Hawaii

Jill and I spent all last week in Hawaii and we had an amazing time. The plan was to meet up with Jill's parents in Maui, but before that we spent a half day on Oahu.

JIC - Shot of our approach into Oahu from the plane.  Awesome view of Diamond Head and Waikiki

We landed in Oahu late Friday afternoon and got our first taste of Hawaiian sunsets at Waikiki.

We spent the first half of Saturday at Pearl Harbor before making the extremely short flight (20 minutes) to Maui. It was both our first time to Pearl Harbor, and we're both really glad we got to experience it.  We were very lucky too because a few days later the Government shut down...and so did Pearl Harbor.

JIC

President Roosevelt's first draft of his address after the attach on Pearl Harbor

1,177 men lost their lives on the USS Arizona

The ship remains in the harbor

    

This blew my mind, but oil still leaks from the ship.

This is inside the memorial...this would have been a great picture, but this clown never got the hint to get out of the way...I didn't say anything because for all I knew he was paying his respects to a family member up on the wall or something...but he still kinda ruined the picture...

This is the USS Missouri, or the "Mighty Mo".  It was aboard this ship that the Japanese officially surrendered to the allied forces which ended World War II

We got to Maui late Saturday afternoon and met up with Jill's parents. From there it was what you would expect from Hawaii...awesome relaxment.  Besides a lot of relaxing we did a lot of other fun stuff too.  We did a half day snorkel trip to Molokini.

We rented an underwater camera and got some fairly good footage.  Click here for a little montage of what we saw.

They let Rick drive the boat on the way back

Our other activities included:

• Rick and I played a round of golf while Karen and Jill visited the spa
• Ran into our friends Kristen and Varun on their honeymoon.  They were staying on the other side of the island and just happened to walk by our hotel when Jill and I were hanging out in the pool.  
• Jill (yelling from about 30 yards away) "Hey!  Kristen!"
• Kristen (under her breath) "Oh shit...who the hell is that?"  Haha...we just stopped them to say hello and let them get back to their honeymoon.   Congrats to the newlyweds! 
•  We visited a beach down the road a bit from where we were staying in Wailea and it was great because it wasn't crowded at all.  The current was really strong and the waves were pretty big so it was fun to play around in the ocean for a while.  Karen even got her suit on and joined Jill and I.
• We spent some time in Lahaina on the West side of Maui.
• We had one of the best dinners I think I've ever had at Mama's Fish House on the North shore.  If you visit Maui you have to eat at Mama's...
• Jill and I paddleboarded off the beach near our hotel.  Jill almost got knocked off her board by a sea turtle
• And, of course, our last night there we attended a Luau

Not much else to say other than we had an awesome time and it was really, really hard going back to the office this past Monday.  Here's some other pics from the trip.

JIC - Another shot from the plane - this time Jill caught a rainbow

JIC-View of the sunset from our hotel's pool

JIC-view of the sunset from a restaurant in Wailea

We were able to see some surfers catch some waves off the North Shore

Wind surfers were out too

Sunset on the North Shore.  This is 20 yards away from Mama's Fish House.

Before sunset at the Luau

Sunset at the Luau

JIC-Pig from the Luau.  I love this photo...it could be the album cover for a Hawaiian rap group.

JIC- Another shot of the sunset at the Luau.  I really like sunsets...

This little guy decided he was going to try and shack up with Jill and I on our last night. We caught him using a coaster and a glass and released him.

That's all for now.  We're teaching English to 6 year olds tomorrow...it's going to be interesting!

Til Next Time,
Luke & Jill