This was the view from our hotel room. But we never even stepped foot on that beach. All we did at the hotel was sleep and shower. The rest of our waking time was spent at the Reunion. (That should tell you something about how great the Reunion was, when even this beach couldn't draw us away!)
These two girls were my companions on this trip. Neither of them had ever been to Hawaii before (unless you count the time I was there when I was pregnant with Emily
).
Driving along in our sweet rental car. Turns out, sharing a back seat with your sister in Hawaii is just as disagreeable as sharing the back seat at home. Don't let the picture fool you. But when we weren't driving in the car, these two girls were such fun to be with! Lucky me!
Grandma was there with us, too. Grandpa had to go back home to work the day after we arrived.
I didn't remember how beautiful this temple and its background were. We were there at sunset, and it was so pretty!
Matsumoto's Shave Ice. First a scoop of vanilla ice cream, then the shave ice with up to 3 flavors, topped with a "snow cap" of sweetened condensed milk. There was a line wrapped around the little building for these sweet treats! (Other yummy food we ate included some mochi; Dole pineapple whip and chocolate dipped pineapple; fresh coconut and fruits; pancakes with nutella and "apple bananas" and pineapple syrup; and the best Chinese food I've had in a very long time.)
Cousins! These are the great-grandkids who made it to the reunion. We're missing quite a few (including 3 of my own girls). As you can see, Katelyn & Emily were the oldest by far. Plenty of babies to hold and love at this reunion.
This is at the Polynesian Cultural Center - a place you must visit when you go to Oahu. We spent Tuesday there visiting the different villages (very entertaining shows and dances and games), and Wednesday evening we returned for a yummy buffet dinner and the exciting night show.
Uncle Joe taught us how to play the ukulele. We also made leis and coconut leaf hats and played games and ate our meals under this pavilion. It was a really great location for our Reunion!
This is the beach, just steps away from the Reunion campground. After dark, we took flashlights and chased the little sand crabs along the beach.
Emily spent hours in the water with a boogie board--even after she got stung by a "blue bubble" jellyfish on our first beach day! There were also surfboards (I learned to surf!) and a sea kayak (I took dragged my mother on a kayak adventure she'll never forget!). There were huge sea turtles surfacing right next to us in the waves. So cool!
One morning, we woke up early and went snorkeling at Shark's Cove. (It wasn't hard to wake up early, since Hawaii is four hours behind our own time zone.) It was the perfect time to go. The sun wasn't blazing overhead yet, so the fish weren't hiding in the shadows. They were everywhere, and there were so many different varieties! The camera doesn't do the colors justice, but you can see how thick the schools of fish were!
Emily and I spotted the Hawaii state fish: the humu. (If you want the long version of that name, you'll have to ask Katelyn or Emily to say it. It's only about 20 syllables!)
After snorkeling, we sported our fresh hairstyles as we explored the tide pools and petted some starfish.
On our last day in Hawaii, we hiked through the jungle to this waterfall. The fresh water was pretty cold!
I talked Emily into taking a swim in the frigid water below the waterfall.
If you look closely, behind Emily, you can see me jumping off the rocks into the water below. Wheeee!!!
Doug always teases me when I'm really looking forward to something. "Don't get too excited!" he says, because I'm easily disappointed when my expectations are high. But I had been very excited for this trip to Hawaii, and it exceeded my hopes. It was a perfect trip! It was wonderful to spend time with my extended family, as well as my mom and my daughters. And our Hawaiian experience couldn't have been better! If you really want to experience the best parts of the island, it sure helps to have a local that you're related to! Thanks so much, Aunt Janice & Family! ALOHA!
