I Love You, California!

To break up the week, and to have something to look forward to, Will and I planned a beach pau hana afterwork today. I came straight home after work, we got our swimsuits on, packed a cooler, grabbed the beach bag and headed to the beach. It had been overcast and windy the last couple of days, but today was a perfect day, full sun, light breeze, just wonderful! We did a little swimming, walked over by the canoe club, and enjoyed each other's company while we soaked up the afternoon sun. It was the most wonderful way to end the day.

And it was, in every way possible! We started the day at Slappy Cakes, a restaurant where you can flip your own pancakes right at the table! Then it was time to pack up our hotel room. After we checked out, we drove up to Rob and Hali's time share and joined them at the pool. We had a great time in the kiddie pool with the girls. Their little girl loved playing with Uncle Will! She got him by pouring water over his head with her water can! After some quality pool time, we took a break for lunch at the pool side restaurant, then headed out to the beach! We built another sand castle and played in the waves. We saw several turtles poke out of the water, and lots of whale tails pop up and backs grazing the surface of the water. Toward the end of the day, when it was almost time for us to go back to the airport, we saw the most spectacular show - several whales were passing through the channel between Maui and Lana`i. We saw them jumping out of the water, blowing water out of...

After a horribly gloomy, rainy, windy day, we were so happy to see what our meteorologists call "plentiful sunshine!" We started the day with Rob and Hali and the fam at the infinity pool surrounded by beautiful lawn space, and one of the hottest hot tubs I've ever been in. It was the most relaxing way to spend the morning! We parted ways while Rob and Hali moved to a different hotel up the coastline where their family's timeshare is located, and Will and I got ready for the beach. We walked into the downtown area to have lunch at Cheese Burger (Not Jimmy Buffet's! There are actual Cheese Burger Restaurants in paradise, not Cheeseburger in Paradise!) where we had awesome fish tacos (you can never go wrong). We spent the rest of the afternoon at Baby Beach, building sandcastles, snorkeling in what felt like an aquarium there were so many beautiful fish and the most beautiful, plentiful coral I've ever seen. We even saw a humongous honu (sea turtle)!  ...

Our dear friends Rob and Hali were visiting Maui with their family so we just had to pop over to see them and their sweet little girls! And it just so happened that their visit was over the long President's Day (good for a teacher!) and it was also Valentine's Day weekend, too! Perfect! We arrived in Maui early, around 8am! Nothing was open yet, so we went on a short drive, and stopped by `Iao Valley, a state park with much cultural and spiritual mana (power). This was an area once settled by Hawaiians and was the location where King Kamehameha I and his forces conquered the Maui army in 1790. We were hoping to do a short hike, but the weather was starting to get quite threatening, so we opted for a quick run in and out, and managed to get a few pictures along the way! Drivin' through Maui - wooo! `Iao Valley SO windy Beautiful Hale and valley `Iao Needle - this is all from erosion - incredible! On our way out of the valley area we came ac...

Just another beautiful day in Hawaii Nei!

This was on Will's daily comic calendar today. Pretty much sums things up, except for the fact that we're about 30 years younger than the people on this comic! ha!

Two of our friends from Minnesota, Jen and Dan, were stopping through Oahu on their second honeymoon, and we had the pleasure of hosting them for a couple days! We wanted to give them a few different experiences on the island, and we decide to start the day off with a beautiful hike. We had never done the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail before, but knew it was a beautiful, moderate hike, that even President Obama and Malia like to do! While we were there we were able to see across to Molokai and saw several wales as well. It was a great start to our day. From the lighthouse we drove up H-3, a spectacular highway that cuts through mountains and rainforest, and spent the rest of the day on the North Shore. We took them to Luibuenos for lunch, Bonzai Pipeline to watch surfing, and Laniakea Beach to see turtles. All the times we've been to Laniakea and I've never noticed this sign before! Turtles! We had a great visit with Jen and Dan!