Tomorrow we go home...

We have had a wonderful time here in Hawaii. We are staying at the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island in Kona. The weather has been exceptional, today being the only over-cast day. That is ok because I am still too burned to be out and I have spent most of today lounging in our room watching tv and reading. I went down to the shops today and got some flowy white linen pants to wear to dinner tonight, an effort to cover my hideous legs. They are still bright pink, but the basic sunburn pain is gone. Still is sensitive to touch, though. I don't know if some slight swelling on my skin was a symptom of a VERY bad burn, or what. My right leg was/is far worse than my left.
Let's see, what have we been up to?
Wednesday: Holy cow what a day of travel we had to endure!! We left HOU at 9:30am and landed in Honolulu after a 7 1/2 hour flight. Then we played around for our 5 hour layover and landed in Kona around 6pm... at this point it is 11pm in Houston! So we then get on a bus for 45 minutes to the resort. By the time we check in and get to our room, we basically turn around twice and are out the door to the welcome reception. They had a tasting from every option we had (about 5 places) to pick for our "Dine Around" Sunday night. I had some wonderful seared Tuna and the best thing ever - lobster fried rice and spicey beef with pineapple. We were only there about 2 hours and I started to sway when standing still.
Thursday: Up to breakfast reception. After that Lee had the mandatory "this-is-really-a-business-trip" meeting, so I went to the beach. I took a book and was there with 2 other wives I know pretty well. After about 2 hours I came back to the room. I wasn't burned at all, so I was proud. Lee and I went back down to the pool, had lunch, and then went snorkeling. We saw these huge sea turtles!
Thursday night was a beach party. It was miserable-windy. All the ladies had hair in their face (see, it wasn't windy at all here at the resort, but the beach we were bussed to was awful) so we all spent the evening holding our hair and being cold! The food was downright bad, and there was a live band. Around 10 we went back to the hotel and had a gathering on the patio where someone had thier ipod in one of those portable speakers! We drank Cucumber Pomegranete Mojito's and chilled.
Friday: Beach day. We eat breakfast and then get bussed back to the beach (the beach here is a little cove, not enough for 900 people). This is where I proceed to get fried, even though I had on sun screen. But since I am opaque, the sun just drilled me. I see my knee caps getting red and alert Lee that we need to get back.
Friday night: BACK TO THE BEACH - my legs are killing me, Aloe isnt doing anything. There was another band and they botched 2 Jimmy Buffett songs. At some point I got horribly naseous and had to sit down. I did the whole gag thing for a minute and then just sat still untill Lee was ready to go.
Saturday: pain. pain. pain in my legs. I cry in the shower and I bawl when Lee is putting the aloe/lidocane on my legs. Never in my life have I had a burn this painful. We had a helicopter ride and I didn't want to miss it. I lather some more and we head out. The ride was awesome!
After we get back, I lather some more and we go shopping. Lee got some new Tommy Bahama shirts and I got the Ray-Bans I have been wanting forever. We ate lunch at the Tommy Bahama Cafe and I was suprised at how wonderful the food was! You think, ok, whatever, a cafe... no, this food was fantastic. I have to learn to make garlic aioli now...
Saturday night: finally, a night without being bussed around! I wore pants to cover my ugly legs and actually took the damn aloe/lidocane with me to dinner! This was arranged on the huge grassy lawn by a stage. Music was played while we ate a nice dinner. Dessert comes out and it is just plain bad and I am like "dude! how can you mess up chocolate?"
Then the main act comes on and it's.... HEART! So we got a full fledged Heart concert with "Magic Man, Barricuda, These Dreams," etc. They are pretty hard rock at times, but it was a nice show. After that, there was a disco deal going on but I couldn't go. I noticed my ankle was swollen and my knees hurt. Not like the burn hurt, but my actual knees hurt. Lee went on to the disco and I will spare everyone the rest of the evening.
Sunday: We are up and order room service. Lee leaves to go fishing and that is when I headed out shopping. Tonight we are eating at Brown's Beach House (we picked them because of the lobster fried rice!!) with about 6 other people. I have a cute shirt to wear with the pants I got today. I hate that I can't wear my dress, but it really looks bad when you look at my legs. And I have burn spots on my back too, so I will just cover it all up and stick a flower in my hair and go!
Tomorrow we go home and I am so home sick. I miss my dogs and my house and my friends. I will have to fight jet lag, though. We are going out to eat Tuesday night with Lee's folks, no matter that we land at 7:30 am on Tuesday! We will just have to sleep all afternoon so we can be alive at dinner!
I will post pictures when we get home.
Aloha!