Hawaii-the blog post

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Let's begin this story on Friday March 5, 2010. We had all the bags packed and everyone was ready to go to their destinations. Samuel went to Tracy's house and Abby and Erin went to Lori's house. Samuel's plan was to go see a motorcycle show with Bradley and Andrew and the girls were going with the twins to Kid's Market! Let me just say, the girls were very excited. Samuel.....not so much. He knew this was the beginning of his week away from Mommy and Daddy. Dave and I left for Hawaii on Saturday morning. One of the many blessings of having a big family is lots of people who love your children and will keep them for a WEEK! Between Mama and Daddy, Tracy, Lori, and Giny.......my children were well taken care of. Oh...and Tracy kept Charlie the dog. That is a whole blog post in itself.(more on that later)



So we flew out of Atlanta at 1:30, had a 2 hour layover in Los Angeles, then it was over the Pacific Ocean to Beautiful Honolulu Hawaii. We landed in HI at 9:30pm. We were greeted with beautiful lei's, grabbed our luggage and headed to the hotel. We were tired. It had been a long day. We got a good nights sleep and were ready to begin our adventure.







SUNDAY



We walked to our daily breakfast buffet where Dave ate lots of fresh pineapple. The fruit was yummy! The band and choir practiced for their Monday performance. Sunday afternoon we walked to a local park and enjoyed a concert by the Royal Hawaiian Orchestra. It was really good, even though we had to stand in the rain :( We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach and ate dinner at Planet Hollywood. We ended this day with a shopping trip to the International Marketplace. Let me tell you.....I am NOT a good bargainer!!!! Dave would not let me pay full price for anything! I would probably pay what they ask and give them a tip!! We did get some nice things...for less than the asking price I might add :) After this it was back to the hotel for some ZZZZZZZZ.







MONDAY



BREAKFAST at the hotel. This was a big day. It was the day the students performed at Pearl Harbor. WOW. It was amazing getting to go to the memorial. I realized how little I know about my countries history. So I have some reading to do! After our time at Pearl Harbor, we went on a Tour of the city of Honolulu. We saw the State capital (interesting building), Iolani Palace, and the King Kamehameha Statue. Our tour guides were great. They gave us some great information about the people and the city as we drove. We went to the AlaMoanoa Center (the mall) that night for dinner and more shopping. I ate at a place called Yummy's. It was Korean food. I liked it. Dave always keeps with what he knows...he had Chinese. We walked around the mall, window shopping, and had some yummy cookies and coffee in a cute little coffee shop. Another packed full of fun day!







TUESDAY



Today we head to the North Shore tour. We saw some beautiful beaches and we even saw the location where the show "Lost" was filmed. We passed the Dole pineapple plantation and visited the Haleiwa Town surfing village. This was about an hour drive from our hotel. Then we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was one of my favorite things.So much history here. Again...I knew so little. This is where we got Samuel the coconut he wanted. We visited the different villages. I love, love, love the dances.









WEDNESDAY



We traveled to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling today. It was a crater that over time was washed away and formed a beautiful beach. OK! This is not my thing. I had several panic attacks in the water. I cut my leg and ankle on the reef. I really freaked out when i saw fish. Dave loved it!! We are like night and day. Even though I did not enjoy the snorkeling, I did enjoy the beach. We ate dinner that night at Jimmy Buffets. We met Don Ho's widow while we were there. If you are like me, you don't know who Don Ho is. He was like the Elvis Presley of Hawaii. After dinner we went to the Society of Seven show. THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!! These seven guys sang and played every instrument you can think of. Definitely one of my favorite things we did!







THURSDAY





I climbed Diamond Head Crater!!!!! Dave did too. The view was breathtaking. It was a tough hike for me.....well the end was. It was so worth the climb. After the hike we had some of the best shaved ice ever! The we loaded the bus and headed for the catamaran. We missed the whales by two weeks, so we didn't get to see any whales, but we did have a great ride out in the ocean. Very relaxing. Dave didn't love it. Again, we are so different. We spent the evening at a Luau. Dave got to hula on stage, it was great! He is actually a good dancer. By the time we got back to the hotel.....I was completely EXHAUSTED!!!!









FRIDAY





Last day! Mixed feelings. Ready to see my babies, but gonna miss Hawaii. We did some shopping at the International Marketplace and had lunch at Lulu's. We boarded the bus for the airport at 3:00. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6pm but was delayed until 8pm. 10 hours later we arrived in Atlanta. It was cold when we got off the plane.....we knew we were home.









I talked to my kiddos everyday. Sometimes several times a day. Samo had a hard week. He is a little attached to his mommy. By the time we got home on Saturday, they were all so glad to see us. We all slept in our room Saturday night. It was a great trip, but it is good to be home.