Hawaii

 

We took a relatively spontaneous trip to Hawaii last week.

Curt's mom came up and watched our three oldest to make it possible.

We were only on Oahu for 48 hours, but I feel we packed a whole lot into that.

{rental cars were in short supply, so we got a much nicer one than we would have otherwise picked}

We headed straight from the airport to Pearl Harbor. We checked out the museums and got the low down on what we needed to do to get tickets to go out to see the memorial in the harbor (answer: come back and wait in line first thing in the morning) 

We then went to our hotel in Waikiki.

We chose our hotel because is had open spots last minute and it was inexpensive, but I did not super love the area. Very crowded.

We went to bed early (Hawaii's time zone is six hours behind Georgia), and got up early enough to drive an hour away to watch the sunrise in a gorgeous spot, the Makapu'u lookout and beach.

We then took a drive around the whole island, first heading to the Nu'uanu Pali lookout.

It was probably the most beautiful place we went to the whole trip and we had the place to ourselves.

We then continued on up along the coast to Laie to see the temple and BYU Hawaii.

And then headed around south again, stopping at the Dole Plantation.

That place is sure commercialized, but fun. We got our best souvenirs there and the Dole whips were so yummy.  

We then went to the Diamond Head State Monument and hiked to the top.

This was a little bit of an adventure as Curt broke his sandal on the way up, but he still made it the whole way carrying the baby.

{Diamond Head is an old volcano, you park in this crater and hike to the top to see all around}

We then just went to a beach for a little while, went back to the hotel, got some dinner, and went to bed early again.

{this food was so good}

The next morning we got up early again, checked out of the hotel, and headed back to Pearl Harbor to wait in line and watch the sunrise.

It was a good thing we got there early. We were near the front so we were able to be on the first boat out to the monument, but we were stunned by how long the line got before the place opened. They issue 1300 tickets per day and if you were not there before they open you wouldn't have gotten one.

{the line went around the parking lot and out onto the sidewalk on the road}

Going to the memorial and watching the video before it are things I would put on an 'important to see' list if you're planning on going to Oahu.

 

{oil is still leaking up from the sunken USS Arizona, they call it black tears}

We stopped by a truly Hawaiian fast food place and then drove to the western coast before going back to the airport and heading home.

{not sure any other place in the world has Spam at fast food joints}

{Curt loved these trees all over the island}

{a cool road underneath the freeway}

{the Honolulu airport is so open to the outdoors}

It was really great to get away somewhere with Curt and to check this place off of our bucket list.