Hawaii!

We went to my parents for Conference Sunday this year.  It was fun being with everyone there.  While we were there, Lisa mentioned that she was going to visit Emily in Hawaii during her break between semesters and that Chris wouldn't be able to come along.  I offered myself, mostly jokingly, but then I started to think about whether I might actually be able to make it happen.  Joe and I talked about it and he was super supportive, as always.  I found some babysitters and booked my ticket!  I left early Halloween morning.  I took BART to the airport and managed to not get lost. :)  The flight over was uneventful.  It was just nice having some down time.

Lisa, Emily, Lisa's mom Bonnie and Bonnie's friend Marcia picked me up from the airport.  They wasted no time to start the fun and we drove right to Leonard's bakery for malasadas.  They were delicious!

We got changed and headed over to a beach on Waikiki.  

The beach was a bit crowded but the water was so nice and I loved just floating and swimming.

After that, we walked around shopping and eating the rest of the night.  

This mall had these huge banyan trees in it:

We ate dinner at PF Chang's:

We saw tons of crazy costumes!

We ended the night with Emily's favorite--Lappert's ice cream.

It was so good! Emily was getting 6 half scoops so I decided to also. Those "half-scoops" were huge!

Of course I finished it. I'm no quitter.

We stayed at Turtle Bay on the North shore.  I would go walking/jogging in the mornings and got to enjoy these beautiful sights:

I would get out every morning if I had those kind of paths to run on!  People in Hawaii must get so desensitized to beauty. :)

Sand crab holes:

It made me miss my kids--they would have had fun hunting them.

We went snorkeling at a place called Shark's Cove.  It was a big shallow reef with tons of colorful fish.  It was amazing how much was below the surface!  Emily and I climbed up on to the big stretch of reef and walked to the right side:

She talked me into jumping off of the highest right-side ledge you can see there.  I was trying to time how long of a drop it was to figure out the height.  We finally decided that it was at least just above sand so we'd be OK even if it was shallow.  Of course it was way deeper than it looked and we were fine.  Emily kept me feeling young and adventurous! :)

We went to Sunset Beach--my favorite place of the trip:

It was beautiful, with gorgeous sand, not too reefy so you could swim out in the waves (which were SO powerful!).  I loved it.

We stopped off at Matsumoto's for my first shave ice:

So yummy with the ice cream below it.  I couldn't go for the beans, though.

The next day we stopped off here for lunch:

Seven Brothers for delicious food, followed by shave ice:

Then it was off to see Em's dorm and BYU-Hawaii, followed by the Polynesian Cultural Center.

I loved the PCC.  It was a lot of fun.

This guy in the Samoa area was a crack up:

One of these tree-climbers is in one of Em's classes.

The Tongan presentation was a lot of fun, too.

On a boat ride through the beautiful grounds:

Watching The Breath of Life show:

It was awesome!  The best part was that the whole thing was free since there was a missionary that used to be in Lisa's ward that works there and got us free tickets.  I would love to go back with Joe and the kids.

A morning walk along the beach:

There were some crazy waves!

We went to Lanakai beach, which was also insanely gorgeous:

Lisa, Emily and I hiked up to the pill box.  It was a short, fairly challenging hike with an amazing reward of a view at the end.

We spent the next day in Haleiwa enjoying some delicious food:

And renting stand-up paddleboards:

We paddled down this river that connected to the ocean.  We saw what we thought were huge rocks on one shore, until we discovered they were sea turtles!  They were huge.

Emily managed to talk me into jumping off this bridge like some others were doing:

Of course it wasn't until after we jumped that we noticed this sign:

Some more fun from that day:

On our last morning, Emily and I signed up for surfing lessons.  I have never surfed but I had a blast.  I'd definitely recommend lessons with an expert like our guy, Mike.  He was an amazing paddler.  I could hardly get through the waves but he could go probably three times as fast as me, while pulling me by gripping the top of my board with his foot.  It was crazy.  

He would get us in position and then give me a push and tell me when to paddle.  I managed to get up my second time!  It was so fun.  He even got some great video footage of us both up.  Emily did great and even caught one by herself.

I surf.  I'm a surfer.  I surf!  (Name that reference!)

We spent our last day back at Sunset Beach where we got to watch some of a surfing competition and relax on the beach.  It was heavenly.

Our course we had to get shave ice on our last day, too:

It was such a fun trip and I'm so grateful I got to go.