Hawaii

Aloha!

Here are some photos of our trip to Hawaii. We had such a fabulous time in Hawaii enjoying the warm weather, the beautiful scenery, the delicious food, the great shopping, but our absolute favorite part was seeing two of our dearest friends. For the first part of our trip, we stayed with the Thorson family on Hickam Air Force Base. We were so happy to see them and see how big their adorable kids have grown. And we were able to play a new game with them as we always played games with the Thorson's. They took us on a tour of the North Shore where we had the best shaved ice ever at Matsumoto's, saw a turtle a Turtle Beach (there weren't any on our first pass there), saw some beautiful beaches, and went to the Pali lookout which had to be windiest place I've ever been, and even did a little shopping. We went on a little hike to Makapuʻu Point where we saw a beautiful lighthouse, the ocean, and other parts of O'ahu. And that is where I saw Diana- my other dear friend who lives in Hawaii! We haven't seen each other in almost eight years, but we've known each other since we were sophomores in high school. It was so great to see her!


Rick and I spent two nights at the Hyatt on Waikiki Beach. The view from our room was terrific. And we were able to eat at Duke's and partake of Hula Pie (my favorite dessert). We spent a morning on the beach, did some shopping, and then went back to the base for Mongolian BBQ with all of our friends. That was a lot of fun and good eating.

We went to the Polynesian cultural center one day, which was okay. We were a bit disappointed, but the fire throwing guy at the end of the show saved the day. On our way there, we stopped a few times at some amazing beaches, including the Bonzai Pipeline where the waves were huge and we watched some surfers in action. We also saw a sign for the "Lost" TV filming site.



We spend the end of the trip with Diana and her family in Kailua. We went to Kailua beach where I learned about skim boarding and watch Adam, Joel, and Jack skim board. Adam made his own board. He is the most talented carpenter, builder, designer person I know.





We also went snorkeling at Haunama Bay, which was the favorite activity we did. Even though the water was a tiny bit chilly, it was still warmer than a warm day at Gloucester. We saw some amazing fish, coral, sea urchins, and the best creature we saw was a sea turtle. I was trying to follow this big parrot fish and Rick kept motioning me to look over. And when I finally did, there was this amazing sea turtle swimming out of the coral. We saw him twice and he was just so graceful in the water.

Our flight didn't leave until 5 pm so we were able to go shopping where I discovered my new favorite clothing brands- Dakine and Roxy.

It was a lot easier to travel without the kids, but I did miss sharing our adventures with them. We are already planning a trip back, and we have to see some volcanoes-per Isaac's request.

I'll post the snorkeling pictures when we get them back. We were just glad places still processed film.

Mahalo!