Okay. So second and last full day in Hawaii. I was determined to make the most of the swimming opportunities at the resort, because who knows when I’ll be putting on a swimsuit again.
I woke up at 10:45am wanting actual breakfast, but the food options at Aulani stop selling breakfast at 11am. So it was time to try out that expensive room service option that I had read about in the welcome pamphlets on the first day. It was easy enough to order. I asked for their eggs benedict and it came to the room 20 minutes later (well ahead of the 40-minute timeframe that they had given me).
Looking at the receipt, I saw that there were indeed multiples fees of one sort or another that bumped up the price a good $10-15 more than the base menu price. The food was very photogenic, but mediocre at best for eating and I didn’t finish all of it. I’m glad I tried breakfast. I’m glad that I got to try room service. I wouldn’t do it again.
Anyway, the day wasn’t about breakfast. I got all sunblocked and headed for the ocean. I picked up my last wristband that gives you access to the Aulani pool area. You get one a day.
I decided to check out a boogie board from the surf shack this time. Disney ocean boogieing came highly recommended to me. I tried it out multiple ways, but got bored after not too long and took it back to the shack. I had to, like, sign multiple things to get the board, which felt very official. So it was kind of weird to walk back up with it a few minutes later, but it was a different person who checked it back in and I didn’t have to worry that I had failed some boogie boarding coolness test.
I still went back to the ocean though! I did more of my successful ocean walking from two days ago. There was also significant floating and backstroking. It was very nice. As I lay floating, I decided that I don’t need much more tropicality on my trip. I’m really down with this version of the ocean where a jellyfish tide doesn’t wash in and murder you while you’re just minding your own business specifically trying not to get killed by the denizens of the deep. I saw some amazing videos from like Fiji and Tahiti when I was researching for this trip and was considering adding something like them to my itinerary, but those were mostly ocean-centric stops and I was getting all I needed from the Disney ocean. So, more tropics. Not completely out. But less likely.
This picture doesn't fall chronologically into the day in this spot, but I like it, so I'm including it.
I had abandoned my stuff at a beach chair while I oceaned. The other day, I left my flip flops unattended. Today, I was bolder and left my bag, phone, and towel along with my flip flops. This was more risky, but everything turned out well. After I was done with my tropical missions, I picked up my stuff, stopped for some “nachos” (a tray of corn chips with a couple of nacho cheese dip packets alongside), and headed up to the pool area.
I got to do the lazy river! I don’t know why this is so appealing to me, but I did love it. I grabbed an inner tube (There’s probably a less 80s/90s version of that term now, but I’m not hip to all of the water-sports-related slang. Calling it an “inner tube” though feels like when my dad calls flip flops “thongs.” Hopefully, “inner tubes” aren’t also predominantly female underclothing now too. If they are, I’d rather not see them.)
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(But updating terms without full research is how I embarrassed myself by calling a pair of pajama pants a “lounge pant” at one of my first dance auditions. But now I’m REALLY off topic.)
So. Oh yeah. Lazy river. I grabbed an inner tube and hopped in the water. After our lounge pant detour, I’ll save you the details of how I decided to wear my inner tube. I went through the whole river once. Then, I went on a water slide that you ride down in an inner tube that spits you out into the lazy river, so I did it again, sitting in the inner tube this time. THEN! After that time around, I ditched the inner tube altogether and went through it just by myself, au natural. So plenty of lazy river time.
I don’t think that I’ve mentioned storytelling in the past couple of days. They have an event here a couple of times an evening where a character called “Uncle” tells a Hawaiian story around a campfire. This activity also came highly recommended to me by my Aulani-insider, Katrina. I’ve been to a couple each day I’ve been here. But one of the times this evening, Uncle was interrupted by Moana! She was lovely. She helped him finish his story this time.
Sometime after that, it was dinner time and the diem was carped, so I bought a pizza and headed back to my room to pack. The pizza was a bit of a situation. It ended up being a huge, full-sized pizza and I ended up being not quite as hungry as I had thought. Poor pizza. I ended up not eating most of it.
I spent the rest of the evening slowly packing and convincing myself that I had everything. I went to bed with not enough time to sleep as I would have liked, but certainly not with the shortest night of the trip ahead of me.
Hawaii was a fun stop for me. Going into it, I decided that this was an Aulani stop and not a Hawaii stop, so I know that there is basically still ALL of Hawaii left to do someday. For my sabbatical, though, I feel happy about this option for getting some sunshine and ocean waves into my trip.
Aloha!
