aloha

may 30 - june 6, 2009: the green family goes to hawaii.

this was john's last family vacation before leaving for his mission. our plane left from LAX on saturday may 30, 2009. our plane departed at 8:30ish, which meant that we left our house at 3:00 a.m. (yes, 3:00 a.m., not a very promising start to a vacation . . . ) all in all the flight wasn't too bad. we landed, picked up our car.

behold, my first vision of hawaii:

not really impressive.

however, we were soon situated in a mini-van (how authentic) and attempting to get out of honolulu. alas, we did not think to obtain a map . . .

after much "discussing" and several u-turns, we were on our way. the drive got better and better. we took a path through the mountains which were gorgeous, and we finally got a view of the beaches - hooray!

we arrived at our little beach house about 3:00 in the afternoon. dear readers . . . this is what we were doomed to for an entire seven days:

it was such an amazing little house. four bedroom. everyone had a bed. huge porch that opened right onto the beach. a hammock. big kitchen/dining area. we were beyond comfortable! the boys were in the water within about five minute of arriving at the house.

on sunday we went to church. here we are on our way out:

after church neal and i went for a walk on the beach. we were luck enough to come across a man who apparently doesn't think pants are a requirement on public beaches.

i kept my eyes on the ground.

monday we went to the polynesian cultural center. it was fun. the show at the end is amazing. i've got to learn how to shake my hips like those tahitian girls!!

tuesday we stayed at home and relaxed. we rented some kayak's from a local guy who delivered them and picked them up. i swallowed my fear of the ocean/sharks and went snorkeling with my mom. there was much reading and napping. pretty much a perfect day.

on wednesday we drove into honolulu and went to pearl harbor. honestly, pearl harbor is the only thing that would entice me to hawaii. i'm not so much the island/beach girl (what, with the constant threat of shark attacks and humidity that makes my hair an untameable mess). but i do love my history, especially world war ii. it was amazing. i wish i could have spent more time there. it was inspiring to visit a site that has such significance in US and world history. there was a lot of construction going on, so i'd like to go back some day when it's all put together. i'd also like to go back with someone who is as excited by historical sites and i am so they won't mind spending hours and hours there. my family . . . not so much . . .

on thursday we went to hanauma bay. i wasn't so sure about getting in the water, because i was still really anxious about the shark situation, but it was great fun. there were so many cool fish, and i got to swim with a sea turtle!

thursday night heidi, logan and afton left (sad). friday morning we went to waimea beach and jumped of a huge rock. the boys swam waaaaaaaay out and encountered a pod of dolphins:

we also hit some tide pools.

friday night we packed up so we could leave first thing in the morning.

a few of the things that made this trip amusing were:

no one really adjusted to the time change. most of us woke up before sunrise every morning . . . even me! this is what i saw:

apparently there is not a back-seat seat-belt law in hawaii. we didn't want to take two cars everywhere we went, so we folded down the stow-and-go seats in our car and four of us sat on the floor:

michael got a tattoo of sorts . . . he was leaning against a magazine in the car, and the sweat on his back + the ink on the magazine =

there was this replica of an ancient hawaiian canoe/boat out in the bay by our house. one day we swam out to it and they invited us on board. we don't have any picture of us on board, but it was really cool:

the sun was so bright every morning in our kitchen we had to wear sunglasses at the breakfast table:

and lastly, we hit matsumoto's. three times:

it was a great vacation.