Hawaii Vacation

Here we are, Thursday April 30th, upon arriving at the airport in Hawaii. We received our lei's (Thanks Mike and Amber - Megan's cousin!!!) and met up with our friends Megan and Jared Baker.

We stayed at the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki. We had originally booked two rooms but when we got there we upgraded to a suite - and the whole reason behind that was so that we could have this wonderful space to hang out in and play games every night until the wee hours of the morning. OK, really Megan and I were dead by about 11pm every night but it was still fun. The boys told us if we could ever stay up until like 3am they would let us order room service ('cause that's what we had been looking forward to doing in Cancun) but no such luck.

On the way over to Hawaii, Megan had been reading her beloved Food Network magazine which happen to highlight the best burger from every state. Well, Hawaii's burger was called the Loco Moco and consisted of a bed of rice, topped with a burger, a fried egg, and then gravy with onions and mushrooms. I like all of those things, and since I was in Hawaii I figured I should try it out. That first night we went to dinner at Don Ho's, and sure enough, they had it. Not so yummy really. I couldn't get through it, but at least I lived it up while I had the chance.
Not to worry, there was lots of other good food to be found.

Friday we got up bright and early and headed off to Hanauma Bay to do a little snorkling.

I tried it out and could handle the equipment but it was the "huge" fish that freaked me out. So Megan and I were very content to stay on the beach while the boys had their fun.

And then we found the most secluded, beautiful beach I think I'll ever see (on Bellows Air Force Base). Here they all taught me how to boogie board.

Saturday we went to the Swap Meet...and ate...
Sunday we went to church , ate shoreside on base at the Wright Brothers Cafe (after we finally found it since the boys wouldn't stop and ask for directions) , toured Pearl Harbor , and hiked Diamond Head where I had my first panic attack (because my husband insisted on dangling off the side of the volcano).

Monday we visited the Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Tuesday we visited the Dole Plantation where we had pineapple icecream for breakfast. Then it was girls vs. boyz in the worlds largest maze. The boys thought they would beat us bad. And despite our best efforts they did win. However, we only came out 8 minutes behind them - which isn't bad considering we were all in there for 45 minutes.

And it was Cinco de Mayo so we ate Mexican for lunch. Then went snorkling on the North Shore. And hit up a movie, Taken, at night.
PJ really wanted to hike to a waterfall so Wednesday we scoped out a good place to go and headed off. We were pretty sure we were in the right spot but when I saw the Hunting Area sign, and realized neither of our husbands were Eagle Scouts, I started to question our judgement...

Our usual seating arrangements in the car as we drove all over the island...

Thanks to all of our military discounts we saved a lot of money.

It was an amazing trip, with wonderful friends, and lasting memories. We were very sad to see it end.