O'ahu, HI

February 8, 2011

Our amazing vacation began at 5:15am. Krystal very willingly gave up sleep to drive us all to the airport. Stephen, Maycee, and myself, along with Kory, Charisse, Mom, Dad, and Karli arrived at the Boise airport at 5:30am.

I was very nervous to take Maycee through the airport with all of the check points and then flying in an airplane. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Everything actually went very smooth. Minus the fact that Mom didn't listen to a word that we told her about what NOT to pack in her carry on. She lost 2 bottles of lotion and a bottle of eye glass cleaner. I promise, she will remember for next time.

We boarded a tiny plane headed for Portland, OR and we were on our way. Maycee flew like a dream and we landed after our short 30-45 minute flight. Poor Kory, or should I say Charisse, then had to endure a very long, cramped five hour flight to Hawaii. According to Charisse, Kory didn't do half bad! Everyone was more worried about how Kory was going to do on that flight than how Maycee would do.

Upon arriving in Hawaii we were exhausted and LOVING the heat! We arrived at 11:30am Hawaii time and set out to find our rental cars. For seven days we were riding in style in our lovely Dodge Calibers.

Thanks to Kory's wonderful GPS we were able to find our way around the island. Kory found us a really great place to eat lunch, Haleiwa Joes. At that amazing restaurant we found our new love of the Mahi-Mahi, fish. We ate a lot of Mahi-Mahi.

After lunch we found our rental home. I'm sad we didn't take any pictures of that place! It was so amazing. Right on the beach. Where any vacation home in Hawaii should be.

We then found a Wal-Mart to buy groceries for the week. Holy Hannah. I was SO crabby at the store! I could not believe how much groceries were! It was almost $5 for a gallon of milk! We finally made it through that affair and traveled home.

Everyone went to bad that night at about 8pm. We were exhausted! And it was technically 11pm for us so we crashed.

February 9, 2011

The next day we started bright and early. Stephen and I watched as Mom and Dad and Karli snuck out of the house at 5:30am to go check out the beach. We all followed out shortly. Look at these beautiful morning faces!


That morning Charisse slipped on the rocks near the ocean and sliced open her foot. Man! That woman is a trooper. She handled it really well! I know I would have flipped out. Kory just wrapped her toe and she was on her way.

Our first stop was the Swap Meet in Honolulu. On our way we found the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Check out these fields! I had no idea this was how pineapple grew. My dad, ever the farmer, was trying to figure out how they harvested them. OH! And check out the LOST mountains in the background!

It took us a while to find the swap meet. We even had a local laugh at us when we asked for directions. We weren't even close. Slowly, but surely we eventually found it surrounding the Aloha Stadium.

Just as an introduction to these pictures, we see me! Maycee gave me this hickey the night before. Seriously! She latched on and after only 3 seconds I had this lovely purple souvenir.

Kory took advantage of this time he had with Maycee. He tried really hard to up Krystal on being her favorite person. At the swap meet he carried Maycee on his shoulders and received her leftovers...a little milk mixed with carrots. Kory flipped a lid. I had to take a picture.

After walking around that stadium 43 times, at least that's what Stephen and Kory thought, we headed off to Pearl Harbor.

My Grandma Williams grew up in Hawaii. She was 15 years old when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened and was living on Oahu. She remembers being at high school and having to hide under her desk during the attack. It was amazing to be at the memorial and hear how things transpired.

We went specifically to the Arizona. (Yes I totally stole this picture from Charisse.) As we were looking into the water at the massive ship, you could see the oil spots all over. When the ship sunk it had a million gallons of oil aboard. There is still 500,000 gallons in the ship 70 years later.

When living in Hawaii, Grandma Williams worked at Aloha Tower. That was our next stop. I definitely could have done without the $9 parking fee. Gggrrr. We won't go into that.

And with that we were finished and home for bed.

February 10, 2011

My mom went crazy at the swap meet. One of her "going crazy" was purchasing this dress for Maycee. Isn't she so cute!?

Our goal for the day was to see turtles. It took us a while, but we finally found one. Along the way we saw some super-cool black crabs and some huge snails. That's what those black squishy looking things are.

While as a salesman, Stephen found a customer in Hawaii. The North Shore Soap Factory. We got to tour the place and get some free merchandise. Sweet! It was really cool!

Motsumoto Shave Ice...that was our next stop. I have never been a fan of shaved ice, but wow, that stuff was amazing. The icing on the cake was the ice cream at the bottom. Yum!...then Maycee learned how to drive.

We finished off the day at the beach. Stephen and Kory and Karli tried their hands at surfing. They never got up, but got pretty beat up just paddling out there and riding on their bellies.

It was so fun to stand with the ocean up to your knees and feel the waves beat on you. You had to be careful because those waves were HUGE and they could knock you over if not prepared. That was how we spent the rest of our evening!

February 11, 2011

Our adventure on Friday began with a hike to China Man's Hat. When you see the picture you'll understand it's name.

The China Man's Hat was surrounded by water that was about 2-3 feet deep. We began to walk through the water to the mountain with Maycee in tow. She was okay with walking in the water at first. Then her "okay" turned to panic...and then to wailing.

Stephen and I decided to stay behind while everyone else went on to the hike.

After playing on the beach with Maycee for a while, she finally got to the point where it was fun. Yeah! Maycee finally enjoyed the beach with us!

When everyone returned from their visit to China we were half starved. Again, Kory's GPS found us an amazing restaurant. Hukilau Cafe. The food was SO amazing! It looked like a complete hole in the wall, but after talking to the waitress we found out that they were featured on Man vs. Food. Wow. Talk about luck!

After our bellies were full we set out to go snorkling at Shark's Cove. I was the only one that really wanted to go, but by the time that we arrived it was windy and cold. When I say cold I mean 65 degrees. I was used to Hawaii weather! So all we did was look. No snorkling. Boo.

After returning from the Cove, Stephen again wanted to surf. His favorite thing in the world is the ocean. He convinced Kory to go with, and they were on their way to our back door beach.

When we all arrived at our back door beach the waves seemed a lot bigger than when we had gone out the day before. That made Stephen all the more antsy to get out on the waves and give it another try.

Stephen and Kory almost died.

While out one the waves they bit off more than they could chew. They got stuck under all of the waves out in the ocean and almost drowned.

I laugh at this now for three reasons: #1. I was not present and therefore was not there to panic. #2. Stephen did not die. AND #3. He was rescued by a local 8 year old boy...or his surf board was...I can't remember.

For the correct details, you should probably ask Stephen what happened. He doesn't like the way I tell the story.

That night we ventured to a Bakery that was right across the street from our house, Ted's Bakery. We enjoyed Chocolate Mousse while in our cozy abode.

Our eventful day #4 was finished and we were off to bed.

February 12, 2011

We got to go to the temple!

My Grandpa and Grandma Williams were married in this temple and it was so neat to go and check it out.

Dad, Mom, Karli, Kory, and Charisse were able to go inside while Stephen and I stayed out with Maycee. We wandered all over the place and took a ton of pictures.

While checking out the Visitor's Center we found out that a couple of "scratches" that Maycee had woke up with were actually misquito bites. Poor Maycee! She wasn't bothered with them at all! Karli, however, was acting like she had leprosy. Those misquito were going to be the death of her. At least, that is what she said.

After the temple we headed off for a real tour of the Dole Plantation...there were a million Asian people there. All the women Asian folk were in love with Maycee. Come to think of it the were a million Asian people everywhere on that island.

In the middle of the tourist stop there was a huge koi pond with a ton of fish. For a quarter you could feed them.

Stephen could not resist the temptation.

After he threw down the food they went crazy!

This group of pictures makes me laugh. Watch Maycee. You'll get a chuckle too.

This is a tree. Cool huh!?

Saturday night we ended at our house with another pie from Ted's Bakery. The crust on those things are amazing.

February 13, 2011

We looked up a ward to go to in Hawaii on the lds.org website.

The earliest ward met at 12:00pm, as in noon. Wow. I guess that is a total difference in culture. Last year our ward met at 8:20am. As in, super early in the morning.

After church we went to see the coolest thing ever. WE FOUND THE LOST BEACH!!!! Stephen and I are huge LOST fans and were excited when we found out that it was filmed on the North Shore of Oahu. There were a lot of cool things that we found along the way.

On our way to see the sights we saw a peacock. I was trying to touch him...and then chickened out.

Karli and I were trying to get some cool jumping pictures. It never really worked out...

Along the way we found a little alcove full of water. In the corner of the alcove there was a turtle. As soon as Kory said that there was a huge turtle in the water, everyone got in to see it. We took so many pictures of that turtle.

After being in the water checking out the turtle for about five minutes, we all stepped out. As soon as the last person stepped out, the alcove filled with water. What started out as 1 1/2 feet of water grew to 3 feet of water. We missed it by a hair.

Here is the LOST beach! As we were walking down the beach looking for the exact spot, I recognized it immediately. I know, I'm a nerd. BUT it was so cool to actually see it!

Look at what these waves do to the rocks. It is seriously awesome. I was so great just to sit and watch the water hit the beach.

When we finished our sight seeing we went back to the house to eat dinner and play games. It was so much fun to be in everyones company!

February 14, 2011

...Our final full day in Hawaii. So sad, but we were ready to live it up.

We left the house super early, 5:30am. We traveled to the western tip of the island to see the dolphins. We drove our car as far as we could go and then began to walk to the tip. Check out the beautiful view.

...We never saw the dolphins...but I think we saw whales. We never saw a full body, but we saw a few fins here and there. It was beautiful to watch the sunrise.

After watching the sunrise we went to hang out at a beach in Honolulu. We basked in the sun for hours. We floated in the ocean water and rode the waves on our backs. There was not very many people on the beach. It felt like we had Hawaii all to ourselves for our last day.

After the beach we set out to find Leonard's Bakery with their famous malasadas in downtown Honolulu.

Wow.

That was confusing.

That city was rough to navigate. Even with a GPS. We eventually found the bakery and we were met with this sign: "Closed on Mondays".

Seriously.

We missed the dolphins...AND the donuts. At least we got a sweet final day on the beach.

We got back to the beach house and packed for the craziness of traveling home...to Boise.

On the flight to Hawaii we learned that there were only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, but five of the letters are vowels. Every word had SO many vowels. Here are just a few of the street names that I wrote down: Paalaa, Ka'a'awa, Mailiili, Lualualei, Kamehameha, Makapuu. Crazy, huh? Try sounding those things out.

February 15, 2011

After dropping off the cars to the rental shop we found out our mileage. We drove 872 miles on that little island. Most of the time going no faster than 35 miles per hour. That was the normal speed limit.

We headed out the door a little after 5am.

We flew from Hawaii to Seattle.

Seattle to Portland.

Portland to Boise.

We landed in Boise at 10:30pm, Idaho time.

Poor Mom and Dad and Karli and Kory and Charisse. They all drove home that night for work and school the next morning.

Thanks for a seriously AWESOME vacation guys!