Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa
Hawaii

Monday

"What is going on down there?" I asked our waitress at the Crystal Blue's dining room. Shawna and I had arrived late at the Big Island's newest hotel—the seaside Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort and Spa—and after a quick check-in had come straight to the open-air dining room overlooking the sea. The sun was down and dusk cloaked the distant hills across the bay. But in the dark water below, right in the heart of the Keauhou-Kona Resort district, dazzling beams of light swept the waves like a Finding Nemo Hollywood premiere.

Our waitress smiled and placed a plate of piping hot pupus (Polynesian hors d'oeuvres of fish, chicken and pork) between us. "The Hahalua are coming in." She pulled the plate back and said, "I'll keep this warm. Take your Mai Tais down to the railing. Maybe you'll get lucky and see one."

Shawna spotted it first. A black fin the size of a coffee table broke the surface beside the boat bobbing in the waves. It trailed foam like a mammoth shark, right through a handful of swimmers who lifted their heads, spit out their snorkels and squealed in delight. "Mantas!" Shawna exclaimed. And sure enough, Hahalua, drawn by the lights of the hotel (and the dive boat's spotlights) were performing an underwater ballet. "The resort offers scuba dives and snorkeling with the manta rays," our waitress told us later. "They're completely harmless, and absolutely spectacular."

Tuesday

What better way to start the day than a leisurely drive up into coffee country? The Sheraton has some terrific packages, including their "Free Wheelin' Room & Car" deal. We bumped it up a notch with a convertible Jeep Wrangler that we picked up at the airport.

After a quick breakfast of some fruit and granola at the Caffe Hahalua, we found ourselves tooling down Route 11 with the sun on our faces and the coffee plantations rising up around us to the forbidding 13,677-foot summit of Mauna Loa. It's harvest season and the dark green coffee bushes are speckled with ripe crimson beans. We were able to buy some burlap-sacked gourmet coffee at Captain Cook, a small mountain town where the cool mists roll through the trees.

Wednesday

Off to enjoy nearby Kahalu'u Beach Park (five minutes away), we picked up our beach towels at the Manta Ray Super Slide & Pool and headed out. We passed a bunch of laughing groomsmen (and one anxious groom!) outside the Bayside Wedding Center.

The resort, having just completed a multi-million dollar renovation in 2005, is the perfect wedding and honeymoon destination all wrapped up in one. It has 521 rooms and suites, the modern Ho'ola Spa (where we assumed the bridal party was lingering), three restaurants, an in-house catering service and wedding coordinators. Top this off with the multi-level fantasy pool and a 200-foot-long waterslide for the nieces and nephews, and there's something for everyone to enjoy.

Shawna and I found a little enjoyment of our own this afternoon with our feet propped up on our balcony, percolating some fresh coffee and watching the green combers roll in from the wide Pacific.

Thursday

"It's a good thing the coffee's so good," Shawna announced this morning. "Otherwise I doubt anyone would ever want to leave the beds." She's right. Starwood's signature Sweet Sleeper Beds make you feel as though you're sleeping on clouds.

The day passed quickly enough with a visit to the brand new spa where my therapist did in fact confirm that the bridal party was a little too relaxed yesterday and lost track of time. The spa is gorgeous—3,200 square feet of spacious rooms with marbled floors and rich Hawaiian koa wood doors.

With the spring-like freshness of Hawaii all around, I opted out of their popular aromatherapy treatments. Instead, Shawna and I had a couples massage on the immense outdoor patio. It might have been the rhythmic motions of the massage, or the soft hush of the waves below, but I quickly found myself in that perfect dream-wake state of relaxation. Later, we enjoyed a private Jacuzzi complete with champagne.

Tonight we were treated to Origins, a luau the resort puts on every Monday and Thursday evening. Origins is an apt theme here at the Sheraton. The resort itself sits on the cragged surface of an ancient lava flow that dipped into the sea. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is only a day's drive from here—on the other side of the island. And the Big Island is also the birthplace of King Kamehameha, who unified all the Hawaiian islands.

We sat there in the Ali'i Circle, tasting roast suckling pig and creamed taro root. Bare-chested men and grass-skirted women gathered with torches; yellow fires flashed as they danced the story of their ancestors—the sea gypsies—who traveled across the vast oceans to discover these remote islands. I had to smile. Somewhere nearby, just off shore, other sea gypsies were dancing in the lights, too.

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