I Love You, California!

Will had a colleague on island this week and she had planned to stay the weekend in Waikiki. She stayed one night, and was then invited to spend the weekend on the North Shore. She was only able to receive a refund for Saturday night, so she offered for us to stay in the room on Friday and enjoy a little staycation. We were so excited to have the opportunity to stay at The Modern Honolulu. Will surprised me after we went out to dinner with his colleagues on Thursday night, so I didn't have any time to pack before Friday after work! Luckily Will was done early with work on Friday too, and as soon as I was done I came right home, packed up a couple things, and we were on our way to Waikiki! View of the upper adult pool and lower pool from our room. We arrived with plenty of sunlight left to enjoy, so we took a dip in the pool, watched the sunset, and had a little snack and drinks while we watched the Friday night fireworks from our table at the poolside restaura...

Our landlords did some new work to the front of the house, adding in some palms, flowers, and bamboo fencing. This helped to create a whole new feeling for our front lanai. When Mom was here she helped us pick out some new plants and gave us some good inspiration for updates we could make. So during the week we made a couple trips to Lowe's and Home Depot and we now have a new oasis at home! We finished things up on Saturday and grilled and relaxed in our new space.

Today was Mom's last full day with us, so we went with Mom to a nice brunch at one of our favorite new places. Haleiwa Joe's in Kaneohe is situated right in the middle of Ha`iku Gardens. It overlooks the scenic pond, garden, and Ko`olau mountain range. After eating way too much at the brunch buffet we went for a walk around the gardens. This little guy was making A LOT of noise! Looking up at the restaurant from the gardens. Next we went to Ho`omaluhia Botanical Gardens. We'd never been so we thought we should go explore. We finished our day in the mountains by visiting the Valley of the Temples. Within this cemetery is the Byodo-In Temple, a smaller scale replica of the over 950 year old Byodo-In Temple in Japan. It was established in 1968 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants coming to Hawai`i. It is a beautiful Buddhist temple. Ringing the gong. These were the most interest...

I guess we were feeling really adventurous during Mom's visit because we did a lot of hiking. Today we went on a hike out to the Makapu`u Lighthouse. After our hike we hit the beach at Lanikai for a picnic, swimming, walking the beach, and of course lots of floatie time! It was a perfect day!

Have I mentioned how I love, love, love Ka`ena point? It takes some work to get all the way out there but I think that's a big part of what makes it so special. I took Friday off from work so that I could take Mom out there. We had a great morning hike out to the point, but were disappointed that we didn't spot any whales. They say that not many whales migrated to the Hawaiian Islands this year, and that those who did came a few weeks late and left a couple weeks early. However, when we got out to the point we were treated with the sights of Laysan Albatross and even the usual monk seal laying around in the tide pools. Can you see him laying around? On the walk back we did some digging around in the tide pools and saw a lot of crabs, fish, and found some pretty shells. It took us a long time to get back to the car! We were so ready for some lunch, window shopping, and ice cream in Haleiwa before headed back to town.