Rising at 6am sure has it’s perks. For one, you tend to get a lot more out of your day. I’m sure you’re saying, well duh, but I’m not a morning person and never have been. I couldn’t even tell you the last time I saw a sunrise…or a sunrise where I was rising instead of just going to bed. Watching the world wake up while fully rested is quite an experience. I suppose since my internal clock is all off I can’t exactly take full credit for rising bright eyed and bushy tailed when ordinarily it would be noon if I were still in my time zone.

Our first day in Hawaii was filled with a number of exciting discoveries. While Leila and I were exploring the hotel grounds we ran across something that we have continued to refer to as “Flat Squirrels” In actuality we discovered the Mongoose. The Indian Mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to combat the rats that were brought over on ships with settlers. Unfortunately the Mongoose isn’t nocturnal and is never awake to eat the rats. Now they just run around looking something like a cute brown squirrel…except it’ll rip your face off if you get too cutesy. How bizarre.

Next was a breakfast of native lychee fruit, papaya, eggs, toast, and yes- rice. Apparently they eat quite a bit of rice here in Hawaii. After breakfast we skipped over to the inlet and enjoyed a few hours of amazing snorkeling. The fish and the coral were so beautiful, and we were delighted to enjoy a brief swim alongside a beautiful green sea turtle.

Hours seemed like days and yet it was only lunchtime, and then naptime. If it weren’t for naptime, I would never have made it to happy hour. While the kids splashed in the pool, Jen and I sampled a few absurdly garnished island cocktails. The buckets of peel and eat shrimp that followed exceeded all expectations. I couldn’t have hoped for a better end to day one.