Hawaii

Geez, sorry for all the collages that you'll

be looking at. It's the only way I could get

my pictures to download without having

to resize them.

(remember you can click on them to make them bigger)

Hawaii was a blast! It was a wonderful

vacation that could have only been better

if my sweets would have been with me.

But we all know that a bunch of girls

can have A LOT of fun!

Below is my favorite walkway in

Waikiki. It is lined with palm trees and

has a little stop to get a

smoothie or shaved ice

before making your way to the

beautiful beach!

On our first day playing in the ocean

my mom and I had gone about

100 feet from the shore and a HUGE

turtle swam right next to us. It was so

awesome and kinda scary at the same time.

One day we hiked Diamond Head and what

a hike that was!! Holy cow! The start was a nice

paved trail that turned into dirt path and finally

made its way into stairs. A LOT of stairs!

Let's just say that my heart was racing

and I had to stop and take a break

before reaching the top.

But it was all worth it. The view from above

was amazing.

After the hike we went to the

farmer's market to get some lunch

and experience a little of what the

locals had to offer.

The pictures below are at Turtle Beach. We were there

a couple of days after the Tsunami so the

water was still pretty rough which kept the

turtles from coming ashore :(

Turtles or not, the beach was beautiful.

On our Eco Island Circle tour

my mom talked our wonderful tour guide

into making an "unscheduled hush, hush"

stop at Ted's bakery so we could

get a piece of their famous

coconut chocolate creme pie.

It was D.lish! I've come to realize that I

like coconut flavor, just not

actual coconut. It's a texture thing.

Our guides payment for making the stop...

a piece of pie for himself.

We went to Waimea Falls!!

The walk to get to it was through the

beautiful Waimea Botanical Gardens.

The mimosa trees are just breathtaking!

They are like giant umbrellas. Loved them.

I had the guts to get into the pool. I would usually

NEVER do anything like this, but in Hawaii

if you don't know this already,

there are NO SNAKES! That is where

my comfort level kicked in.

The water was

freezing, but I warmed up to it pretty quick.

It was a lot of work to make it over to the

waterfall...but it was fun work.

We also snorkeled at Hanauma Bay

and I had some pretty

good pictures turn out from my

underwater camera, but my scanner isn't working.

For the first time in my life I actually had

a panic attack. When I got up the umph to

just do it, I went underwater and kind of

freaked out. It just isn't normal to be underwater

and to be able to breath. It took about 10 seconds

to get use to and then I was fine. It was pretty cool

to see the fish and anemones.

Just a side note if you ever go to O'ahu and want to

experience snorkeling. Don't go to Hanauma Bay.

The water was very cloudy.

It's because it's the #1 tourist snorkeling spot.

There are other places you can

go snorkeling around the island

that are better.

One night Shar, Mindy and I went

out to Cha Cha Chas Mexican Restaurant

and it was a fabulous place to eat.

Then we walked around the

International Market, at times making heads

turn because of our goofiness.

The Monday before we left we

went to Pearl Harbor.

What a fabulous place to visit.

When we got over to the USS Arizona Memorial

you could really feel the aura of the

solemn and hallowed ground that it is.

I stood in front of the wall and read every

name on there. It took me about 10 minutes

and it took all I had to not shed a tear.

I had NO IDEA that oil still leaked from the

ship! Below one of the pictures is of a

"black teardrop". It was amazing.

In the harbor was USS Abraham Lincoln

getting ready to leave. The men were

"Manning the Rail". It was another unexpected and

wonderful thing to witness.

Loved Pearl Harbor.

The Might Mo

Where the papers were signed

and the war ended. At the time it was

docked in Tokyo, if I remember right.

So one of my cousins who had visited

Waikiki before told us we HAD to go

to Puka Dog...and we did.

It was interesting.

I chose to have Starfruit relish (in honor

of my sweet Kennedy who loves Starfruit)

and Likikoi mustard. It was sweet and

surprisingly good...but what was even better

was the Coco Beach shaved ice!

Coconut syrup topped with coconut creme.

Mmmm Mmmm GOOD

Back to the beach! I loved going to the beach.

I could have gone to Pearl Harbor and spent

the rest of the time at the beach and I

would have been happy as a lark.

The sounds of the waves crashing against

the shore and all of the interesting people

adorning the beach

are enough to keep me content and busy.

The horse...Kennedy surprised me by putting

her horse in my suitcase. So I took him

to the beach with me. I got some

strange looks and smiles. I looked back

at them like "you'd never understand"

The last day there we had ALL day. We didn't

fly out until 10:15 pm. So...we went to the Zoo!

It was fun. I think by this time we were REALLY

missing our kids. It told Kennedy and Conner

that I found them. There were a lot

of cute monkeys swinging around.

You'll see where they get their monkey-ness

from below...hahahha.

One last walk on the beach. My mom wanted to

jump into the waves so bad! There were guys there

skimboarding (I think that's right?). They were totally

entertaining to watch.

Though I missed my little family like crazy,

it was a perfectly wonderful time.

O'ahu is a beautiful island that I would

definitely visit again.

Thanks everyone for the great time!

And especially thanks to mom and dad...

you two are making it almost impossible for me

to ever be able to repay you for all the goodness

you've brought to my life.

Love you both so much!