Hawaii -- Part 3

Still in Honolulu! We basically had two full days in Honolulu and really enjoyed them. I can see spending a few days in Honolulu every time we go to Hawaii and then departing to a slower-paced area for a week...or two. This is assuming we go back to Hawaii again some day, of course.

We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at our hotel. The waitress was nice and took a picture of all of us, which is nice because we don't really end up with many that we're all in.

After breakfast we headed across the street to the beach. We had a fantastic time playing in the water. The beach was not very crowded because it was early and Friday. It gets completely packed on Saturday and Sunday.

After swimming, we walked...a lot. We headed down the road to check out the shops and ultimately meet up with the Smith family at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Everyone needed a little snack to tide us over until lunch, so we stopped for frozen yogurt. Notice the ocean right across the street? I love it!!

We took these pictures at the International Marketplace. It's an open air market where you can probably find pretty much anything. We managed to get out of there without actually spending much.

The Hard Rock Cafe was the final destination on our walk. We met up with the Smiths there and spent a couple of hours eating and drinking.

The kids got to have milkshakes and there must have been oranges on the sides of their plates because I'm pretty sure that's what they are playing with here.

After the Hard Rock we went over to check out the Smith's hotel. It was also right on Waikiki beach and had a cool outdoor bar/pool area.

Shockingly, Andre and Derrick had already hit the ABC store (there is one every 25 feet in Hawaii) and gotten beers. They may have poured their own refills after getting their first drinks from the bar.

After a long, fun day, we headed back to our own hotel and tried to get to sleep early. We got up at the crack of dawn the next day so we could go to Pearl Harbor. You'll get to read all about our visit there when I blog again.

Hawaii -- Part 2

We arrived in Honolulu at night, so it was dark (obviously) and we couldn't see the ocean as we came in. What we could see were all the city lights, which was exciting.

There were four things on the agenda that night:

1. Get our luggage
2. Pick up our rental car
3. Find our hotel
4. Go to sleep

Getting our luggage was a grand success. It was there, cruising around the carousel when we went to get it. Our friends and traveling companions, the Smith family, were not so lucky the next day and had to wait several hours to get their luggage back from an unplanned side trip it took without them. That is another story for another time, though.

The rental car was also a success. We rented a jeep for the two days we had in Honolulu. It was fun to drive around with the top down. Once we got our GPS to find a satellite, we were in business and able to head out for the hotel.

GPS really does make things easier in a state where many of the street names look and sound alike to me. With only nine letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, they had to get creative. We drove straight to our hotel and checked in...and found out that we had been upgraded to an ocean view room. How cool is that? Yay for needing two beds. Oh, the view. Now, it's nighttime, so I can't tell for sure, but I was pretty positive that it'd be like looking at a travel brochure.

Sleep came pretty easily -- we arrived at 9:40 Hawaii time, so it was after 1 AM our time by the time we got to our room. It's always such a relief to be able to fall asleep in a hotel since I usually struggle with it every time I travel. I didn't sleep very well, though...but was ok after a couple of nights when I got adjusted. Plus, I wasn't going to let a little bit of sleepiness spoil any of our plans. When I got up the next morning, I went out on our balcony and saw this:

Hawaii -- Part 1

Alooooohaaaa my friends! Did you know that every person trying to sell you something in Hawaii greets you with Aloooooohaaaaa instead of your standard Aloha? I did not know this until we visited for 10 glorious days this month. Discovering this tidbit was just one of the highlights of our trip. This post is the first of several detailing the best parts of our trip (so, basically, the whole thing).

Our flight left Bellingham a little after 5 PM. For those of you who know where we live and also know where Bellingham is and the distance between the two, don't ask why? Ask how much. Flights seemed so very, very expensive and we ended up saving a pile of money...enough to make the drive worth the effort (even on the way home).

Five little things can make your flight to Hawaii as pleasant as mine:

1.  Clothes:  Make your kids wear matching outfits. That way they are both a) cute and b) easy to spot.

2. DigEplayers: We all had one and used it till it couldn't be used no more. I think the girls each watched a couple of movies. You can also watch several different TV shows, play games, watch music videos, and some other stuff that I can't remember right now.

3. Food: The food was really not too bad. Victoria had the chicken meal, the rest of us had the beef. I enjoyed it. And they gave us chocolate macadamia nut cake for dessert.

4.  Beverages: Drink as many free Mai Tais as possible. And eat your macadamia nuts. Let your kids order as many POG juices as they want. The airplane restroom is a novelty for kids and therefore, visiting it is a fun distraction for them.

 5. Hot towels: That's right. Wrap a hot towel around your head. Actually, these are way too dinky to wrap all the way around your head, but they still feel nice!!

See how much fun we've already had?! We're not even there yet. Next time I'll tell you all about our visit to Honolulu.

Nerd gear = great reading

Andre and the girls got me a Kindle for Christmas last year. Andre refers to it as my "nerd gear." He's secretly jealous that he does not have one for himself. We can debate all of the merits and drawbacks of the Kindle/other e-readers vs. paper books, but the fact is that the Kindle is very convenient for me. I can have a new book to read without having to leave my house (or bed, for that matter). So, I adore that aspect of it.

I am currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. The book is a memoir of Rubin's quest to become...wait for it...happier. She was already a happy person, but felt like there was room for improvement. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying the book. For one thing, she reminds me so much of my friend, Heather. Rubin is deeply reflective andanalyzes the whole concept of "happiness." It's amazing that the subject can be made into a project. Also, I find that all of her suggestions, so far, are things that work for her life, but could also work in most people's lives (so far..I'm only on chapter 4). Wouldn't it be fun to start your own happiness project?

Irony

We have harvested precisely four items from our garden this year. Three cherry tomatoes (which the girls promptly ate) and one lovely zucchini. Why irony, you ask? Because I don't even LIKE zucchini. It's a pretty decent looking zucchini...a couple of dings and a yucky looking end, but considering that I haven't sprayed any chemicals on the garden to keep the bugs away, I call it a success. Not sure what to do with this ONE zucchini. Will it be enough to make into zucchini bread, thus rendering it something I might enjoy eating?

Speaking of bugs, something really loves broccoli because it's completely devoured. I suppose it could have also been eaten by a small animal, too; however, the leaves are not completely gone. What is left of them has little holes -- the ones that bugs skillfully make. I am guessing that whatever loves broccoli also loves brussels sprouts because it's working on those plants right now. Poor guys. Poor me. I LOVE brussels sprouts. Not so sad about the broccoli. Yep, that's another thing I don't like.