Aloha!!!!

So, for vacation last summer my family decided to surprise my siblings and me and take us to Hawaii! We went to the island of Lanai. Originally, Dole owned this entire island. Dole used this island as a pineapple plantation. Lanai is one of the smaller islands in the chain. It was a definite culture shock in the beginning. We had to take a ferry from Maui to Lanai, and it was total shock to learn that most of the locals who live on Lanai have to commute back and forth to do simple things like going to town for groceries or clothing.

 I had a hard time comprehending that people could not just run down to the local grocery store if needed.  Of course, once we got onto the island of Lanai, we were able to see parts of the culture. The only official town on the island is Lanai City. There is a small downtown square that has a little drug store, a church, and few gift shops, and two restaurants. This is when I realized this was going to be a very down to earth type of vacation.

Since we were going to have to take a ferry if we left the island, we decided to stay on Lanai. My step mom gets extreme motion sickness, so that also played into not taking a ferry unless needed. This gave me a great opportunity to find time to just relax. We traveled in the early part of June, so I was still recovering from a tough spring semester. This was great! I was able to read of book of choice, take a nap if I wanted, or just sit on the beach soaking in the rays. Other than  getting to see the unique culture of Lanai, we did not experience the traditional must see sites while in Hawaii, but it was still an amazing experience.