Hawaii

Well now that we have been back almost a week, I thought it was finally time to write about the trip. It’s been a hard week though because I contracted a lovely cold on the airplane. Mister Chris has a cold as well. We are doing the Tylenol cold thing together. Not only cannot I not breathe because my nose is clogged up, but it’s also 100 DEGREES out. When I got to work at 7:15 this morning it was already 82 degrees. Insane!! Work has gotten in the way of my house cleaning since coming home and I have not been home the past two nights. I had to have a pedicure night and a scrapbook night. So tonight is catch up time!! Item #1 – dishes, finished. Item #2 – laundry, in progress. Item #3 – blog time, also in progress!!!!

Our trip was fantastic. Much more beautiful than I had imagined. I will tell you first about my only two bummers (not to mention the long flight…details in a future entry). The first bummer is that the snorkeling is not as good as in the Caribbean. I am a big fan of snorkeling and I like to see lots of fish and pretty coral/plant life. Maybe it was not the right time of year to go snorkeling but the coral is all one color and not too many fish. On the other hand, we did get swim with the turtles at our resort. The other bummer is that I did not get to see lava. According to the locals, Oahu has no live, flowing lava tubes. You have to go to the big island or Maui to see this. Definitely plans for a future trip.

As you saw in my first entry, we did it all and saw it all. One of my favorites was climbing Diamond Head even though that will kick you in the you know where. It’s a 560 foot incline over ¾ of a mile. The view from the top was worth it. Check out some photos here.

A must see on the island of Oahu is Pearl Harbor. Very nice memorial. I learned a lot that day and of course Mister Chris loved it because he is such a history nut.

Another great thing was eating all the fresh pineapple. The dole plantation was neat but slightly boring. It was very much a tourist trap with their gift shop and ladies convincing you that you must pick an oyster to get 70% off your pearl. OK, I thought pearls came from Asia or at least that is what QVC has taught me. Here are some pics of the yummy pineapples that taste 100 times better than the ones from the can.

We attempted to see some pretty waterfalls but since their rainfall has been pretty low this summer, the waterfalls are obviously not as pretty as they are in the winter. This was one of the pitiful waterfalls. But I am sure it’s quite lovely when the water is flowing more rapidly.

Our resort was on the north shore of the island. One night we ventured into Waikiki to check it out. It was kind of crowded but the stores were awesome. Here is one of my favorites in which I cannot afford one thing.

One funny story is that we found this place call the Pearl Harbor mall. Mall = food court and it was lunch time. So we ate at McDonalds and decided to do a little shopping after. I got to the register and they asked for my military ID. Huh??? I was quite puzzled. Come to find out “the mall” was really the Navy exchange. That’s why the prices were so reasonable. OK, get out quick.

Here are a few other pictures we took along the way. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Such a lovely place to visit. I highly recommend it to anyone. And remember, it’s worth the plane flight there but not the plane flight home. Enjoy the pictures!!!

I have been playing with this entry since last night and I cannot get all my pictures to attach. So I am going to go ahead and post this one and put more pictures out here this afternoon that go with the rest of the verbage. Sorry for my lacking technical abilities.