Staycation Scares

Here are some pics from my staycation a couple of weeks ago!  For those of you that don't know, Hawaii had a Tsunami scare.  Of course of all weekends, it was the one that I was at a beach house right on the ocean! I guess that you could say it was a real adventure?!  Every year the clan tries to get together to stay a weekend at a beach house.  This year, we decided to go out there in October since all year is basically summer here, it really doesn't matter.  The thought behind venturing around the island during October, was so we could visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.  Every year, they put on a haunted lagoon, on top of their usual festivities.  I was so preoccupied, that I didn't get any pics of the center, and you're not allowed to take any photos while on the ride.  Everyone was so excited to be going during this time of the year, to finally get to go to the lagoon.  Our Saturday was filled with food, beach and a little bit of drinks and high anticipation!  While we were getting ready to go to the lagoon, the news was on, and there was a report of an earthquake in Canada but that there was need danger for Hawaii.  Excited to get our fill for more adventure, we thought nothing of it and headed out to the lagoon.  It is quite an experience!  We opted for a fast pass, to avoid the long lines with a bunch of little ones.  We got through right away, we were lead through a 3-D glow in the dark haunted house, which was very cool!  Not scary at all, being put on by little children.  While boarding the canoe, we were told to please turn off your phones and electrical devices, and to keep them off for the duration of the ride.(Which is a little over 30 mins. or so)  The ride was full of your worst nightmares all bundled up into one.  I LOVE haunted houses and ghost stories, so I was ready for something somewhat scary since a lot of people said that it's scary.  For me, it wasn't scary, but very well put together! It was, scary for some of the younger ones and the fright does matter on what seat you're sitting in the canoe.  After we got off of the canoe, everyone turned their phones back on and all at once they started ringing, beeping, buzzing, etc.  This is where the panic starts to settle in!  "What? a tsunami warning?" "What? heading for us in 2 hours?" You can imagine the state we're in at this point.  We headed towards the gate and since we still had to wait for 4 of our party to get off the kids ride, we were trying to plan out our ride back to the house.  One driver was on the other ride, so we decided to start heading back in groups.  As the first group drove out, the rest of us waited by the entrance.  That's when we saw the cars all starting to pile up right outside of the park.  The traffic begins! OMG! You can't even imagine!! They closed the gate to the parking lot, so there was no way anyone could come back in.  We decided to start walking!  We called our driver and told him what was happening and that we will be along the highway and to look for us!  There is a gas station next to the park, and the line to fill up was literally a mile long.  All the cars were parked along side the highway, just waiting to fill up.  When we got back to the house, we all started to pack up and were trying to figure out what to do.  With less then 2 hours left, how were we going to get home on a one lane road and not to mention that we were an hour away from home.  The decision was to drive up the road to a temple and wait.  That's just what we did, wait, and wait.  We were in the parking lot and field waiting for four hours.  Finally at about 1:15a.m. we got the all clear and headed back to the house.  There were a few reported accidents here and there, but thankfully the majority was safe.  The next day was our last day there, so we lived it up to it's fullest.  A feeling of being robbed of our staycation, it was a bittersweet day.  As we cleaned and repacked our belongings, we slowly headed for home.  Of course with a little detour for some shave ice of course!  Relieved that the tsunami ended up being nothing, we could all rejoice.  Two days after our little tsunami scare, hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast.   It's true when they say lucky we live in Hawaii!  We are luck to live in paradise, and it is times like these where you realize that you can't take anything for granted.  No matter what part of the world that you live in, natural disasters can happen anywhere!  It really puts things in perspective.