HAWAII!!!

Drew learned that he may be going to Hawaii for work last year, around September-ish, I think. I told him: if you're going, I'm going. And I stuck to my guns. I knew it would be crazy expensive but how many times am I going to have an opportunity to go to Hawaii with my man? 

Since we were already going to be in Texas for Christmas, we asked Drew's parents to watch the kiddos while we skirted off to Hawaii for 10 days. They graciously agreed. So here's our Hawaiian adventure:

Day 1: 8 hour flight to Hawaii. Drew upgrades our car rental to a red Mustang convertible, which takes me by completely surprise! We go to Wal-Mart for food for the hotel room and we eat at the "restaurant" that's inside Wal-Mart, called L&L Hawaiian BBQ.

8 hour flight!!

Mustang Sally

Fine Dining

Hotel beds pushed together

Day 2: We started our day with driving to the Dole Plantation. This is where the famous pineapples come from. We had the "famous" Dole Whip, which is really just pineapple ice cream. It was fine, I think people had talked it up too much and it was a bit disappointing. Anyway, we also did a maze at the Dole Plantation and took a little train ride around the grounds, which was a little boring. My advice to anyone going to the Dole Plantation: get the Dole Whip and wander around. Don't spend the money on all the other things. 

Then we stopped at a shaved ice place on the side of the road and that shaved ice was like butter. Seriously, it was shaved so fine that it was smooth and oh so delicious. We then drove on to see BYU-Hawaii and the Laie temple. Then we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and stayed there for the rest of the day. That place was so neat but we were so exhausted by the end of the night that we ended up leaving early. But there is so much to learn there! It was really awesome.

Dole Whip

On the train ride

Pineapple plant (I had never seen one before!)

A gorgeous spot along the North Shore

Pina colada shaved ice...yummmm

Oh you know, just driving around Hawaii in a convertible. No big deal. 

Laie Temple (the grounds are GORGEOUS!)

BYU-Hawaii

Day 3: We went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and we also hiked Diamond Head.

USS Arizona Memorial

Diamond Head

Day 4-8: Drew had his conference these days. I would exercise and hang out at the beach. Drew got to hang out on the beach with me one day for about an hour. On day 8, we got to see the Beach Boys in concert and John Stamos performed with them!

Day 9: We went to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling and it was AH-MAZING! We even saw a huge turtle! Then we went to North Shore for some shaved ice from Matsumoto's (we heard it was the best and it did NOT disappoint!) and stopped at a North Shore beach. Then we went back to the Laie temple to the visitor's center. After that we stopped for some Loco Moco - a local favorite apparently. I wasn't a huge fan.

Hanauma Bay

North Shore beauty

The temple

Delish!!

Loco Moco...not so delish

Day 10: Our last day! We explored downtown Honolulu and drove around looking at different beaches and then we ended up going back to Matsumoto's for more shaved ice. Then...back to the airport and back to our babies!

The ONLY royal palace on American soil

And that's it! We had so much fun! If you made it all the way to the end of this post, congratulations!