More Aug 2014

Aug 20

Poor Andrew got caught in the middle of a flying book. 

Aug 13-16 Hawaii

 Aug 13

We made it to Oahu!!!  I was so excited.  So, Dennis had a hearing here in Oahu and I couldn't let him go by himself.  I am such a good wife :).  So we decided to consider it our 10yr Anniversary trip since we were in Stockton on our anniversary.  It was quite beautiful here.

 When we got here we were not able to check into our hotel yet so we went to the Cultural Center.  This is a pretty cool place.

Samoa - This guys showed us how to start a fire, open a coconut and milk it and talked about food.  I wouldn't mind going there.  The men hunt, prep, cook and serve the meals.

 We saw a boat parade of all the islands and some dances.  Pretty cool but needs to have more shading.

 We bought a coconut and drank its water.  I wasn't a huge fan.  And then we ate the meat.  Really not a fan of that.  But for some reason I like dried coconut.

 Tonga - They were pretty funny.  They had some volunteers come up and they were really entertaining.

 Tahiti - We saw a traditional wedding.

 New Zealand - We threw sticks.  This was fun.

 We went to their Hawaiian Luau

It was fun.  They had all the people celebrating anniversaries come up and dance on stage.  No pictures of that because we had no one to take the picture.

After that we went to a Hawaiian Show where they told a story about the beginning.  We couldn't take pictures and didn't see the whole thing because I was falling asleep.

 Aug 14

The view from our room.  On the right side is the Disney resort.  I tried to position my chair so I didn't look at that resort.

 Well our snorkeling cruise plan fell through so we decided to hang out at the hotel. 

 Our hotel.  To the right is the Disney resort.

We had small sharks at our hotel

 And sting rays

 We went and got lunch and ate it in our room with the doors open.  Our balcony was quite sunny.

 This is a beach just off a little walk away from our hotel.  This area said take at your own risk.  I am so glad we did.  We had just missed the sunset but it was still beautiful.

 Aug 15

I was up for sunrise.  I walked the beach and this is the view from our room.

 We also had to stop by the Hawaii Temple.  Beautiful.  We didn't end up taking a session but the outside was quite peaceful. 

 Not sure what kind of tree this is but I love it.

We took a dinner cruise.  I was a little unsure about the cruise.  It was quite bumpy on the way out to sea.  Got a little wet, which I really didn't mind.  But once we stopped and were not fighting the waves, it was nice.

 Just a little wet.  We should not have been sitting on the deck.

 But the views were wonderful.

 A little fireworks show and then back.  It was wonderful.

Aug 16

Good Morning.  

I got up at 5:30 most morning (8:30 our time so I was actually sleeping in, right?) so I got up and went to the beach.  This morning Dennis came with me. 

We were told we needed to climb Diamond Head.  Man, if you want a workout.  I needed a break so why not stop for a picture.

 Finally made it to the top.  There is nothing like realizing I need to work out then by taking a hike.

Can't come to Oahu without going to the Dole Plantation.  

 We were able to walk around listening to different things about Hawaii and the different plants and traditions.  Did you know that pineapples are not native to Hawaii?  I didn't.

 We didn't finish the maze because we thought it was closing soon.  We had a little bit more time though.  Oh well.  Dennis is really good at reading maps.  I would have been completely lost without him.

 Who can resist the big Pineapple?

Our last sunset.  We just stopped by a random beach as we were driving. 

We didn't see too much wildlife but here is our friend the crab.  He hung out with us until my battery died and I had to run to get the spare.

 We were sad to leave.  It was a wonderful trip.  Beautiful.  It really wasn't long enough.  But I sure missed those sweet boys of mine.  A bee was even sad to see me go.  It stung my finger.

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I'm hoping Dennis will have another hearing here in a couple of years.  I could totally come back.