Our Hawaiian Vacation

What a fabulous trip!!! I'll try to keep my summary fairly brief but get comfortable anyway :)

I was very apprehensive heading to Shane's parents' house last Wednesday night to drop the kids off...I really thought Nick & Hannah would have a hard time w/ us leaving b/c they had both expressed their "displeasure" w/ us leaving them for a week...but they all surprised me! If anyone was teary eye'd leaving, it was Shane & I! The kids were all so excited to be staying w/ Papa Ed & Gma Theresa that we were pretty well dismissed...which was much better than tears!

Shane & I made good time to Nashville...stopping only briefly in Evansville at Target for swim trunks for Shane and Henderson at Rally's for dinner to go. We, along w/ Mom & Scott, were so excited about vacation that we didn't exactly get to bed early but it still wasn't hard getting up the next morning at 6:30am. The car came to pick us up at 7:30 and we were off to the airport...here's Mom & I in the backseat...

We got to Dallas w/ no problems but quickly found out we now had a 3 hour layover instead of a 1 hour so we killed time shopping & getting a bite to eat...by 4ish, we were back in the air headed for Honolulu! A quick note - if you ever have to be on an 8-hr flight, definitely go first class :) Free drinks, great menu to choose from and seats that lay allllll the way back - WOO HOO!! Have I mentioned how absolutely AWESOME my parents are for taking Shane & I on this trip??!! Shane & I in the airport:

I have to mention Shane's "star encounter" w/ Stacy David - Stacy hosts the Speed Channel's "Gearz" show which is in any "car guy's" top 5 TV show list...he was a little star struck but managed to "talk shop" for the shuttle ride to our terminal!! This may have been the absolute highlight of Shane's entire trip!!!!

I can't even tell you what time we landed in Honolulu but we headed to our hotel in Wakiki and grabbed a bite to eat then crashed into bed...of course, Shane & I woke up fairly early the next morning (Friday) given that our bodies were still on Indiana time (5 hours ahead of Hawaii)...it was still pitch black outside which is what it looked like when we arrived so we were dying to see what the island looked like...we weren't disappointed! Here's the view of Wakiki Beach from our hotel balcony:

Our time on Oahu was spent shopping, eating, walking on the beach, touring Pearl Harbor and taking a road trip in these cool little "mini coupes" which were glorified, 2-seater mopeds that didn't go over 35 mph...a real treat on the hills :) Wakiki was VERY tourist'y...crowded but still fun. We enjoyed meals at Jimmy Buffet's, California Pizza Kitchen, Duke's WaveRunner (we think thats what it was called!), Atlantis and at our hotel...hello, $30/person for a buffet breakfast...we loved the coffee/tea bar at the hotel though!

Scott, Me & Mom at the USS Arizona Memorial @ Pearl Harbor (note: height doesn't exactly run in our family!!)

Oil on the water surface from the USS Arizona below...so sad.

Scott & Shane @ Jimmy Buffet's restaurant

Shane & I in our mini-coupe

On Sunday, we grabbed a flight to Kauai which is a smaller, less tourist'y island to the west of Oahu. We had a rental car which was good since there was nothing within walking distance of the Hilton Resort...this was our favorite part of the trip because there were less people and the "Garden Island" was absolutely beautiful! One of the mountains on Kauai is the "wettest place on Earth" b/c it gets in excess of 450 inches of rain every year - wow!

Again, we spent time eating & shopping (two of my faves!!) but we also did a lot of sightseeing including Hanalei (for those of you who know the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul & Mary!), and some absolutely beautiful beaches w/ huge waves! On Tuesday, Mom & Scott went on an ATV tour for the afternoon so Shane & I were total slugs and laid by the pool alllll afternoon - the first time all vacation that we did that for more than an hour...I told him I didn't like the fact that the tan I came to Hawaii with was fading! The weather was great the entire time we were there but the water (both beach & pool) was freezing - I only got in the pool to cool off [quickly] then went straight back to my lounge chair :)

Shane trying out the pool slide

On Wednesday, our last day (boooo!), Shane & I went on a "zip line" adventure - nothing like being 100+ feet in the air zipping between these skinny pine trees on a cable! We had a blast though - although I knew I wasn't going to fall, the 40 mph gusts of wind we were having that morning still made crossing rope bridges and standing on itsy bitsy tree platforms a little freaky!!! We were in the air for 2+ hours and absolutely loved the entire experience - our guides, Hillary & Matt, were awesome which was a bonus too.

Wednesday afternoon, we headed to the airport around 4pm to head back to Honolulu...then to Dallas...then to Nashville...then drive home....whew! We finally got home at 7:30pm Thursday evening so we calculated that we had been traveling for almost 24 hours w/ only about 4hrs of sleep on the plane between Honolulu & Dallas...but were then too wired from the caffeine we'd been consuming that we didn't get to bed until around 11:30...at that point, total exhaustion took over!

While we had a fab time and would do it again in a heartbeat, we totally missed our kiddos - we talked to them every night (but one) and were a little bummed each time we hung up...but we know they had a great "vacation" from us too! The first two nights were w/ my in-laws, the weekend was w/ Aunt Anna & her clan then the last four days were here at home w/ my step-mom & Dad...thank goodness for our family! Though everyone said they totally understand why people have kids when they're young :)

So, its back to the real world tomorrow...I know the alarm will ring entirely too early in the morning!!