Hawaii Happiness!

Mele Kalikimaka & Aloha!! We spent 7 days on the Island of O'ahu - in Honolulu this past week. We traveled with our friends Dan & Annette Smith, their on Danny, our friend Alfi and Annette's parents Rick and Carol.

The trip started out a bit crazy - but ended on a good note. We left Anchorage and were supposed to go direct to Honolulu - but ended up getting routed to Seattle first, making our 5 hour flight a 9-10 hour flight. When we left Seattle, after take-off our airplane sucked up a bunch of geese - causing a fire ball - right outside our window. We landed safely and had a multiple fire truck escort back to the gate. We got out of Seattle that night and got into Hawaii at 3am!

When we arrived in Honolulu we arrived to flash flood warnings - wind and rain!! Fortunatley the flash flooding only lasted the first couple days. The rest of the time was partly cloudy and sunny. We didn't let that stop our time on the beach or out exploring. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village - which was a great hotel - with birds, fish, penguins and turtles that Jade loved to go see every day.

We managed to drive around the whole island, we went to Dillingham Airfield twice - the first time just to see what it was like, the second to go on a Glider Plane ride, which was the highlight of the trip for both Eric and I. We also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, we went on an evening boat cruise, went to the Honolulu Zoo, Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, saw lots of Honolulu Marthon runners and got pictures at Nike Town lookin' like we ran the marathon (: and shopped at Waikiki.

On our drive around the island we stopped for pictures at Hanauma Bay (we didn't go snorkling, which we would do if we went back) and we stopped at "The Shack" and got a picture of our friend Steven's license plates that are up on the wall at the restaurant.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Jade sitting with a Giraffe at the Honolulu Zoo

The Wrens Christmas Photo

Dancers at the Polynesian Cultural Center

Jade and I sporting our cultural tattoos

A picture of the airplane pulling the Glider plane

at Dillingham Airfield

Sunrise in Honolulu (we got up pretty early every day)

Eric getting strapped in for the Glider Ride - He got to fly the Glider

A submarine we toured at Pearl Harbor

Jade in her Zebra in the Lagoon

Hawaiian Dancers performing for a Sunday Service on the Beach

Kenny having a fit because we made him go in the Lagoon - it was a bit cold for him

Jade playing with her toys on the Beach

Jade proudly wearing her new sunglasses

Dole Plantation had a huge Maze that we went through - the goal was to find the 8 stations in the maze and time yourself. With both kids, we only managed to find 4 of the 8 stations. Everyone got tired and hungry so we had to leave

Here is Dole Plantation-it was fun watching the pineapple cutting demonstrations and eating fresh pineapple.

The beach at Dillingham Airfield

Eric taking in the view from our Hotel Room Deck

Kenny hamming it up on the beach

The view from our hotel room (top floor)

This was a fun family vacation - the first time for Eric, Jade and Kenny to Hawaii and the first time Carol had been to O'ahu. We enjoyed seeing so many things and spending time with our friends Annette, Dan, Danny, Alfi and Annette's Parents Carol and Rick.

Aloha!!!