Paradise Found

What's better than a week-long vacation to Hawaii? A week long vacation to Hawaii without your children! Yes folks, Aaron and I just returned from a lovely trip to Oahu, which I would classify as perhaps the best vacation of my life. Sigh.....a full week in paradise with no diapers, no chores, and nobody waking us up at night. Aloha!

Here are the highlights:

Day 1:

After a 2 1/2 hour delay in LA, and a 5-hour flight across the Pacific, we finally arrived in Honolulu, picked up the rental car and headed across the mountains to our B&B in the town of Kailua on the eastern shore.

Later that evening we were driving through the back roads of a small town called Lanakai in search of a nice bit of beach when we happened upon actress Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost fame, while she was out for an evening jog. She looked just like she does on TV, only sweatier.

Day 2:

Still on CA time, we were up at 5 a.m., so we packed up and headed to Kailua Beach to watch the sunrise:

Later in the morning we drove an hour up the coast to the Laie Temple, followed by lunch at the famed North Shore shrimp trucks......mmmmmm! I'm still dreaming about these garlic shrimp:

After lunch we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a bit of....well....Polynesian culture, including hula lessons, a lei greeting, and of course, a luau. I tried a bit of everything, including poi, poke (raw tuna marinated in seaweed, chilies and other fun stuff), taro rolls, and of course, the whole roast pig, cooked in an underground pit. Yummy!

That orange drink that Thing is pouring in the bottom corner of the picture was pretty good too.

Day 3:

One of my old high school friends just happens to live on Oahu, so Wednesday morning we met up with him and his family and drove up to the North Shore again for a day of hiking at beautiful Wimea falls:

Check out some of the crazy jungle plants. So pretty!

After our hike we grabbed a quick shave ice at the famed Matsumotos in Haleiwa before heading south for some shopping and dinner. You can get shave ice here with these sweet beans packed into the middle of the cone. They look like black beans, and tasted....um......like sweet black beans. In the future I think when it comes to snow cones, I'm a purist.

Day 4:

Thursday we got up with the sunrise again and headed for Haunama Bay for my favorite part of the trip: snorkeling in the reef.

It was my first time snorkeling and it was fabulous! Aside from all the coral, crabs, and dozens of colorful fish we encountered, we also ran into a green sea turtle feeding in the shallows on two separate occasions. We watched him for a while, often close enough to reach out and touch him (which we didn't, because they are endangered and it is illegal). Amazing! Alas, we didn't have an underwater camera, but this is just what he looked like:

A very close 2nd to watching the marine life was dinner at one of Honolulu's most renowned restaurants, Alan Wong's........MMMMMMMMMMM!!! I will forgo giving you the full menu (though I'm highly tempted to do so - it was astoundingly good), and instead will simply mention dessert. They call it, "The Coconut:"

Here's a better look:

Indeed, it does look like a coconut, but it is not! It is heaven on a plate. Actually, it's a coconut pudding sorbet in a dark chocolate shell covered in toasted coconut and served with perfectly ripe fruit and a passion fruit sauce. And yes, it tasted every bit as wonderful as it sounds.

Day 5:

Another morning of snorkeling, where I discovered if you listen closely enough, you can actually hear some of the fish crunching on the rock as they nibble at the plants.

Later in the day we hiked into jungle in the mountains to see Manoa Falls.

Day 6:

A quiet day of relaxing on the beach and taking in some more of the amazing scenery:

I also made a new friend. Isn't he cute? Jared tells me he is grumpy and that he was telling me, "Go away Mommy, or I will pinch you!"

Day 7:

In the morning we headed over to Pearl Harbor and despite the insanely long line (even at 7:30 in the morning!), we were fortunate enough to make it through in time to view the moving 75 minute presentation and boat ride to the memorial just in time to race back to Kailua to check out of our B&B.

Interesting facts I did not previously know about Pearl Harbor:

- More than 1100 men died on the USS Arizona, including several sets of brothers. The memorial is a registered military graveyard.

- The ship was carrying over 1 million gallons of oil and burned for over 2 days.

- The ship continues to leak oil today at a rate of about 1-2 quarts per day, which you can see floating on the surface of the water.

After checking out of our B&B, we went to church at the nearest building we could find and were more warmly welcomed than I think I have ever been in my life. They even gave us shell leis, which Emily claimed for her collections of "pretty pretties" the moment we got home.

After church we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the scenery before heading back to the airport for the long flight home. Sigh.

And that's it. Farewell Oahu and "mahalo" for the perfect vacation!