Life with the Woods: July 2009

As some of you know, I (Tami) won a radio contest a few months ago with the prize being 80,000 frequent flyer miles on Hawaiian Airlines. What that translates to is about 5 inter-island round trip flights. In early June, we found out that we both would be getting King Kamehameha Day (a Thursday this year) off at work. So, I figured if I was getting Thursday off, I deserved to have Friday as well. (Mike's day off is Friday.) And what better way to spend a long weekend than on a "stay-cation" to the island of Lanai. Our friends, Mike and Sarah Benson, have raved about this island, so we figured we'd give it a try. There is something called a "Kama'aina rate" (for the locals) here on many things, including hotels. With free flights and discounted hotel and amenities, we were ready to head to the Four Seasons Lodge at Ko'ele. The Lodge is an amazing English-inspired country manor set up in the mountains of Lanai. The Four Seasons also has an amazing resort on the ocean at Manele Bay. This resort is more Asian inspired and offers all of the luxuries of being at the beach. There are shuttles that run every hour between the two resorts, so you can enjoy all of the activities and amenities at each. It was WONDERFUL! It was one of those places where you could keep yourself constantly busy or do nothing at all and still be perfectly content. We did a little of both. Enjoy the view from our latest adventure to Lanai.

We took a smaller prop plane from Lanai back to Oahu, but we started off the trip with a little more fun. We flew to Maui and took a 45 minute ferry ride from Lahaina to Lanai.

Leaving Lahaina behind.

Mike on the ferry.

Our first Lanai sighting. Land-ho!

After our day of traveling, we finally arrived at The Lodge at Koele.

Looking back down the road from the front lanai of The Lodge.

While having dinner I couldn't help but look around in awe at our beautiful surroundings. It was surreal to be in a hotel like this in Hawaii. It felt like we should go skiing the next day.

The Great Room at The Lodge. There were fireplaces in use on either side of the room.

The Lodge's library.

We spent several afternoon/evenings in The Lodge's game room. We played pool, backgammon, and shuffle board.

Tami enjoying some coffee and dessert after a long day of traveling.

Mike was dying to try out these resting areas next to the fireplaces in the great room.

On one afternoon, we explored the grounds at The Lodge.

Tami admiring the gi-normous Koi pond. Can you see them in the water?

Mike on his way to the orchid house.

The orchid house had some livestock grazing out front.

We thought these were hysterical.

One of the many beauties!

Something else we discovered while roaming the grounds.

Looking back toward The Lodge.

To Mike's delite, there was a mini-golf course on the grounds next to the main course. He dominated... of course.

I spent most of my golf-time checking out things like our new friend "Drurtle". He's part dragon, part turtle. Mike humored me by taking a picture with him. My two favorite guys on the golf course.

We spent most of our days down at the resort at Manele Bay.

Mike posing at the front entrance of Manele Bay.

When we walked into the front entrance, we were greeted by this glorious view.

The more Asian inspired great room at the Manele Bay resort.

The view from our umbrella - looking back up at the hotel.

On the first day, there were very few people at either resort. By the middle of the second day, a group came in for some sort of conference. All of these chairs were filled... and then some. Despite more people to look at, we always had a place at the pool and at the beach. We were pampered with iced water/juice, cold towels, and treats like these cucumbers for our eyes.