Hawaii: The Finale (Part 8)

Day 13:  Sunday - We went to church, relaxed, and kinda, sorta started packing to go home. :(  I also enjoyed reading my kindle outside while enjoying the waves hitting the rocks.  Totally chill.  Brian took Lorrin to the airport, so Amy and I also got to have fun girl talk time.

Day 14:  Our last full day in Hawaii.  We took Amy and London with us to Kualoa Park to visit and tour the beautiful valley where movies and TV shows like Pearl Harbor, 50 First Dates, Lost, Godzilla, George of the Jungle, Jurassic Park, and tons more have been filmed. We also stopped at a local restaurant for some kalua pork.

Day 15:  This day was totally bitter - sweet.  We packed up, spent our last few hours at the beach soaking up sun, chasing crabs, and enjoying the waves, and then headed to the airport.  And we experienced a full blown miracle in my book.  Flying standby, I made the direct flight back to SLC with Brian by taking the very last seat on the plane!  Total divine intervention!  A special shout out to Lorrin and Amy for letting us stay with y'all for two whole weeks without killing us!  Thank you, thank you!

Hawaii: Part 7

Day 12:  Today we spent the day with Amy and Lorrin on the North Shore.  We started on our adventure in Halewa.  We toured the cute touristy shops and enjoyed shave ice at Matsumoto's.

Then we went to Amy entitled "Turtle Beach" to see the Sea Turtles! There were so many of them, and they were so exciting to watch.  We counted at least 10 of them swimming in the waters right in front of us. Dude...Totally...

After Turtle Beach, we continued down to Shark's Cove and met up with some of with some of Lorrin and Amy's friends who knew the area and knew of a great place to snorkel and cave dive.  I didn't snorkel and cave dive, but I did hike out to the cave and get in the water to see the underwater tunnel.  Brian said it was a pretty crazy experience though.  He had to hold his breath in complete darkness a lot longer than he had originally thought.

We were still on a roll, so we went back to Waimea Bay to jump off the rock and enjoy the beach while the sun was still out.  Crazy Brian dove off the rock.  Amy and I just jumped.  Look at that beautiful sandy water!

To finish off the night, we enjoyed some BBQ ribs with some of Amy and Lorrin's young married friends, and I topped it all off with Ted's Haupia Pie.  Yum!  Nights like this one make me want to live on a tropical island paradise forever.  Simply breaktaking...

Hawaii: Part 6

Day 9:  Wednesday morning, we went boogie boarding at Malaekahana State Park close to Laie.  We loved this beach so much, we went back two more times during our vacation.  The beaches were white and sandy, and it was one of the few spots with decent waves this time of year.

Brian was obsessed with all the crabs on the beach.

In the afternoon, we walked back on the beach to the house, and after driving Lorrin to work at the airport, Amy and London went with us to Waikiki so that Brian could go surfing for the first time.  The picture below is the only one I took of Brian's first efforts.  Unfortunately, the waves were so far out that you can't really see anything.  I was miserably sunburned by this point, so I didn't surf at all, but Brian got up despite the few waves and large crowds.

Day 10:  Brian and I were were so sun burned, chaffed, and tired that we decided to take the day off.  In the morning, we babysat this little girl...

.

and took naps, watched lots of episodes of That 70's Show, and made dinner and dessert with Amy.  We didn't even leave the house until the sun went down, and we finally felt brave enough to venture to the grocery store for ice cream.

Day 11:  Friday, we were feeling much more refreshed, so we decided to get some coconut pancakes at the Hukilau cafe and then try our hand at surfing again back at Malaekahana.  I got up on my first try! (even though Brian didn't get a picture of it...)

Friday night, Amy and Lorrin got a babysitter for date night, and we all went to Chile's for dinner.  Great way to start off the weekend.

Hawaii: Part 5

Day 8:  Today we did the Polynesian Cultural Center or PCC.  Thanks Amy for the discounted tickets!  We spent the whole day there and still didn't get to everything.

Brian won his hat by participating the the drum show over at Tonga.  It was awesomely hilarious, and I'm still pretty upset that I couldn't get any of  it on film because he had the camera with him!

In between the day activities and the night show, we went with Amy to one her favorite places, Surfin' Tacos. It was about as close to Cafe Rio as they come.  While Brian said he enjoyed the day stuff the most, the "Ha: Breath of Life" night show was still pretty cool.