Aloha!

In April, Steve and I were able to go to Hawaii.  It is such an amazing place, but we haven't been there since before we had kids... which seems like a lifetime ago.  We were on the island of Oahu for one glorious week.  Here is a little summary of our trip:

April 19

Just flying there, (not really any pics of that).

April 20

We started off the day, and the trip, by going to the temple.  The grounds are unbelievably gorgeous, and of course the inside of the temple is too.

We asked a couple of the missionaries where a good place to eat was on the North Shore.  They told us we should try a little local joint called Kahuku Grill.  Wow were they right. 

This coconut shrimp has got to be about the best thing I've ever put into my mouth.  It was fabulous!!!

After lunch, we were headed for the beach and stopped for some fresh fruit at this little roadside stand.  We ended up going here several times during the week.

Then we headed to a beautiful beach on the North Shore.  We took our snorkel gear and just relaxed on the beach for the afternoon.  It was such a great day.

There was only one part of the day, or should I say, the trip, which was not so great.  Here is a little tid-bit you may or may not know about me.  I am allergic to hair color.  So am I going to stop coloring my hair?  Not a chance.  I just put up with hives on my head and take benadryl for a few days every 8 weeks or so.  But here is something I clearly didn't think through too well:  someone who is allergic to hair dye should NOT have their eyelashes tinted the day before they are going on a fabulous tropical vacation.  As nice as deep dark black eyelashes look, they don't look so hot when you manage to give yourself "Chemical Conjunctivitis" which is what they told me when I had to visit the ER, and later an opthamologist in Hawaii.  Yes I'm serious, I am an idiot.  So, now the rest of the pics where you can see my horrible bloody eyes and you're thinking, "Hmmm, that looks like that hurts."  It did.  Like a lot.  Like, crazy horribly a lot. 

April 21 - Happy Birthday to Me !!!

Here is something else you may or may not know about me.  I LOVE to scuba dive.  It is one of my favorite things to do on this earth.  So, probably you can guess that my 38th Hawaiian birthday included a wet suit and a big tank of oxygen.  It was sooooo much fun.

Do you think I look 38?  38 for crying out loud!  I have to tell you, I don't feel a day over 37 ;)

Every year on my non-Hawaiian birthdays, we go to Market Street and I eat my favorite dinner ever:  crab legs.  Of course I didn't want my Hawaiian birthday to be much different.  Steve did, however, talk me into trying sushi.  He loves sushi, but I don't think I've ever tried anything more exotic than a California roll.  We went to an amazing restaurant overlooking Waikiki, and I must say, the sushi was awesome!  (But so were the crab legs).

After dinner we ordered one of my favorite desserts:  creme brulee.  I am completely in love with creme brulee.  Steve told our waiter that it was my b-day, so he brought it out with a candle in it.  Then Steve took a picture of me with my birthday creme brulee.  But the first one he snapped exactly mid-blink.  So I told him to take another one.

Then we both laughed when we saw the one with my eyes open, because, thanks to my self-induced eye infection, the first picture was actually better ;)

Here is a funny story that happened on my birthday that I just had to include.  That morning we had walked down to Starbuck's to get some breakfast.  We stayed right on Waikiki and I guess I didn't remember from our trip years ago how many homeless people live on the beach of Waikiki.  Anyway, there are a lot.  So that morning Steve said, "Bring the ipad, because there's WiFi at Starbucks."  So I'm carrying the ipad and our towels.  We stopped at the scuba shop first to book our diving for the day, and I remembered setting the towels and the ipad down when we were filling out our paperwork there.  Then we headed to Starbucks.  On the way to Starbucks, my sister-in-law Kim called me and when I was hunting for my phone, I set the towels and the ipad down again, on the edge of a planter box just outside Starbucks.  Only I didn't remember setting them down, I was just digging for my phone.  So we are standing in line at Starbucks and I'm chatting away with Kim, and Steve said, "Where's the ipad?"  As you can guess, I didn't know where the ipad was.  My only thought was that I had set it down in the scuba shop.  So we hurried to run back to the scuba shop.  Well, about 30 feet from the entrance of the Starbucks were 3 homeless men, one of them in a wheelchair, playing our ipad.  We stopped and looked in disbelief, and Steve just stared at them, not knowing what to do.  I just walked right over and said, "This is mine!" and grabbed it from them.  They looked up and one of them said, "Oh, it is?"  It was about the funniest thing ever, watching those 3 homeless men scrolling through the apps, probably looking for Angry Birds or something.  We laughed and laughed about that a hundred times on the trip.  My kids thought that was the best story ever.  But of course my best-trained-germaphobe son, Taylor said, "Mom, did you sanitize that ipad after the bums had it?"  Funny stuff.

April 22

So, if we're trying to be positive about being on a fabulous vacation and having to visit the ER, there was one good thing (besides medicine for my eyes) that came out of my ER visit.  The PA who treated me suggested we visit Turtle Bay and Sharks' Cove on the North Shore.  It was so beautiful.  Of course.  Isn't everything beautiful in Hawaii?

Lots of turtles on the beach, just relaxing... and lots of turtles just swimming in the bay there.  It was a neat spot on the island.

Since my high school days of lifeguarding, my Mom's nickname for me is Melanoma.  I sure do love the sun.

Here was a cool path near the beach.  I couldn't resist a couple pictures of the lush green foliage.

 

And here is Sharks' Cove.  It is a cool little place near Turtle Bay.  It was our favorite place we snorkled, absolutely loaded with tropical fish and turtles.  One funny thing about Sharks' Cove is that on the path leading to the beach, there was a funny homeless lady, wearing a cute little yellow swimsuit, who was yelling and chanting things to herself.  She had a little tent set up there, and another little area she had made into her kitchen.  She was carefully trimming and sculpting this little area of the beach into a Japanese Bonzai garden, using scissors to trim everything.  I tried to get her to look up and smile at me for a picture, but she just yelled "Cameras!!!  Aaggh!!!"  It was kind-of funny.  But her little section of the beach was beautiful.

Taylor kept asking me before our trip if we thought we'd see any wiki tikis.  So when we saw these on the corner of the BYU Hawaii campus, I made Steve go pose for a pic.  This one is for Taylor.  We also bought him a little wiki tiki while we were there, and he couldn't have been more excited.

April 23

I don't really have any great pictures from this day.  Steve was working in the morning, so I just went to the beach and then hit the hotel spa and got a pedicure.  It doesn't sound that exciting, but it was perfectly lovely.  Then that night, another "first" for me, we got some great Thai food.  Thai food is another thing Steve loves, but I haven't really eaten much of.  Unless you count Pei Wei.

April 24

On this day we just relaxed around the pool at the hotel in the morning, and then went to the East Shore that evening.  If I sound like a broken record, sorry... but it was gorgeous!

Here is just a random seal, laying on the beach catching some rays.  I know I'm such a tourist.  Of course I snapped a pic.

April 25

This was our last day on Oahu. Of course a little bit sad, but I was also glad we were catching a "red eye flight" so that we could get back for Eric's big 5th birthday. 

Our last day we wanted to head back to the North Shore. It was our favorite place this trip. We stopped by the Dole pineapple plant and got some delish pineapple ice-cream floats, and then hit Sharks' Cove again for more snorkling. Then we went and got another dose of coconut shrimp at Kahuku Grill since I'd been thinking about it everyday since I first ate it! It was a perfect way to end the trip.

I have learned that white people look a little bit Asian if you are wearing a snorkel mask and trying to smile.  ;)  Funny stuff. 

Aloha and mahalo!  Can't wait to go back soon.