Hawaii '08

Happy Mother's Day!

We began our mother's day with a lovely breakfast then jumped on the city bus (called "the bus") to hanauma bay for some snorkelling. According to mom and dad it was the best snorkelling they'd done.. but I say not quite as good as the great barrier reef (yeah..i'm spoiled!)

After snorkelling we caught the bus back to waikiki and Amanda and I went surfing. It was REALLY different than my experience in Australia, but just as fun. It was Amanda's first time but she looked like a pro out there. We're looking into doing some more surfing on some of the other islands.

We showered after our surf then headed to P.F. Changs for mother's day dinner and had "cold stone" ice cream for dessert (yum!).

Anyways... now we're watching "how to lose a guy in 10 days" on the tv (well mom and dad are pretending to watch but they're really watching their eyelids).

Hope everyone had a good mother's day!

surfer amanda

surfer stacey

So when I left off we were about to head to high tea. Tea was great. It was on the veranda of this really nice hotel, made us feel as if we were colonial elite. Our experience started with the presentation of about 7 or 8 teas. Dad went with his favourite (earl grey), mom went with a jasmine tea, and Amanda and I chose some fruit teas. The sandwiches, desserts, and champagne were lovely (well for those of us who were legal for the champagne--poor amanda).

After tea we wandered around some of the shops and walked to the "ala moana" shopping centre... aka mall.

Day 3 (may 9)
We woke up early and took a taxi to "diamond head crater". It was a nice hike with tunnels, switchbacks, spiral staircases, and 271 stairs that seemed to lead straight into the sky. The climb was a little hard at times but the views from the top were well worth it.

The crater wasn't far from the beach so we decided to walk back (it was also a downhill walk so much nicer). Before going back to the hotel/beach we visited the honolulu zoo. It was a small zoo but still fun. The hippos were swimming around, we saw warthogs (pumbas if you talk to mom), swinging monkeys, and elephants among others.

After the zoo we went back to our hotel, changed into bathing suits, and hit the beach. For dinner we went to this cool tapas restaurant called "Rum Fire" and followed it up with cheesecake from "The Cheesecake Factory".

Day 4 (may 10)
Today we met our tour group (Amanda and I are the youngest by a good 20 years or so... making mom and dad amongst the young as well). Some of our tour is joining on monday so I'm holding out hope that there will be some people our age.. but I know it's not likely.

As a group we drove around the island of Oahu, visiting locations such as Pali lookout, Waimea, and the Dole plantation. We drove by Pearl Harbour but won't go on a tour of it until Monday.

After our tour we were all tired so we lazed in our hotel room for a bit and then hit the street in search of a borders books for a good hawaii picture book and ended up at the California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.

Tomorrow is a "free day" so the plan is to wake up early(ish), go snorkeling, and then Amanda and I are going to do a surf lesson (I can't wait!)

Anyways... that's all for now. Hope all is well with everyone back home.

veranda @ the moana surfrider

diamond head crater

oahu island tour

Aloha!

It's just after 2pm (hawaii time) on our second day.
We flew from Detroit to LA switched planes and got into Honolulu, Hawaii at about 5:30/6:00 yesterday (the 7th).

We were greeted with a beautiful flower lei, and a shuttle took us to our hotel (we're on the 17th/top floor!).

After walking around for a bit we hit up a nice Italian restaurant and were in bed by 9pm (which was about 3am home time so not ridiculous).

Although we were all awake at like 4am.. we stayed in bed until 9ish then went for some breakfast.
And now I've just come in from an afternoon at the beach. We plan on going to high tea at this really pretty hotel and then maybe checking out some of the shops.

Anyways.. that's all for now.
Mahalo (thanks) for reading!

Well... as predicted I've packed WAY too much!
I'm currently just taking a second out from my last minute re-packing to update about the trip.

I spent the day doing last minute errands and going to appointments. Nana made a farewell dinner complete with one of her amazing apple pies (yum!). And after a few stressful hours we finally got our return flights worked out. Apparently with the Northwest/Delta merger some of the flight schedules were changed and there was a problem with our connection... but all is well now and instead of getting into Detroit at 5:30am we're going to arrive at 9:30am (a much more acceptable time if you ask me).

The weather today was great so I hope it's just as nice/nicer for us while we're gone. I'm also kind of hoping for some other people around Amanda and my age.. I know how too much together time can make the two of us a little hostile with each other :p

Anyways... it's now midnight, I'm still not done packing, and we're leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning (guess my plan to go to bed early failed).

I'll try my best to update from Hawaii!
ta-ta-for-now!!

Well it's a yucky, rainy day today. Mom has a bunch of her friends over to help pack.. not for our trip but for the move, we have to be out of our house about a week after getting back (nuts!)

As usual I've packed WAY too many clothes so a re-pack in a couple of days will definitely be necessary.

Anyways.. I should probably be packing. Just wanted to check this thing out.