Wow, just wow. I is hard to believe we have arrived at the morning of our departure. Although I am eager to get home to my Nashville Ohana, this has been a great trip / vacation. Before we first drank the Kool Aid of the Disney Vacation Club 11 years ago, we were on our very first trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. The company has strategically placed folks around the parks to conduct a 'survey' of your stay. If I remember correctly, one of the first questions was, 'Are you visiting on business or vacation / leisure?' Melissa was very quick to respond, 'Vacation and leisure are two different things.' This 'vacation' has been no different. We have gone snorkeling with manta rays, seen erupting volcanos, hiked lava flows, learned to surf, gone tubing the the rainforest, scuba'd and snorkeled tropical reefs, learned some stories about WWII and Pearl Harbor, eaten the famous Dole Pineapple Whip, been to a Lua'u (two), toured a craft chocolate factory, viewed the sunset and fireworks show from the deck of a catamaran, and so much more. We have also added many cousins to our Ohana.
As of Thursday night we didn't have anything on tap for Friday's activities. Melissa was busily combing though information on her phone and we thought it would be great to take a nice dinner sailing cruise to see the sunset and watch the Friday night fireworks show. But, what to do on the way to the boat? We toured a craft chocolate factory. The great folks at Manoa Chocolate Factory graciously decided to open a new tour time just for us, since their standard tour was completely full. Dylan and his folks educated us on chocolate from bean to bar. It was absolutely fascinating. I don't normally share external links in this blog. But here is a link to their story.
If you ever make it to Hawaii, I would highly recommend going on this tour. If you really like chocolate, I highly recommend ordering some from their website. From Manoa we made our way back to Waikiki via the International Market (another massive open air shopping mall). We boarded the Honi Olani for a lovely sunset / dinner cruise that ended with a fireworks show over Honolulu. It was a great end to an incredible two week journey.
We are mostly packed and ready to go. Today will consist of a last trip to the beach and pool, lunch at Liliha Bakery, and a short drive to the airport to depart. So with this I say, A hui kaua. Good-bye, until we meet again.