Hawaii!

Well, now that it has been 2 months since we went to Hawaii (crazy how time flies!), I'm finally blogging about it.  I actually downloaded the pictures to my blog several weeks ago, but it's taken me several installments to write about our trip.  Busy, busy, busy.  Anyway, a little info before I begin: my hair and Hawaii's humidity and wind do NOT get along.  Be kind.

Brad and I flew down on a Monday.  After checking into our hotel in Honolulu's financial district (he was there because of work for a few days), we went for a walk.  Mostly to find something to eat, but also to enjoy the lovely warmth.  It was really nice how it could be so warm and sunny, but because of the humidity any little breeze that came along felt so refreshing.  The sad part about our walk was that Brad got blisters on his feet.  He was wearing some old sandals that he probably hadn't worn in a year.  We stopped and bought him some new ones.  He promptly got a few more blisters because they were new sandals.  :(  We did, however, end up eating a super yummy snack - fish tacos at Wahoo's.  So good!  On our way back to our hotel we walked past Iolani's Palace (the first of many scrunch pictures):

After we got back to our hotel and had rested our feet for a bit, we decided to drive up towards North Shore.  We got there just in time to watch a beautiful sunset over the ocean.

I also got to stick my feet in the ocean.  Thanks to another tourist who was more sharpsighted than I, we were able to see an eel and a sea turtle while there.  I was surprised by all of the rock formations that were on the beach and in the water.  I don't know why I was surprised, I do know how the islands were formed, but it just never occured to me.  The best thing about all of the beaches we went to was the lack of kelp washed up on the shore.  I've always hated that stuff. 

We drove a little further along North Shore and ended up eating dinner at Shark's Cove Grill.  It was super yummy.  I wish it hadn't been so dark by the time we got there or we would have had a beautiful view during dinner.  You can just barely see the trees behind Brad - they were just across the road from the Grill and just past them was the ocean!

The next day Brad went to work SUPER early while I stayed in bed and nursed my sinus infection.  It was such a bummer to be sick while there, but at least I was able to rest and sleep until noon (!) because the kids weren't there.  Once Brad got back from work we went into Waikiki.  It was our 14th anniversary and he had booked dinner reservations at a restaurant there.  Because we got there a while before it was time to eat, we went on a walk and discovered a hula show and concert at one of the malls.  It was fun to sit on some beach mats and watch the performances.  They performed both traditional and modern hula.  These red outfits are for the traditional hula.

The music was great and a lot of fun to hear.

Here are the girls in their modern hula costumes.  Swishy skirts are fun!

After the show they invited people to come up and get their pictures taken.  Mostly little kids went up, but I wanted in on the action.  After oohing and aahing at several cute toddlers, they were a little surprised when amazon woman joined them!

Our Waikiki scrunch picture:

We ate dinner that night at Pacific Beach which has a huge indoor aquarium.  I tried to take a couple of pictures, but it was too dark for my little camera.  It was a fun environment though.

On Wednesday while Brad worked I walked around the financial district some more.  I took lots of pictures of Iolani's Palace, the state capitol, the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, and the Statue of King Kamehameha.  Way too many to post.  Once he was finished with work we went on a drive along the east (windward) side of the island.  We stopped at the Halona Blow Hole.  It wasn't really blowing much, but the ocean and rocks still looked amazing.

We drove a little further and then stopped to hike up to the Makapu'u lighthouse.  It was an easy hike and the trail was paved the whole way.  Here is the lighthouse.  The trail actually went up past this to a lookout point.  The views were incredible!

See?!  It was also windy, but that felt good after a hike.  Afterwards we drove into one of the nearby towns and ate dinner at Tommy's Bigger Burgers.  There's nothing like a yummy burger after working up a big appetite!

On Thursday we decided to drive north again.  We stopped at the Dole Plantation so that I could try one of their famous Dole Whips.  It was good, but not what I was expecting.  I think I had some vision of a creamy, decadent smoothy, but really it was more like soft serve vanilla ice cream with pinapple puree added in. 

Because it was ice cream, Brad couldn't have it.  But he could eat pineapple upside-down cake!

Brad played me a tune on his ukulele.

I performed an amazing hula.

Then we drove back up to Shark's Cove to go snorkeling.  I ended up not doing it because of my sinus infection.  It hurt to put my face down and I didn't think the pressure would feel very good.  Brad did a little, but decided that it felt too clausterphobic for him.  It was fun to wade around and see the fish though.  Afterwards we hit the iconic Matsumoto's for some shave ice.  I got the ice cream in the bottom of mine.  I highly recommend it.  By the time I was nearing the bottom of mine I was getting tired of shave ice, but the ice cream made it taste different - more like a creamsicle - yum!

Shave ice is a much improved version of a snowcone.  The ice is much softer and holds the flavoring better.  Definitely a tasty treat for a warm day.

We finished off our day by having dinner at Wahoo's (I couldn't resist those fish tacos) and doing some laundry.

The next day was Friday.  Time to check out of our hotel and then spend the afternoon before we could check into our next hotel.  We decided to drive up to Laie and go to the temple.  We paused during our drive to take a picture of Chinaman's Hat.

We met a nice student from BYU-H who took our picture for us.  The temple was small and beautiful.  During the ceremony we got to move from room to room, rather than staying in one place, which I wasn't expecting.  It's been a long time since I've been to a temple like that.

We went back down to Waikiki and checked into our hotel.  Then we promptly checked out because they had booked us into a room with two twin beds.  Lame!  They were able to put us into one of their affiliated hotels though and we were much happier.  We ate dinner at P.F. Chang's and didn't even have to wait to be seated.  A miracle!  Then we walked down to the beach to catch the fireworks that the Hilton does every Friday night.  We had some good laughs trying to get a scrunch picture.  In this one I forgot to zoom out:

Then we were trying to get a picture with Brad's eyes open by trying a silly method of mine.  It worked for the eyes, but we were laughing so hard we look funny. 

We ended the night by picking up some cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and eating it in the comfort of our hotel room.  I really wish they would reconfigure their restaurants so that the to-go bar is not in the same spot as all of the people wating to be seated.  It's always so crowded!  Anyway...

The next day was Saturday and we spent the morning at Aloha Stadium swap meet buying gifts to bring back home.  After shopping until we dropped and a short lunch and nap, we headed back out to see some more sights.  We stopped at the Halona Blow Hole again and this time it was blowing!  You can see the spray shooting up in the middle of this picture:

Then we went over to Bellow's beach.  Now, several people told us that this beach has babypowder fine sand.  I wouldn't go that far, but it was a nice beach.  Unfortunately, it was a little cool and very windy.  I barely put my toes in the water.  Brad went out for a little body surfing though.  It was fun.

We finished off the day by having dinner at Ono's Hawaiian Food.  This stuff was the real deal.  Some of it I liked and some of it I didn't.  It was a tiny little place owned and operated by a little old couple who probably work harder in one day that I do in a week.  Even though I didn't care for all of the food, I'm really glad we went there.

On Sunday we went to Pearl Harbor.  It was a really nice memorial to those who died not only there, but on other submarines during WWII.  Brad and I were surprised by how somber we felt while there.  Not that we expected it to be a party, but you could really sense a change of spirit there.  War, while at times a necessity, is such a sad and tragic thing.

This is a picture from inside the Arizona Memorial.

A view of the memorial from the shuttle boat that took us out there.  The rusty metal on the right hand side is part of the sunken battleship.

After our visit to Pearl Harbor and some lunch we went to climb Diamond Head.  It is a volcano peak on the island.  I really wanted to climb it and was hoping I wasn't too out of shape.  It was encouraging to see elderly people and little kids coming back down the trail as we went up.  Here is the view of Waikiki from the top.  The views were so beautiful!

This is the view of the inside of the crater.  You can kind of see the parking lot and rest area on the bottom left.

Here's me at the top.  This was, in all honesty, my best hair afternoon.  I put on my bandana and my hat and was able to forget all about my annoying hair!

This is the flight of 99 stairs that you climb towards the top of the hike.  I did not make it all in one effort.  I had to stop mid-flight and catch my breath.  But I kept going and that's what counts, right?

Later that afternoon we drove along the Pali Highway and went to the Nuuanu lookout.  It was so beautiful!  Look at the cliffs!  This was the scene of a very bloody battle in Hawaiian history.  King Kamehameha and his army drove the opposing army up this cliff and then either slaughtered them or forced them over the cliff's edge to their death.  Pretty grim, but it was part of how the islands came under one ruler.  It's still a beautiful place though!

We also drove along Tantalus - the most crooked road I've ever been on.  I was so glad Brad was driving.  This is the view of Honolulu from the top of the drive. 

After all of that sightseeing, we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner and a movie.  We at at Bucca di Beppo's and got to sit at the kitchen table.  It was fun!  Here is Brad with is purple pear drink.

And me with my chocolate covered profiteroles.  Mmmmm... So good!  Afterwards we went and saw The Hunger Games.

On Monday, our last full day in Hawaii, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

It was awesome.  I wish we'd had two days to spend there.  They don't open until noon and then effectively close at 5:00 for the luaus and evening show. 

We were part of a tour group, which was nice.  If we had done a second day though, I would have liked to do the additional time on our own.

In the Aotearoa (New Zealand) we played some fun games.  One was with sticks that you tapped, clapped and tossed to each other.  You had to have rhythm and trust your partner to succeed at this game!

The other game was with these taller sticks.  You had to move around the circle to the left or the right and not let the sticks fall.  Brad and another guy were the winners.  We liked these games so much we might make some sticks to play them in our own yard.

The show for Tonga was very entertaining.  All of the Tongans were wearing black and sackcloth because they were in mourning for their king, who had just passed away.

Our tour guide, Cousin Ista, while showing us the inside of a royal hut.

Brad and I on a boat in the canal that runs through the middle of the center.  My hat was a little bit in the way.

So beautiful!

Hang loose!

Kissing "dum-dum" goodbye.

Hawaii was a fabulous vacation.  After a long weekend in Portland and 8 days in Hawaii, we were more than ready to come home to all of our Brownies.  Our vacations wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Brad's mom, Ash & Brent, and my mom.  They all took care of the Brownies while we were gone.  We are blessed to have such great people who love us and our kids.