Hawaii

This post is a long time coming but I am finally doing it!

We had an early morning flight and got into Hawaii about 1:00 and we were tired.  It was hard to stay tired for long because the weather was beautiful and our house and beach were amazing.

The sunset on our first night.

This is the sunset from our back lawn!  Yes it was gorgeous!

We saw turtles everyday just behind our house.  We  were also lucky and saw many whales and even a couple of dolphins.

I didn't get very many pictures of us at the beach because we were going non-stop.  If you look close you can see JD in this wave.  We tried surfing, which is really hard!  JD and Brett both stood up and quickly fell, but hey they got up.  Kim and I both paddled out and where to tired to really try anything.  I was done when a wave made the board pop up and hit me in the face.  Yep, that was enough for me.   We all enjoyed boogie boarding though.

There was a little reef a ways out that we did a little snorkeling on.    This beach was just around the corner from our house in Makaha.  It was great and not crowded at all.

We also went snorkeling at "Power Plant Beach".  That is really not the name of it but there is a huge tube of warm water that comes out of the power plant into the ocean.  Tons of fish congregate there.  It was quite a swim to get out there but it was fun.  Mike brought a spear gun, so the boys had a little bit of fun with that.

We were able to do a session at the Laie Temple. 

Brett and JD didn't pack church shoes.

After the temple we spent the rest of the day and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center

We arrived just in time to see the river show.

Waiting for the Samoa show to start

We stayed for the Luau.

I love me a good smoothie and this was a good one.

JD trying to do the ball things (yep can't remember what they are called)

My parents on the boat ride out to the USS Arizona Memorial.

Tina and Casey

JD and I on the USS Arizona Memorial.

Yes, we look tired because we were.  This was a high light of the trip for us.    We  left our house at about 1:00 AM, drove an hour or so to find the right place to park and the entrance to a closed off hike.  We had all heard about this hike and decided it was something we had to do.  We started looking for the trail around 2:20 AM, this trail is not marked and if you don't know where you are going it is impossible to find.  Brett received instructions from our cousin Llyod and Casey printed some off from a blog.  The only problem is that the two sets of instructions were completely different.  We started off following Brett through a bamboo forest, which was a little scary.  After a while we decided we were lost and going to go back and follow Casey's instruction.  We were starting to panic because we had heard you have to start hiking the stairs at least by 3:00 AM to beat the guard.  We followed Casey's directions and after a few missed turns and turn arounds we found ourselves at the bottom of The Stairway to Heaven.  We started climbing and soon caught up to the group that was in front of us.  We had to follow them for a while because the stairway is so narrow there is noway to pass people.  You have to wait until the platform lookouts to pass anyone.

This is an old communications building at the top of the staircase.  Luckily we found a spot inside out of the wind and rain.  We had to wait for about 3 hours for the sun to rise.  It was so cold up there.  We were all sweating from climbing 4000 stairs and then the wind and cold temperature was just awful. 

Right before the sun was set to rise this thick fog moved in.  We were a little bummed but it was amazing to watch. 

Brett and Kim

This staircase is right on the ridge of the mountain.  You look on either side and it is straight down. 

There were some parts were you are climbing the stairs like a ladder because it is so steep.

We hiked down to the second platform so were we just below the fog so we could see the sun rise.

This picture just doesn't do the sun rise justice.  The sun was HUGE.  It was awesome to watch more fog come in and turn bright orange.  Watching the sun rise seriously was worth no sleep and climbing 4000 stairs and then going back down 4000 stairs.

All the pictures are taken on the way down because on the way up we were hiking in the dark.

Me, JD, Brett, Kim, Tina and Casey

We can see the staircase along the ridge line.

Yes we ignored the signs, but luckily the guard didn't catch us and we got to do an amazing hike.  The guard at the bottom when we came down was really nice.

I clearing in the bamboo forest.

What most of the forest was like.

The mountain we just got done climbing.

Turtle Beach

A turtle resting on the beach

Amazing coconut shrimp (and I hate shrimp, so that means it was  really amazing)

Had to get one!

And yes, I did love it and it was worth standing in line for.

All the boys went deep sea fishing.  The went for 4 hours without seeing anything or even touching their poles.  Luckily on the way in they got a hit.

This was their catch.  An 80 lb tuna.

We ignored a sign again and took a little stroll down to a blow hole.

It sounded like it was going to blow anytime, but we never did see a big one.

Yet another sign we failed to obey.

MOPEDS are the coolest thing.  If I didn't have to cart around kids I would totally have one.  I was a little nervous to ride one because I never had, but it was cake.

We had so much fun, riding around stopping whenever we felt like it to see whatever we wanted.

Wikiki Beach

Our last dinner was in Wikikia at a Mexican place.

Final pictures on our back lawn.

JD and Brett found a couple clubs and balls in the garage of the house.  They ended a perfect island vacation with hitting a couple balls into the ocean.

We got caught in the rain on the way to a gas station.  A sweet old lady who spoke no english threw garbage bags to us so we could keep going.