Hawaii! I had been to Hawaii before, but only to Maui (the best island, I think). I was excited to see the North Shore and Waikiki Beach. Alex and I were with Dan and his boys and we were meeting almost his entire family over there. His niece lived in Waikiki but we were splitting our time between the North Shore and Waikiki beach.
We rented a house on the North Shore. This was the back yard. We had this huge deck with steps down to the beach. It was just incredible to hear the ocean at night. One thing though, even though Christmas is a great time to be here, you cannot go in the water in very many places because the water is too dangerous. We walked along the beach close to the water and got caught up in a wave and almost were sucked out to sea. It happened in an instant.
Alex on the North Shore - this area is the famous Pipeline and you could go into the water here. Not sure of the difference, but a few hundred yards down the beach, you could not enter the water. There were plenty of surfers here to watch.
A view of the Pipeline
I took a blow-up Christmas tree with us, so we wouldn't feel too sad being away at Christmas. It was still a little strange to be here without my family in a place that just does not look like Chirstmas.
OK... biggest disappointment of the entire trip. I canNOT believe people rave about the Polynesian Cultural Center. I just can't! Forget that it's run by the LDS church, it's just boring! You can't even get a real diet coke here! All the exhibits are cheesy... it's very cheaply put together and it's SUPER expensive to get in. It's a beautiful spot, for sure... but if you are not into LDS theme parks, I would save your money.
The one VERY interesting thing we did in Hawaii was visit Pearl Harbor. This was a fascinating day. Incredible history here! Truly something every American should see.
Here is the USS Arizona - the final resting place of the 1102 of the 1177 sailors killed onboard the battleship on December 7th, 1941. This memorial is amazing. You really have to see the aerial view to understand it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Arizona_Memorial
They have these markers out where other battleships were.
Inscription in marble of all who lost their lives onboard the USS Arizona alone.
My Christmas photo. This was taken at Dan's niece's place above the city of Waikiki.
