Hawaii May 2009

In early May Mike tells me he has to go to Honolulu on business and had been trying to work it out for me to go along but he just wasn't able to do it alone. Thanks to our wonderful friends, the Smiths and another awesome couple in our ward, the Larsons, who took over with the kids when the Smith's left town for their own vacation--I was able to go along. Our hotel, car and Mike's food were all paid for by his company and Mike had a $400 voucher with Delta Airlines after being bumped from a flight a few months prior so all I had to pay was $209 for my plane ticket for a week in beautiful Waikiki!!! Although we miss him when he's gone, there are definitely advantages to having a husband who travels frequently for work. With our kids in competent and loving hands, we flew off for another week away (we had only returned from our cruise a few weeks before). My favorite part of the entire week was the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie but of course right when we got there our camera battery died! Seems like that's the story of every vacation we go on. I even went back a different day during the week to take more photos (and enjoy my favorite shows again while Mike was working) but for some reason those photos and video clips didn't save properly because when I downloaded the camera, they didn't appear....I really wish I was more electronic savvy! We flew to Honolulu on a Sunday and spent most of Monday at the Polynesian Cultural Center. So here we are after the show and back in our hotel room. Tuesday through Friday morning Mike really did have to work all day but Friday we went to Pearl Harbor. We toured a submarine, the USS Bowfin as well as the USS Missouri battleship and the USS Arizona Memorial. There were lots of old pieces of ships to see while we waited for our tour to begin. USS Arizona Memorial. USS Missouri in the background. Thanks to recommendations from the Clement family, we had an awesome dinner at a great place called "Dukes" -- it was well worth the hour long wait! We went someplace else for dessert but had an amazing mud pie (to share, of course). Waiting for dinner we wandered around outside and found dozens of surf boards all stored for the night...someday I might take a surfing lesson on vacation but there wasn't time during this trip. The last day we were there we went on a lengthy horseback ride. It's kind of a tradition we've been able to do on most of our vacations. It was beautiful country and we were with a small group so it was quiet and peaceful...a great way to see the north side of the island.We had an awful hotel the first 5 nights but the last night we moved to the beautiful Hawaii Prince and this was the view out our window. We should have stayed there the entire week. It was down by the marina instead of right in downtown Waikiki but the hotel was clean and spacious and just simply gorgeous. I highly recommend it to anyone heading out there...best of all, we got it on Hotwire.com for only $89 for the night. (Since we extended our stay past Mike's work obligations, we paid for the last night ourselves.) A beautiful floral arrangement greeted us by the elevators. Oh, how I wish we would have stayed here the entire week. One piece of advice: listen to tripadvisor.com -- they know what they are talking about! It's a great resource for actual guest reviews of just about anyplace you would go on vacation. Thanks again to the Smiths, Larsons and my darling spouse for allowing me the gift of time away from kiddos and although the days were long with Mike working, I found great places to go shopping and even worked out at the YMCA every day. I know I am especially blessed to enjoy traveling like we do but it's my absolute most favorite thing to do whenever I have the chance. Our next trip was our West Coast road trip. I'll post all about our month away when I have a chance. Stay tuned....