 One of my dear clients had been there and told me to be sure to try the French toast.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never had anything like it\u2014dipped in chocolate milk, with bananas, peanut butter and chocolate syrup.\u00a0 Oh my!!!\u00a0 Thank you Sager!!\u00a0 That stuff was absolutely wonderful, and very light, which you wouldn\u2019t expect.\u00a0 My husband had some kind of\u00a0 hash, unlike any he\u2019s ever had before, which was served with fried rice that just got better and better the more you ate it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We went back to the room so I could work and Rick hung out on the balcony.\u00a0 We went for lunch at a quick service location One Paddle Two\u00a0 Paddle, which was our favorite quick service place to eat.\u00a0 Again I\u2019d been told that the sweet potato fries were the best ever, and boy were they!\u00a0 I had to have those every day after that!\u00a0 I also had the fish taco (can\u2019t remember what kind of fish but something that started with O and that I\u2019d never heard of)\u2014very good, and Rick had the field greens salad with sea asparagus with the best mango salad dressing!\u00a0\u00a0 We had that salad a few times over the week, as well.\u00a0 We explored the resort and checked out the gift shop, meeting the first of our favorite people, Patty.\u00a0 What a card she was.\u00a0 We had lots of fun with her over the week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tonight was our luau at Paradise Cove, which was just a short walk from Aulani.\u00a0 When we got there we got a shell lei as well as drink tickets\u00a0 then just wandered around where they had several activities going on.\u00a0 We saw the Shower of Flowers where a guy climbed a palm tree (quite quickly!) and threw down lots of flower petals.\u00a0 The ladies were to take those to put in their hair (left means taken, right means single).\u00a0 After that was the Hukilau on the Beach and a display on netting fish followed by the Imu Ceremony, which was uncovering the underground oven with the pig for the feast.\u00a0 The food was buffet-style and included Hawaiian foods such as poi as well as salads, pork and chicken.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t wonderful, but was basically standard buffet food.\u00a0\u00a0 As we ate there was a show with hula dancers, fire eaters, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 This is supposed to be the best luau on the island and the entertainment was great.<\/p>\n Jan. 25<\/p>\n Today we went back to \u2018Ama Ama for breakfast.\u00a0 This time I tried the macadamia nut pancakes and I\u2019m not sure why as I\u2019m not a huge fan and one pancake is usually enough, but they were ok-for pancakes.\u00a0 Rick just had eggs, Portuguese sausage (just ok) and the Aulani potatoes (which were seasoned potatoes with onions and peppers and quite good).\u00a0 We explored more and had the salads from One Paddle Two Paddle again.\u00a0 We ran into the storyteller who invited us to come listen around the fire pit.\u00a0 What a unique character he was.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to just hang out with him!\u00a0 He was a great story teller and told the story of Menehune\u2019s coming down the mountain to help people in need during the night.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find Menehune\u2019s (little statues depicting the Hawaiian myth of little people that live in the forest and valleys and stay hidden from humans) all over the resort, even in the elevator, so that was fun just looking for them.<\/p>\n After I worked awhile we went down to the lazy river and spent the afternoon there, plus going down the tube slide.\u00a0 Both were lots of fun.<\/p>\n We must have eaten something for dinner, but I have no idea what it was.\u00a0 We went back to the room where all of a sudden we heard this loud noise.\u00a0 We went outside to see the most amazing fireworks display out over the ocean\u2014equal to anything we\u2019ve seen at Walt Disney World or Disneyland.\u00a0 What a magical surprise!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jan. 26<\/p>\n Again, breakfast at \u2018Ama Ama\u2014yes, we really liked this place.\u00a0 There are no walls so you\u2019re sitting in the large open rooms with the ocean right outside so an amazing view all the time.\u00a0 We really enjoyed starting our day here.\u00a0\u00a0 I had the eggs and Aulani potatoes, Rick had oatmeal with some great fresh fruit (although he didn\u2019t like the oatmeal) and we also had the Hawaiian flavors bread basket.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It included croissants, guava fans, coconut cream pockets and orange-macadamia nut muffins.\u00a0 Incredibly good!\u00a0 We took some back to the room for a snack later.\u00a0 On the way to breakfast we took a new path and found an underwater viewing area at the Rainbow Reef, which is an area with a separate fee where you can snorkel.\u00a0 They have 1500 fish in there, so it\u2019s quite a site.\u00a0 We happened to be there at feeding time.\u00a0 The Cast Member brought over a head of lettuce to one window and a wire mesh thing with some kind of food in it to the other window where the fish converged to eat.\u00a0 It was quite a sight to see!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We walked around some more, just enjoying the resort.\u00a0 We did run into a few characters around as well.\u00a0 We walked across the street to check out the few shops over there, the best being the Island Market, which is an ABC Store.\u00a0 ABC is about like Walgreen\u2019s-you find them everywhere!\u00a0 They\u2019re a great place to buy your Hawaiian souvenirs at a reasonable price!\u00a0 If you save your receipts, when you get $100 in purchases you can get a gift such as a coffee mug or calendar.\u00a0 Hawaii is expensive so this is one place where you feel like it\u2019s more reasonable to shop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back at the resort I went over to the stingray lagoon to see that (they also have private experiences there for a fee) and the quiet pool.\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight was to be a show at the Starlight Hui, so they were setting up a stage and chairs in the Makaloa Garden.\u00a0 We were really looking forward to seeing this, but alas, the side of the island that doesn\u2019t rain\u2014lied.\u00a0 It not only rained, it poured!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s also bar by the quiet pool as well as cabanas to rent.\u00a0 They also have the cabanas at the main pool area as well, which have some lounges, mini-fridge, iPod dock and phone.\u00a0 We saw some interesting trees\u2014the Hala looks like it has the roots growing down the side of the tree, and the monkey pod tree.\u00a0 These just added to all the beautiful flowers and trees on the island.\u00a0 This is the first place I\u2019ve seen them sweeping the leaves off the grass with a broom!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For dinner we went to \u2018Ama Ama as there were some items on that menu I really wanted to try.\u00a0 I had the Kahuku corn chowder with taro and salmon (taro is pretty much included somehow with most meals\u2014it\u2019s like a potato, but isn\u2019t and is grown in water with the part you eat being under water and growing quite large).\u00a0 Rick had the Hawaiian apple and Maui onion soup and both soups were wonderful.\u00a0 I would have had another bowl!\u00a0 I had the filet with creamed swiss chard and souffl\u00e9 potatoes (interesting, but good), but the filet had an herb butter on it that I really didn\u2019t care for and wish they\u2019d left off.\u00a0 Rick had the duck, which would have been much better if he\u2019d sent it back to be cooked more.\u00a0 The server recommended medium rare, but there\u2019s just something about eating pretty much rare duck that just didn\u2019t do it for us.\u00a0 They brought a dessert for Rick to celebrate his birthday, which was pretty good.\u00a0 Rich, but I managed to get it all down.\u00a0 LOL\u00a0 During dinner it started pouring and they lowered shade by the tables to keep the rain out.\u00a0 We waited for a lull in the rain before making a dash back to the room.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t any way to get back to the room (which was pretty much across the resort) without being outside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jan. 27<\/p>\n Breakfast again\u2014yes, \u2018Ama Ama.\u00a0 We were going to eat at the character meal but just enjoyed this restaurant so much we didn\u2019t want to go anywhere else.\u00a0 We had our favorite server, Liane, and spent some time visiting with her.\u00a0 We both had the eggs and I had the fried rice, which is addicting and I had to finish every bite of it.\u00a0 We also had to have another Hawaiian flavors bread basket!\u00a0 Not sure what we did for the rest of the morning, but lunch was the salad at One Paddle Two Paddle again.\u00a0 We walked along the lagoon to check out the wedding chapel next door to Aulani (they usually have 6-8 weddings each day there!) and to the lagoon 2, which is next to ours (we\u2019re lagoon 1) where there is another wedding chapel and resort.\u00a0 There is also a shuttle that just runs the one street that is Ko Olina so you can go to lagoon 4, or the other resorts, if you don\u2019t want to walk.\u00a0 We were going to do that all week and just never had time.\u00a0 Now, as you can see, it\u2019s not like we were terribly busy, but somehow our days were full and went quickly.\u00a0 The beaches along here are just gorgeous.\u00a0 I did come back to our resort through the ocean, which was much cooler than I expected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We also started seeing some pretty large men walking\/running by.\u00a0 We then found out that all the football players that were going to be in the pro-bowl on Saturday were staying at the J.W. Marriott, which shared our lagoon and was literally next door to us.\u00a0 It was quite humorous to see these guys trying to stand on the surf boards (no idea what this is called, but we saw lots of it during this trip-you stand on a surf board and paddle around while standing).\u00a0 They and their families were having a great time.\u00a0 It\u2019s nice to see when rivals on the field can get together and just be friends and have fun.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jan. 28<\/p>\n Our last morning, so we stopped to watch the fish feeding on our way to eat, where I had to have the French toast again at \u2018Ama Ama.\u00a0\u00a0 We said our good-byes to our saleslady Patty and Paul at the Off the Hook bar.\u00a0 We\u2019d enjoyed visiting with him and hearing tales about his dad in WWII.\u00a0 The same car service was to pick us up at 11am, so we were out front by 10:45am, where again we waited and waited.\u00a0 I called; the driver was coming\u2026his excuse this time was all the traffic due to the pro-bowl.\u00a0 Whatever\u2014I\u2019m not too impressed, but the drivers were all nice, just couldn\u2019t tell time evidently.\u00a0 I guess they were all on island time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.themagicforless.com\/tmflblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/AmaAma-chocolate-peanut-butter-french-toast-300x225.jpg\")
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