Hawai'i o3/o9

This post contains the MOST pictures I have ever uploaded to one post, I believe. You may need to sit aside 7 hours to look through this ... but hopefully I can write quick comments to make it a little more 'visually quick'. 

Day 1 - Sunday

We drove to a church building on the other side of the island, on accident. But it was fun! It was an all native ward - well, we were the only visitors at least, so we were 'in the know' if you know what I mean! 

Our view from our Hickam AFB hotel room: the hangers used in Pearl Harbor!

After church, we drove to the Tantalas Street look out, used in an Elvis movie... Blue Hawaii! Now there is a concrete and a fence; in the movie they were free to picnic here:

Handsome Mark striking a handsome pose:
Striped trees!

I had never walked down Waikiki before, so Mark took me for a stroll down the boardwalk: 
Day 2 - Monday

Before going to the base's beach, we drove around the runways that Mark is so used to taxi-ing on. It was fun for him to be able to drive UNDER the planes:

Here's the beach on base. It was netted off, but I still never got in. I know the sharks just love my toes!!

On the way back to our room, we snapped some shots of the bullet holes from Dec. 7th, 1941 that they never fixed. There are plenty of them in the old hangar windows. It's really sombering to see them in such a modern day:

Matsumoto's! Shave Ice is one of Mark's most favorite treats. The line was insane and out the door all day:

Here's Tom Hanks back in the day here at the store. It MUST be yummy.

Oh, it was so good! And so messy! My favorite flavor, was of course, raspberry! yum... And the condensed milk was a sticky sweet topping.

Surf n Sea is a favorite store of some friends of ours. They bring us back the bags and just get so excited to give them away. It's hilarious! But it was a pretty great store.

It was fun driving out to the North Shore, but it was even more fun driving PAST that and out as far as the highway can go before the West side of the island. It was a beautiful time to be there. We couldn't keep going on the road because it would have violated our rental car agreement. boooo....

On the way back from the photo-location above, we passed a YMCA camp on the right side of the road.... think Darma Initiative. I bet an entire dollar that these houses are what they used for Lost!! Look! They even have the same glass shutters as windows, and the same white fences, and the same yellow color:

Day 3 - Tuesday - the burn

Before "the burn" happened, we woke up and drove as far up the highway we could on the West side of the Island. It was a beautiful morning. 

On the way back we noticed this HUGE cave opening. We couldn't tell how far back it went. Mark was the only one that got close enough to see into it. I was claustrophobic just looking at how heavy those rocks were up top. Noooo thank you! I am such a whimp these days! But that's okay with me and the jogger inside.
Then we headed to Bellows Air Force Station. It is a glorious beach, that is almost private. On the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, so was this place. There was a submarine that broke near the sandbar. There were 2 Japanese on board, 1 drowned, and the other, instead of killing himself, he 'shamed himself' according to the Japanese government and surrendered. He later became an American citizen. Smart man. 

Here's where the burning happened. 3.5 hours with no sunblock... no comments about how stupid we were... please! The wind was blowing perfectly. Just enough to pick the waves' mist up and spray our warm skin. It was the perfect temperature...

These little crabs kept us entertained. We would wait until they'd pop out of their holes, scurry around, then see us move and dig lightening fast.

One of their holes. I think it's so funny! They were SO fast. 

Day 4 - Wednesday

With our bad bad bad sunburns, we spent our day under the shelter of shade; the hotel room (we had moved to Waikiki's Hale Koa - a military hotel), the car, restaurants, and TUNNELS:

Only emerging from the car to snap pictures of beautiful blue seas.

This is right before Bellow's AFS comes into view:

Day 5 - Thursday

Still an inside day! Mark woke up earlier than me and snapped this beauty off our deck. Nice job, Mark:

We drove back to Bellows to just 'look'. We sat here for about half an hour before it was too much like torture not being able to expose our burn to the inviting sun. We drove off for more car adventures:
Bellow's beach through the shade trees: 

We drove to the Pali Highway lookout point where the battle of the islands took place 2oo years ago. I would not choose to die that way... by falling off of that rock face. Yikes! But I doubt those people had much of a choice either! We tried to hike down a bit to try to find the waterfalls, but others told us they were all dried up, so we turned around. Then my ankles swelled up. Ew.

We drove around a bit more before heading back to the hotel. We wanted to just live here, right on the road:

Day 6 - Friday

ANOTHER day inside the car, no beach for us. We did pack our suits, just in case. But our burns were still dark red. Se we just messed around with the camera and had fun looking at pretty beaches:

I wonder what they were catching:

We walked around little Waikiki 'villages'. This lilly-pad flower was in a pond at the Hilton Village. How very Parisian. Nevermind.
On the beach that night, we went out to watch the sunset:

Watched a man without a shirt on run around and light the torches:

Then found out that there was going to be a firework's show! So we waited until the sky went darker... and darker...
Then like magic, the booms began!! The baby was JUMPING around inside. He must have not liked the insanely loud noises. It was a pretty show! I guess they do it every Friday.

Day 7 - Saturday

Went out to the Hale Koa's portion of Waikiki. It was not crowded at all yet! It was perfect. And yes, we sat on the beach! WITH sunscreen. Lots. Mark got in and braved all the sharp-toothed critters. 

In the water: parasailing in the far right-background, a breakfast cruise, a pedal boat, snorkelers, and surf-board paddlers (?). I guess it's the 'newest trend' in the surf board world. I would probably like doing it... you could probably see so much!

Here I am, like a whimp, trying not to get burned! Mark was laughing at me. And I'm sure so is my dad right now. I never disappoint!

Then we drove out to the Polynesian Cultural Center to see our friend Nelly dance!! Before the canoe show, we saw some pretty plant life:

Lots of coconuts:

The fire-dancer-famous-hilarious-guy put on a coconut milk show. He is SO witty. And man can he milk a coconut! 

Then we saw this famous palm tree... recognize it from Blue Hawaii?? It's bizarre! It curls, and arches, and turns every which way: 

Mark loving his Elvis-tree:

Us with the famous NELLY!!!

I was so mad that all of my pictures but like 2 were of her back (she's on the far left of the canoe):

So mad because of OLD LADY HAIR!!! They ruined just about every picture I COULD have had... And the old lady on the right had oogly pink huge sunglasses with the play-boy bunny on the sides. Mark said the old bunnies have to be somewhere!! I think I shuddered:

After a nice visit and plate lunch with Nelly we headed to the airport and bid adieu to the lovely warm sands and sky:

Day 8 - Sunday - Volcano Aversion Operation! 

Thanks to the volcano erupting so many times and the winds blowing ash to Anchorage, the airport closed. Flying into the Anchorage area, Mark and I saw clouds like he had never seen before. So I figured, if a pilot had never seen clouds like these before, they must be formed because of the ash particles in the sky. They were darker than others and really whispy and just dusty looking. Pretty incredible!

What a fabulous time! Now I'll have no problem enduring the rest of the winter here. In fact, it's been seeming to warm up as the sun doesn't set until after 9 already! I love Alaskan summers. Hope this took you less than 7 hours to read!