Playing with the new camera..

I found a few things around the yard to take pictures of..

Back Home

The last day we called in for an extended checkout until 6pm and wondered around the beach some more. We had a great last lunch at Burgers in Paradise and wondered around the beach some more.

Finally we slowly wandered back to the hotel to clean up for the trip home and get everything organized. I had packed most everything the night before thankfully!

From our balcony we saw a bunch of sea turtles out from the beach a bit. I think they might have been there the whole time but we didn't notice them. I have a thing about heights so I didn't look straight down much. Actually I think twice. I was talking to my friend Ginger when we first got there and I looked down-I think she could hear the panic in my voice!

The flights were fine, I was able to sleep a bit. We got in at about 12:45pm central time and I had to work the next day. It was tough. I am slowly losing my sunburn. Rick had an extra 2 days off to recover. I'm still in shock I think!

I'll post the last of the pictures this weekend and maybe a video or two.

I hope everyone is having a great week so far :)

Lost on the Kamehamaha Highway AKA Highway Ends Here

With directions from google maps in hand, we set off to see the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. We felt really good about how things were going until we see a sign that says "highway ends here"!

We make an illegal U-turn to get back in the direction we came from and find a Jack-In-The-Box where a nice oriental couple tells us how to get going in the right direction. Somehow we had missed a turn-off and had gone way out of the way.

We finally make it to the memorial and I am really glad we did. It is such a humbling experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It was so nice and peaceful there and there was a nice gentle rain while we were there.

We made it back to Waikiki without getting lost! After eating we walked up Kalakaua avenue and I walked on the beach a bit. We made it back to the hotel and I finally talked Rick into walking on the sand. It was really relaxing to feel the sand between my toes.

We have to return the car and check out by 11 AM and we have until about 6:15 PM until the bus picks us up to take us back to the airport and back home...sigh...I don't want to leave.

We get back home on Sunday around 1 PM and I have to work on Monday-jet lag, sun burn and all! I may wear a Hawaiian shirt to work in protest of not wanting to be back!

North Shore by convertible

We finally rented a car, a nice Chrysler Sebring and headed off. After 30 minutes of getting lost after the first turn from the car rental agency we finally headed around the bed of Diamond Head. Here is a google map of our route:



We stopped a lot and took some pictures and at little roadside stands that sell fresh fruit and gifts.

We had some of the famous shaved ice from Matsumoto shaved ice in Haleiwa.

We finally ended out day at the Polynesian Cultural Center for dinner and a show.

I think it is the season for Japan and Australia to come here as that is the majority of the people we have seen most of the trip so it was funny while we were at dinner Rick hears a man ask in a heavy southern drawl "Ya'll got any ketchup?"!

We made it back to the hotel with only one wrong turn on the way back. I am tired, and sunburned to a crisp. Rick is cranky, more sunburned and more tired than I am! We both look like lobsters. All in all it was a good day and well worth renting the car. We have the car tomorrow so there is no telling where we will get lost!

We finished the day off at 11:00PM at Hagen Daaz-me a green tea ice cream in a waffle cone and Rick had a Hawaiian smoothie.

The scenic route...

We started off lost and it kept getting worse. We took the bus ride from hell and couldn't seem to get the bus drivers to help find where we were going!

What should have taken 20 minutes to find ended up taking 2 hours! We finally made it to the Iolani Palace and took the tour. After the palace tour Rick found someone on the street that gave us even more bad directions and we walked and walked until we finally got good information from a man walking his dog.

We got on a trolley and made it back around 7:00PM (We started at Noon!)

We took some pictures on our scenic tour and some were from Rick's camera from yesterday:

More of Waikiki

We walked towards Diamond Head today and stopped at the zoo, aquarium and walked along the beach. The zoo is the best one I have ever been at-the grounds were amazing with all of the beautiful plants and trees.

I was erasing a blurred picture off of my memory card and accidentally erased ALL the pictures on my memory card-I felt sick at my stomach until I remember that I had uploaded the pictures onto my laptop the night before. I still lost a few pictures from that day but made them up on the walk back to the hotel.

You can point your camera anywhere and take a great picture here. It's beautiful here with the water, lush plant life and the beach.

Tomorrow we plan on heading the other way down Kalakeanua Blvd. and see Iolani Palace, the memorials at Pearl Harbor and take a tour of the Dole Plantation.

Honolulu

The flight wasn't too bad. I dozed here and there, read a bit, did a bunch of crossword puzzles and watched a movie.

I am so jet-lagged and I'm at that point where I am too tired to sleep. The hotel is really nice but everything around here is ultra expensive so we ventured off a bit and found some local food that wasn't too pricey.

I haven't had a chance to take too many pictures because by the time we got unpacked and freshened up it was getting dark but I did take this from the balcony of the room:



I'll try to post more when I get some sleep and feel human again!

Oktopadi

This is cute!

9/11 ™

The real reason MSNBC removed Keith Olbermann from political coverage...

Hawaii VS Hurricane Ike

My flight out of Houston was canceled :O What is odd is that it is still showing the flight from Amarillo to Houston is active.

The Travelocity coordinator was great and worked hard to get me on another flight, but it'll have to be Monday. Sheraton Waikiki was very nice and moved my reservations as well.

So Hopefully, Monday afternoon this will be my view:



I was so under prepared, so this will give me some extra time to pack! I'm so nervous about the flight-I don't do so well flying. I used to be okay with it when I flew several times a year but I haven't flown since '05 when I won the trip to Las Vegas.

I have been having fun with my sweepstakes still-I passed the $12,000 mark for this year.

I am taking my laptop (if the flight Monday isn't cancelled!) and I'll post pictures at the end of the day from Hawaii.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and my thoughts are with everyone affected by Ike.

Spiders everywhere!

I was playing around with my fancy new camera that Rick bought me for our anniversary and while poking around outside for practice subjects, I found 3 scary specimens of spiders-if you aren't freaked out by spiders, click on each pic for close up goodness!