Hawaii!!!

Hooray!
We survived Mike's first year of Law School! We thought what a better
way to celebrate than to take a much needed getaway to Hawaii! (thanks
so much to the Grandmas and Grandpas that watched our kids so we could
go without worries!)


We went to Honolulu and stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
It was so beautiful there the weather was absolutely awesome!


Behind me is the hotel where our room was. It was a big resort
with a few towers, right on the beach (as you can see) with four
pools and all the sun and sand we wanted!


This is the view of the ocean that we had. I am now taking the
pic from where I was standing before.


Looking down from our Lanai (balcony) we could see penguins.
Penguins! There was all sorts of ponds with koi fish and penguins
and turtles. So awesome!


Friday night we watched fireworks on the beach!
On the beach...awesome!


We had a great trip, we did tons of relaxing and swimming, but
we also did a bunch of walking and exploring. We went to the
Waikiki aquarium. It was so awesome! Tons of beautiful coral,
fish, jellyfish, an octopus and seals!


This is a view of the ocean from the aquarium. (Our hotel
is back in that cluster of towers you can see right on the beach
in the background.)


We took the bus to Pearl Harbor. It was a huge accordion bus
and it was packed!


Going to Pearl Harbor was a really cool experience. It was so
interesting to re-learn what happened and actually see where
things had taken place. Behind Mike is the USS Missouri.


The anchor from the USS Arizona. (Holy moly it is huge!)


This is the USS Arizona memorial. We came over on a boat
and now we are going to walk inside and look down and see the
ship under the water.


Inside there is an entire wall covered with the names of all
the people who were killed during the attack of Pearl Harbor.
Wow! It was amazing to see all those names and try to imagine
what it must have been like. (I am trying to look solemn)


That rust colored circle thing behind Mike is part of the Arizona.
It was kinda creepy to look into the water and see the ship underneath.
It is still leaking oil and you can see the oil spots on top of the water.
To think there are still bodies trapped in the ship...kinda eerie.


I am so glad we got to experience Pearl Harbor. It was definately
an awesome thing to do. We had a great time.


We rented a car for one day. We left early in the morning and pretty
much drove around the whole island of Oahu. We stopped at
Wiamea Bay. It was absolutely beautiful! The water was so clear!
This pic is the view to the right.


This pic is the view to the left. Gorgeous!


The Laie Temple. Such a pretty landscape and a beautiful
Temple.

So cool how the Palm trees line the street and point the way
right to the Temple.


We stopped and checked out the Polynesian Cultural Center.
We were kinda late so we didn't get to see too much but we
took some pics. It was fun!


We also stopped at the Dole Plantation. The drive there was so
cool because there was pineapple plants as far as we could see.



This was our car we were cruising around in.




So much fun cruisin with the top down!




The last night we were there we went to a Luau. Here we
are in our Hawaiian Luau attire.


Tons of food! So yummy!

The final dance was a fire dance. Yeah, it was awesome!!!

We had to take a picture of the Spam, Eggs and Rice

breakfast platter at McDonalds. I love spam!

We walked down to get it a couple times!

Outside our hotel there was also flamingos!!!

This is Mike posing by a statue that was right outside the

entrance to our hotel.

We had such an awesome trip. It was so relaxing and so fun

to see all that we saw and experienced. We spent tons of time

at the pool swimming and laying out or at the beach swimming

and laying out. It was our first time to Hawaii and hopefully

not our last!