I didn’t wake up until after 6am so I missed whatever sunrise there was (though we can’t see it much from our room anyway). I have the same routine here of starting a timelapse, taking meds and drinking tea while working on the previous days blog post.
I was a bit sore this morning so took a while to get moving. I had breakfast (bagels again) out on the verandah. Kevin had a morning nap. And late morning we headed out because Kevin wanted to check out the shops across the road and get a coffee. We stopped in via the DVC area to get a photo with the Mickey statue. We ended up chatting with one of the cast members there and she took the photo for us.
As we were walking across the road, stopping to taking to take lots of photos of the beautiful Aulani building and gardens, Christy face-timed us – or should I say Kenai face-timed us since he was the first one we saw :-). After finishing up our chat with Christy we went into the Country store, which is basically an ABC store, and picked up lunch for Kevin (there was nothing for me) and some fresh fruit. Kevin also got a frozen chai latte from the coffee shop which he really enjoyed.
Then it was back across the road to Aulani. We then got changed into our cozzies, packed up our lunch (Kevin cooked some dumplings for me) and snacks and headed down to the pool area.
Though the pool was pretty empty there were very few sun lounges free. We searched the pool for two in the shade, then down to the beach area, which was also busy. Back up at the pool area we eventually found two together under an umbrella.
I ate the vegan dumplings (which were very enjoyable) and Kevin had his Asian Chicken Salad.
Then it was time to float around the lazy river. I took photos today so you can see just how beautiful it is. I don’t think anyone does a lazy river quite like Disney does.
We were getting out of the river to go find a hot tub we’d just spotted yesterday when along came Goofy. So fun to get to meet him and have a photo taken. We are very lucky to have missed the whole no character hugs that occurred during the last 2 years. They only started again in the last month or so.
We then spent some time in this (new to us) hot tub, before hanging out on the sun lounges reading, and enjoyed some watermelon & berries, until we ended up in the sun and headed back to our room for a bit.
Tonight we planned to have drinks and dinners at the Oleo Room. It opened at 5pm so by the time we got there at 5.45pm there were no tables left. While we waited for one to be available we had a quick (daily) walk through the shops before sitting outside (the lobby) while we waited. It was lovely here enjoying the breeze.
We only waited about 15mins before getting a call that a table was ready for us. We were seated inside on high stools, which ended up being the perfect location for us as it was quieter. The decor of the bar area is wonderful with wood carvings depicting different Hawaiian words.
From our seats we looked out into the outdoor area and over to the live performers – who were singing songs in Hawaiian. And from what I could hear were explaining the meanings/stories behinds the songs.
We ordered some drinks to start. Kevin had a banana daquari and I had a strawberry guava mocktail. It was very different for me but I did enjoy it.
For our dinner we shared the vegan tacos and edamame. Both were delicious. And combined with our drinks was the perfect amount of food.
Kevin contemplated dessert (since they did sound good) but opted instead to go and check out the sunset. We had a nice stroll down the beach and found a spot to sit but sadly there were a lot of clouds on the horizon so, though pretty, it wasn’t much of a sunset. We strolled back to our room, thought about an evening swim but decided against it, and settled in for the night.