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Published: November 30th 2014
Our cats, Saturday Morning 4:19am. Right before we bug out, they tried to give us a reason to not leave.
Oh and look to the top left, Shane's belt. He lost so much weight in Hawaii that he wished he had packed that!Hawaii always seemed like a place to getaway and relax in the sun on a beach; a very crowded beach. When Shane thought of Hawaii, he thought of all the overweight tourists polluting nature, and terrible kids screaming and running all over the place, kicking sand into our faces as we tried to soak up some rays. That’s why Hawaii was never anywhere close to the top of
his destinations list.
"What am I going to do for a week on Hawaii? I’ve been to Florida and California. I’ve been to the Gulf of Mexico, Jamaica and the Caribbean. What’s so special about Hawaii?"
Those were Shane's thoughts when we were planning our Honeymoon. Shane wanted to go to the old world: Italy, Greece, Netherlands, Spain or France. But Shanna insisted on going to Hawaii and she eventually won. She made a good case. Did we want to go to these museums and battle all the crowds? Did we want to spend even more money to travel to different cities in Italy, or try to catch the train to Prague? Should we spend our honeymoon clutching an itinerary that could cause disappointment if any one thing was overlooked? Or do we want to fly to one island, where we can take a car to anywhere we want and even camp out a few nights since the weather is always great? You
mention to Shane about saving money and he's on board. He's a cheap ass, but at lease he’ll admit it. After all, how cheap can we be if we're springing for a trip to Hawaii?
It is easy to jump off the beaten path when you have essentially no itinerary.
Something also unexpected happened that year; he fell in love with Everest. Not with just the mountain, but the idea of traveling through these foreign lands and depending solely on your physical and mental strength. Being reliant and carrying everything you need to survive on your back wasn’t an experience we could encounter in the Sistine Chapel. When Shanna spoke of the miles we would need to walk to get to place like Papakōlea, the green sand beach; or hiking 7-9 hours to get to a valley that makes you think you’re in Jurassic Park, Shane began to understand why her mind was set.
So we booked our flight (in June, for November) and Shanna started her research into “The Big Island.” Shane's excitement centered mostly on seeing an active volcano, but had no idea the adventure that was in store for us.
It’s like an adult’s playground.
Jumping off cliff faces, hiking to exotic, untouched beaches, and taking a rental car off-roading.
Where the Sierra Nevada meets Death Valley, oh did we wish we were down there!Where else in the world could we do all this? And for the record, the food is absolutely amazing and the fruit is even better! But we’ll get to all this, right now; let’s start with the week before we left.
Chicago can suck, especially in the winter. Few people take care of themselves like we do: we are paranoid when it comes to germs, probably because we didn't have sick days working at Graham Crackers Comics. So if we’re sick, we’re working, unless of course it’s really bad. So, through the winter months, Shanna and I load up on vitamins and sanitizer! The last thing we wanted was to get sick right in time for our trip to Hawaii, and of course, since we booked it in the middle of November, it was right when flu season was hitting the city. How naive we were in May and June that we booked a trip in November and didn’t even think about the cold season.
Leading up to the trip, Shanna was in the pH production of
The Rocky Horror Show. She was amazing and she received the accolades she deserved from playing the lead, Janet Weiss.
Flight to Hawaii
When we got on the plane headed for Oahu, they had video of various spots on Hawaii, a great way to start the trip!
(Shane wrote that line). Why this is important is because every performance Shane showed up for, or even just the times he stopped by to pick Shanna up after a performance, many of her fellow actors were sick. Colds, the flu, bronchitis, possibly a little strep; the pH theater was a germ breeding ground. Shane just knew she was going to catch something and then give it to him. After all, there’s kissing and body grinding throughout the show, one can only expect transmitting sickness to each other. We took every precaution we could but lo and behold, the week before we left, on November 9
th, Shanna woke up with a sore throat.
She constantly consumed meds and OJ but with her schedule and our to do list before hitting the Big Island, we just didn’t have enough time to recoup. That morning we hit the Soup Box and Shanna had a hair appointment to keep, let alone her improv class and of course another Rocky Horror performance that night. Needless to say, it wasn’t a Saturday she could spend in bed. The next day we got up early to hit REI, we needed some last minute provisions we
probably shouldn’t have waited till the last minute to get. Just a few things like a water purifier, bug juice and sunscreen; just some minor details, right?
She got to spend much of the weeknights in bed, sleeping, trying to battle back the sickness so we could enjoy our much needed vacation. At 4 am on Wednesday, November 13
th, 3 days before our flight, Shane woke up with a sore throat. Shane cursed to himself, loud enough to wake Shanna who reassured him to stay positive. Shanna woke up that Wednesday feeling good; it took her 5 days to get better, and he only had 3. But the whole time he tried to keep Shanna’s wisdom in his heart: think positive.
Shanna’s final performance was Friday, November 15
th, our last night before the big trip, and she wouldn’t get home until close to midnight. Shane, of course, was in bed sleeping, doing what he could to get rid of the sickness. This left a multitude of duties for Shanna to do when she came home. We had packed our camping gear and most of our clothes for the trip, but she had made hardly any of the food
Oahu, our first stop.we we’re going to take for the 3 nights we were camping out on the Big Island. (Our first day there was our biggest outing, and provisions had to be brought with). So Shanna slaved away in the kitchen for four plus hours, getting our food ready.
Our flight was at 7am, and we wanted to leave for the airport by 5, so when Shane finally awoke at 4am, there were still a few things needed to be done. Toiletries, cat stuff, clean their litter, get extra cat food, etc. It was a hectic start to a vacation that we planned months in advance, but plans don't always go as expected.
We chugged a Monster Rehab Energy Drink and made our way to find a cab, all the while hoping no one in security wants to open our bags because there is NO way to repack these bags busting at the seems.
But hey, we made it to the airport with almost nothing forgotten...at least nothing essential.
The anticipation was palpable: neither of us had been on a plane crossing the vast ocean before...after 11 blissful years of happiness together, any trip made was home to see family, therefore we had never actually had a real vacation all to ourselves.
We got to the airport with plenty of time and at 7:30am we reached lift off, headed towards our unknown adventure. We made sure to pack books, comics, art supplies and even a film script Shane wanted to go over, that way we had plenty to do on our 12 hour flight. All this crap we brought and all we did that first leg was sleep, which wasn’t fun. Shane was sniffling and coughing throughout most.
You always hate that guy who is sick on an airplane and now Shane was that guy.
He slept until we got to Nevada and then he couldn’t take it anymore, he just had to look out the window. He had already missed the Rockies, but knew the Sierras were coming up and just a little bit further north,
Yosemite.
We changed flights in LA. Since Shanna had never been in California before she was awed flying over acre-long million dollar mansions followed by the over-crowded, florescent-colored houses of South Compton. After a short layover we waved goodbye to dry land and settled in for a very long view of the endless seas.
On board the flight to Honolulu from LA, everything changed and our spirits shifted into new territory. The flight attendants wore weightless, genuine smiles; the on-board screen shuffled between palm-lined sunsets to beaches to waterfalls; all to the tune of a drifting ukulele. This was by far the most pleasant flight we have ever experience, and the longest.
Leaving Los Angeles, Shane immediately felt invigorated! He thought he was going to sleep through this flight but was too excited to even close his eyes. It was a long flight so of course they had a movie to play:
Wolverine. We hadn’t seen yet, and being such a huge Wolverine and Hugh Jackman fan, Shane took this as a great sign. After the film, they played some episodes of various TV shows, and he was excited to see his two best friends Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster from their show
Psych. Let’s just say it was a great way to start a vacation. Shanna on the other hand had been awake since 9am Friday the 15
th and it was already after 10:30 the next day, so by the 26
th hour she was running on fumes and was out like a light!
The flight didn't take as long as we thought, and believe it or not, we didn't suffer with any jet lag from the time change. (Which would have severely hurt our expedition for the next day). Long flights were foreign to us: Shanna had flown to Alaska, a 10 hour trip, but that was over 10 years ago, and we weren't sure how we would react to being in a cramped plane for over 6 hours shoved back into coach. But the plane wasn't even half full, so everyone spread out and settled in comfortably. Some laid out across multiple seats, and even the babies on board didn't cry, even when pressure changed. Before we left, we removed almost all our pictures and apps from our phones and stored days worth of music instead. You just never know what you might be in the mood for. Well, as it turns out, music (for the first time in either of our lives) took a bit of a back seat...
We were just too excited!!
Shanna awoke to the never changing view of the vast blue below, but knew we were getting close. As you approach, you can actually see the shape of the islands very briefly, if you’re on the correct side of the plane. We quickly caught a glimpse of the big island before turning toward our layover destination: Oahu. As the plane turned into Honolulu, we could see Pearl Harbor in all its glory.
With a little less than an hour to go, we both grew antsy and stared out our window to admire the beautiful mountains and lush greens that we could see in the distance as we approached the Hawaiian Islands. O'ahu was our first close up glimpse of things to come. We both have always been drawn to the high places in the world, and to see the sprawling mountain rangers was quite a sight. Then followed by a
massive, LA-like city...needless to say we were glad to know we weren't staying in O'ahu. The Big Island promised us peaceful, secluded, untouched adventure we so badly thirsted for...
Next up - Part 2: Welcome to Paradise
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