Kev and I took trip back to Hawaii, it was the first time we've gone without the kids! It was really nice, but we also want to take the kids on a trip back there soon. They love hanging at the beaches like we do and it's such a fun place to visit for us since we lived there and know our way around and still know locals.
We stopped at the Admissions Office at BYUH campus and found our old Bishop, Arapata Meha. He looks exactly the same as he did while he served as our Bishop. Kevin actually served as one of his counselors in the Bishopric during our time there, so we got to know him and his family well.
This was the best place to snorkel on the North Shore during this time, Turtle Bay (at the Hilton Resort). It's a perfect little cove and safe from many big waves. It was perfect.
This is at Sunset Beach, the Vans Triple Crown was going on and I was so looking forward to it. Hoping to catch a glimpe of Kelly Slater and I did get my picture with him, but it was not as I had hoped.
We hung out here to enjoy some of the surfers and get some sun. (Sunset)
Sunset: this is a body boarder, they are still cool. :)
This is my favorite place to snorkel on the North Shore: Sharks Cove. These waves make it untouchable, although it was beautiful to watch.
I took this picture just for fun. I love the sign to this little surf town. We spent several of our nights here having dinner at Pizza Bob's, shopping and just hanging out.
This sign is outside of Surf and Sea, my favorite shop in Haleiwa. And, I was so excited that they had pyramids on sale for $12 each, that I bought one of every color in my size. I took a picture of the sign so Kevin can make me one with our new cnc machine at our warehouse.
Near the Harbor at Haleiwa. We were walking around and I figured I needed to take more pics of my guy. He really doesn't like being in pictures.
In Haleiwa at Matsumotos.
My own personal snorkel caddy. Our snorkel gear took up most of our suitcase, but we figured we'd be in our suits most of the time anyway and we could shop along the way for what we needed. It worked out good.
Prepping his snorkel gear. We have dive fins, so we only snorkeled about an hour. They are longer fins for scuba diving and can create some muscle fatigue when you are just on the surface.
So happy to be with his hot wife in the place he fell in love with her. :) At least that's what I'm telling myself.
We snorkeled with this guy for about an hour. We kept diving down and swimming with him and watching him eat. He was a beautiful one. We saw lots of fish, but this guy kept us pretty entertained.
Kevin took a picture of me with Kelly Slater, as you can see here. That's as good as it gets people!
See the lighthouse on the mountain? We hiked the trail to it (actually you go a lot higher than the lighthouse) and then we went off trail and found these awesome tidepools. Unfortunately, my camera wasn't working during our hike. I had to use my phone. But I filmed a blowhole down there and got a pic of Kevin in the tidepool. It was really cool. I never knew that place existed.
This is a picture from the top of another hike we did, the Hau'ula Loop trail. We lived like 10 minutes from the trailhead and never hiked this either. We decided to hike early in the morning to take advantage of our time here and see a couple places we had never before seen. It was a beautiful hike and we had the mountain all to ourselves.
We met up for lunch at L&L with George and Hani Niania, our friends who now live in Laie. They visited our ward in Ohio one Sunday as they were passing through town and we had them over for dinner. We've been friends ever since. We have some mutual friends from New Zealand, Samoa and Australia, so it's always nice to catch up!
Laie, Hawaii LDS Temple at night.
View from atop Diamond Head.
Walking back down the trail from Diamond Head.
After Diamond Head, we went back to the North Shore and hung out at Chinaman's Hat beach area. Kevin acted like he was a photographer as I walked along the beach and this was the only picture where I don't look ridiculous. I started laughing pretty hard after this point.
This is Tafiti at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We weren't originally planning on going since we have seen it many times, but we decided to last minute and I'm glad we did. It's always so lovely there.
Kevin with Shamus, who has been at the Maori Village at the PCC for a long time. He was at BYUH the same time we were.
This is Kevin standing by Iosepa. We were living in Laie when they were constructing it and we were actually able to be there for the launch of this magnificent vessel. It's something we hold close to our hearts and read about every chance we get. There's so much that goes into it that I cannot explain it all here. If you get a chance, read about it.
PCC night show. And I forgot to take a picture of my pineapple delight, which by the way, is different than what they usually sell. It used to come in a hollowed out pineapple, now it's in a bowl. So sad.
Pearl Harbor Day practice, so we got to see some amazing men and women. He is one of the few remaining survivors of that day.
USS Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri Battleship. We've toured the USS Missouri before with the kids, so we skipped it this time. We always visit the USS Arizona Memorial though.
This is in the hallowed room of the USS Arizona Memorial. This is always a somber experience. I'm so grateful for this country and our servicemen and women.
The sunken USS Arizona.
Last day of Matsumotos. I tried the coconut (with the red beans and ice cream). It was legit. And I bought some jewelry for my girl here.
We planned on leaving Wed. night and getting home Thursday morning. About an hour into our flight, our captain said we blew and engine and was turning back to Honolulu. So, they gave us vouchers for food and cab and sent us to Ala Moana. They booked us 2 nights there so that we didn't have to check out since we opted to take the next red eye flight rather than in the morning. Might as well spend another day, right? We hung out and had fun in the day and then got take out and sat out on the lanai of our room before catching our flight.
View of Waikiki from our hotel. Aloha!
