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I managed to sleep a full, straight 9 hours overnight, waking at 6:00am. Not too bad for being up for 22 hours the day before. I woke refreshed and focused, ready to start my day on a healthy note with a 5K run in 29:05.

The run was followed by a nice relaxing 2 hours by the pool and a quick walk around the grounds and into some local shops. We were quickly suckered into signing up for a 90 minute timeshare presentation in order to attend the island’s best, most Hawaiian, Lu’au. The woman assured us that this Lu’au was not a Vegas-like show, like the rest of them. She was super sweet and threw in a bunch of other goodies including a huge discount on car rental.

Our timeshare/tourism expert also let us in on some of the local events and places of interest. We decided to go to this crazy farmers’ market with the freshest vegetables and tropical fruit around to stock our rooms with healthy snacks, breakfast and lunch options.

Without our rented car, we had to take public transportation into town. Everything we were told about getting around the island pointed to the need for renting a car. Locals and fellow travelers were shocked that we weren’t planning to rent a car the entire time we were here. But, public transportation really is OK and cheap, maybe not for sightseeing, but definitely for getting to towns. It only cost us $0.50 each way to go through town.

In town, we shopped a little at the local K-mart before wandering over to the outside market. We were informed that the market did not open until 3:00. We arrived a little early and saw people fondling and bagging the local faire like mad. We approached a stand and offered to buy some tomatoes only to be turned away. The rules are that you can find the fruit and vegetables that you want, but you must bag them and tag them with your name and price so the merchant can “reserve� the fruit for you. By law, they are not allowed to officially sell anything until the whistle is blown at 3:00. After the whistle, people start running up to the stands like crazy, waving fists of dollar bills and yelling for their bags. The whole ordeal is over in about 15 minutes as the stands are picked clean of all their goodness. We scored some tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, apple bananas and a papaya.

Mmmm. Off to figure out how to cut a papaya online :)