So after our busy, busy day on Sunday we didnt have anything planned for Monday other than to finally take a full day to lounge around the pool & beach. Turned out that the 2nd hurricane, Julio, was going to pass north of the islands and not really give us any effects to worry about. The northern (other) side of the islands were supposed to have higher than normal surf & rip currents etc. but that was it. Nothing else to worry about!! WHEW!! Our surf lessons were scheduled for the next day so I wanted to touch base at some point that day with our contact there to be sure we were still on for those.
We had finished off all the bagels wed bought at Target so we didnt have anything in the villa for breakfast so we got into our bathing suits and went down to the pool to scout out some lounge chairs before heading to the Ulu Café for breakfast. WOW. It was already crowded (at 8:30) and the weekend was over (wed heard that Aulani is the busiest over the weekends with locals using the resort). We had just about decided wed have to go back to that deck area in front of Ama Ama when we spied a handful of open chairs & an umbrella in the back row (of about 7 rows) as you head down the stairs to the new infinity pool area. So we snagged 3 chairs there with our stuff and hurried over to the Ulu Café for breakfast. Knowing that there is a 1 hour chair policy enforcement we didnt want to diddle dawdle around too long over there.
I forget what DS got but DH and I both got some flaky spinach croissant type of thing. They looked better than they actually were.
Breakfast took about 30 minutes then we hurried back over to our spot. We really didnt DO anything all day except for hang around the pool. We did the slides & lazy river a few times. The infinity pool was so close we gravitated there more than the other big main pool whenever we just wanted to get wet to cool off. This pool was very cool looking but the infinity edge was a big draw for massive crowds especially as the day wore on. It wasnt too crowded in the mornings but by afternoon YIKES!! People tended to congregate on the infinity edge and never leave. And there were so many little kids in their floaties & life vests. Where were their parents? I couldnt imagine what the resort had been like BEFORE they added this extra pool area. GOOD GRIEF!! We also ended up buying the refill mugs for all of us. Initially we were only going to get one for DS but we quickly realized if we were going to bring our own beverages down in our cooler that wed still need to blend in with the masses. And EVERYBODY appeared to have the mugs. Plus they would help keep stuff cold AND DH couldnt have his glass beer bottles out anyway so we needed something to pour them into. So cha ching. $18 each or so for those. (Just what our kitchen cabinet needed more Disney refill mugs!!)
Here are a couple of cell phone pics taken from "our spot". One looking toward the Ewa tower and one looking directly behind us toward the new infinity pool area. You can see in that one looking toward the Ewa tower how many rows of chairs there are. We actually really liked being in the back row, out of the way.
At some point that morning we talked DS into going over to the beach on the lagoon to do a teen activity that was listed in the daily Ewa. It was a boot camp thing or something which ended up being like 45 minutes of push-ups & lunges on the hot sand. I guess there were about maybe 6 kids there altogether. Not a huge draw for the kids. And it was NOT the fun activity wed hoped for. It was like his dryland trainings for his swimming. We felt bad that wed talked him into doing it and hoped he knew he could just quit if he wanted to. But he stuck it out. It was sooo hot. I couldnt believe they were doing this stuff in the hot sand. At this point we knew wed have a hard time talking him into doing anything else with the teen group.
I took some time at some point to walk around to the left side of the lagoon to get a few pics out by the farthest point of the lagoon, by the beach. Well, it was pretty rocky out there on the ocean side. Not really a beach so much. Anyway, its very pretty over there.
I went up to the room around Noon or so to charge my phone & make us some turkey & gouda sandwiches & brought them down to the pool to eat for lunch (the Target there had their brand of pre-sliced gouda! My Target at home does not carry that and I LOVE gouda.) We had only bought a small jar of mayo when we got our groceries and as I was going up to the room to make the sandwiches I was thinking to myself "Boy I wish we had some Grey Poupon too" and just THEN I just happened to pass a room service tray sitting in the hallway to be picked up.
And YES, you know I did!!
LOL.
I stopped & looked around to be sure nobody was watching me & I scoped it out and sitting right there in the corner of the tray was
a brand new miniature unopened Dijon mustard jar!! It must be there JUST FOR ME!!!
ROFL. I mean WHAT a coincidence, right?!
Anyway, it was the perfect touch for our little gourmet sandwiches!!
Later that afternoon we DID talk DS into going back over to the beach for another teen activity. He went reluctantly and I sort of spied on them from a distance 'cuz I wanted to see what they were doing (and he never tells us anything). This time it looked like it was more fun. They divided into small teams and gave them color coordinated bandanas to wear so they could play like Survivor type games. I stayed to watch the first one which was to put coconut shells on top of a boogie board and then they had to carry them in a race down the beach and around a catamaran and back without dropping them.
We stayed down at the pool ALL day. I mean until like probably 5:00. Then we went up to shower and DH & I went back to Target to get more breakfast stuff for the rest of the week. We picked up some frozen waffles & syrup. Oh, and some more beer.
I forget now what we had for dinner. If I was to guess I would say Ulu Café but I really dont remember (and I didnt take pics of it, whatever it was so I have no memory)!! Ooops! Oh well.
ETA: I know where we ate!! This was the night we ate at Makahiki!! For some reason I took like 3 cell phone pics there of my food but they didnt download whenever I downloaded all of my pics!! I will try to figure out how to get them added!! We decided to go there that night because A) we were tired of Ulu Cafe and B) there was a teen activity from like 9 - 11:00 that DS wanted to do. Looked like more of a social thing. So we decided in the interest of time that we'd stay onsite rather than walking down the street to the shopping center. THEN after all that, DS decided he ate too much and he was TOO FULL to go!!! All he wanted to do was to go to the room to lay down!!
OK, so these are the pics I took at dinner at Makahiki that night. They are some of my worst work EVER!! I am so embarrased by how bad they are but you can see we all ate PLENTY!!