Shopping Day In Hawaii :)

Hey Ya'll,

First off, I want to start out by sending good thoughts to Etta James!  She is the singer of my all time favorite song, "At Last".  She recorded "At Last" in the 60's, and was considered a Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Gospel, Soul, Jazz, and some say....Rock & Roll Singer.  But, of her many great songs, "At Last" is the one that will always make me want to get up and dance to, with my husband!!  It just calls to me.  I read tonight that she has Terminal Leukemia, and suffers from Dementia.  Although she battled Drug Addiction throughout her life, she never gave up the fight, and I will always remember her beautiful voice, even long after she is gone. 

Now, on to some funny (at least now I can say funny) things that happened in Hawaii.  On the second day we were there, we drove to Walmart to buy me a Foam Mattress pad, plus supplies.  We decided that in order to help cut costs, and since we had a full Kitchen, we would eat Breakfast and Lunch in the room, and try to not eat out more than once a day.  And yes, I said a Mattress Pad!  Marriott's is always saying how great their beds are, but let me tell you, my Back and Hips disagrees with them!!  And of course, they will not provide even a thin egg crate foam pad to help out.  So we decided it was worth it to buy one for ourselves, since we were to be there for 2 weeks!

We drove to the closest Walmart, expecting it to not be a problem finding a pad there.  We got really lucky in finding a parking place immediately, since someone was pulling out!  But that was to be the only lucky part of that trip!!  I have NEVER seen a store as packed as it was!!  We could barely move our shopping cart, the aisles were so clogged!!  But after asking a Sales Associate about the Pads (since we didn't see any where they should have been), she said that no, they were completely out!  So we bought me an inexpensive pillow (yes, I even had trouble with their hard pillows!!), some water shoes for Walt, and some non perishable food items, laundry detergent, paper towels, and toilet paper (the paper products at the Resort was....let me just say, that we preferred to buy our own!! LOL) we left that Walmart as soon as we could, meaning we were there for way over an hour!!  Luckily, as busy as they were, we didn't have to wait at all to check out!

So on our way back to the Resort, we went to Target and Costco.  Had we only known how bad the rush was at Walmart, we would have never gone to there!  At Costco, we bought a case of soda for each of us, some fruit, snacks, and a swimsuit for Walt (since I forgot to pack his).  We looked for the Mattress Pad at Costco too, and they didn't have one either!!  So we finished the shopping trip by buying what we considered perishable items at Target.  And after almost giving up, we found Mattress Pads there, so we decided to spend the $100 and buy one, then drove back to the Resort.  All of this took about 3-4 hours!!

So after this, we decided to NEVER go back to Walmart there in Hawaii again....After that day, we went to Target and Costco for any additional items needed.  LOL  Luckily, at the Resort, we borrowed one of the rolling carts that you can transport your luggage on to your rooms (that they keep down in the parking garage for guests use), to load up our goods to take to our Suite, otherwise, it would have taken several trips!!  After getting back and unloading everything, and putting the 2 inch Mattress Pad on the bed, we decided to crash for the rest of the day.  We were exhausted!!

So, it seems like everytime that we left the Resort even just to do a little bit of shopping, etc, it would take at least several hours....so the days seemed to fly by way too fast.  I will leave with a few more photos below that I took during the trip.  I hope that you enjoy them.  Till next time.....

Aloha My Friends  :)

This was one of 3 pools at our Resort.  This pool was the one in front of our wing of Suites.

And another view of the same pool.

This is a partial view of a 2nd pool at our Resort.  This was the "quiet" pool, meaning adult only pool.  

And a partial view of the 3rd pool.  This one had a slide for the kids.  Other wise, a loud pool full of kids!!  LOL

The Koi Pond

A view of the Lagoon in front of our Resort.  There were 3 or 4 Lagoons on the whole property.  We were lucky and had a Lagoon just for our Resort, meaning it wasn't shared by another Resort on the property.  

And believe it or not....we found a wild Mongoose!!