{Hawaii Day 4}

Today we headed North. The North Shore Beaches are fantastic. I can't wait to go back one winter to see the 30 ft. waves come crashing in. First stop was Waimea Bay. This is a pretty big space. Apparently people like to come here to jump off this rock. We didn't do it though.

Our next stop was all the way to the western point. We didn't actually go to the tip, you have to hike over to it, but we went to the Kaena Point State Park and walked part of Mokuleia/Army Beach. There was nobody there. This was also the most littered area we'd been to. It was still pretty though.

You can't take a trip to North Shore without stopping in Haleiwa for some famous shaved ice. There are two places that everyone recommended. The first was the world famous Matsumoto's. The second was Aoki's. We went to Matsumoto's. According to anyone we talked to the shaved ice is the same and the wait at Aoki's is not as long. However, we picked a good time to go because we didn't have to wait very long. I guess it's quite normal for the line to be out the door, but that wasn't the case. They serve their shaved ice with either azuki beans (Japanese red beans boiled in sugar) or vanilla ice cream. Annie got hers with the beans. She said they were too sweet. I tried them and they were OK. I like beans, just not with my icy desserts!

We went to a couple of other beaches along our way to Laie. Such as Sunset and Turtle Bay. There were a couple of others but I'm not exactly sure which beaches they were.

We went to the temple in Laie. When I was in primary and they would ask which temple was my favorite I would always say the Hawaii temple.

To finish out the day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We got there later in the afternoon then we had planned. I would highly suggest to anyone going that they get there when it opens. Each country has a presentation/show that only is played a few times a day so we missed a couple of them. We stayed for the Luau. Not entirely authentic by any means. However the food was delicious and they did have a show for us while we ate. We also stayed for the Horizons show. Loved it! You have to stay until the end that's the best part.

{Hawaii Day 3}

We stopped off at a few lookout points on the windward side of the Island on our way to Kailua. We also stopped at Sandy Beach (they call it Break Neck Beach since the waves crash right on the beach) and watched the Blow Hole.

We ate breakfast in Kailua. We chatted with a guy a few tables over from us who was a member of our church. He was nice and volunteered a map and kayaks for our use. We already had access to both of those things, but he was nice to offer anyway.

We went to the Valley of the Temples and saw the Byodo-In Temple.

Then we went kayaking in Kailua Bay. This was one of the highlights of my trip. We kayaked out to Flat Island and then to one of the Moku Lua Islands. Then we kayaked to Lanikai Beach, then back to Kailua Beach. So it's one thing to kayak down a river, it's a whole different story to kayak in the ocean. We went over a huge coral reef that we were suppose to avoid and to think that there are sharks in the ocean! I loved it though. (The first picture is of the beached kayaks on Flat Island. The second picture is from Flat Island looking at the Moku Lua Islands. We kayaked to the Island on the left).

That night we went to the home of my grandfather's nephew (I'm not good at the relationship calculators), Jun Abinsay. He was a State Representative for over 10 years, retiring 2 years ago. Now they (wife - Beth and daughters - Hazel and Amber) live in an amazing new house up on the hill. We met over 20 relatives that night, most I'd never met before. I've only been to Hawaii once before when I was 8 years old. I was the flower girl in my auntie Wilma's wedding. I am so glad that Jo-Jo (Cesar Jr.) was able to get me in touch with my relatives out there. Meeting all of them and spending time the rest of the week with them was the best part of the entire trip.

{Hawaii Day 2}

Today we got up early (mostly because we are on Utah time which is 4 hours later than Hawaii time). We ran from the park a few blocks from our hotel all around Diamond Head Crater and back. It was a beautiful 4 mile run.

We then took a shuttle back to Diamond Head to hike to the top. There were so many stairs! The view from the top made it all worth it.

Then at 1:p.m. we took at Catamaran ride. That was a lot of fun. The water closer to the shore is aqua colored, but out farther it's really blue. The deep blue water looked dyed like kool-aid to me. So we called it kool-aid the rest of the time. We had lunch on the catamaran.

After that we went to Bishop's Museum. This is a place with several buildings to look through. Very Interesting.

Olympic medals won by Duke Kahanamoku during the 1912- Stockholm, 1920- Antwerp & 1924- Paris Olympics

That night we were back out on the beach.

{Hawaii Day 1}

Touchdown... So the whole reason my sister and I went to Hawaii is because her friend hooked us up with super cheap tickets ($325 round trip). We flew out of Salt Lake at 6:a.m. Paris Hilton and friend flew on this flight. I wonder where she was clubbing the night before. She is actually much prettier in person and I'm not a fan. Annie ended up sitting next to a MLS' Columbus Crew rookie player, Steven Lenhart. We had a layover at LAX and then on to Honolulu arriving just before noon.

We rented our car and then headed over to the Aloha Bowl Swap Meet (Flea Market). If you need to buy souvenirs this is the best place to do it. You can get shell necklaces for under a dollar and t-shirts for a couple of dollars and everything else under the sun. This is huge. We ended up going twice on our first and last day there and we still didn't even see a quarter of it.
We checked into our hotel and spent the evening on Waikiki and neighboring Beaches, which was 2 blocks from our hotel.

I love it here!!!