Sunday 5 May 2013

Woke to the sound of the ocean right outside the apartment. We're on the 8th floor and we discovered in daylight that we have the most magnificent view through the balcony doors and lounge room full length glass windows! But boy, that ocean is loud - and it never stops!

Apparently you can sometimes see turtles and even whales from here - but not sure how I'd notice a turtle 8 floors down. Perhaps the previous tenants had really good eyesight?

During the morning, I discovered that what I thought was a bathroom cupboard was actually a washing machine and dryer. One of the most exciting things that has happened to me!

This morning, we decided to visit the Grand Wailea Resort - which is apparently the classiest most expensive resort on the island. 
I was expecting something like this: -

Instead, as we drove up the long curving driveway we were greeted by the sight of an enormous inflatable animal tethered to the lawn - something like a cross between a kangaroo and a coyote. It turned out to be Andy Armadillo - the mascot of the Texas Roadhouse chain - something like this: -

And, it also turned out, the Texas Roadhouse Company was giving all its 350 Franchise managers and their spouses a fully-paid holiday - complete with rockabilly music by the pool and compulsory wearing of large ten-gallon hats.

All the delegates had lanyards around their necks with cards proudly asserting their names and where they were from. There seemed to be a lot of Randy's from Arkansas and Bobby-Sue's from North Dakota. They were either just arriving - with lots of suitcases and hats in the lobby - or by the pool - with small bikinis or long boardshorts and hats. There were also banners hung up around the place with employees of the month's names and large grinning faces. Why are these people so loud - both aurally and visually?

Needless to say, "classy" was not the impression left by the whole experience - although it was rather entertaining.

We had lunch at a restaurant near one of the numerous pools - but as far away from the band as possible. Good food - mine was roast tomato and eggplant soup with an artisan grilled cheese sandwich. Jim's was fried calamari and a fancy roast turkey sandwich. We both had cocktails - mine was some kind of rum colada thing and Jim's was a pineapple flavoured drink served in a tasteful plastic pineapple. And, you get to keep the plastic pineapple as a souvenir! How lovely! It even has a slot in the lid for coins.

After this feast of culture, we decided to head back to the apartment and had a lazy evening indoors. I rummaged about in the cupboards and found a couple of puzzles - so had a happy evening doing a jigsaw and listening to a Stephen Fry talking book.

We headed off to the local supermarket at dinner time and bought some ingredients for a simple meal and for breakfast the next day. (You can have too much eating out.) Supermarkets overseas are fascinating. Everything is similar - but slightly different too.