Hawaii: Part 1

We got home from our trip to Hawaii on Friday. Here are some of the details.

The Preparations

A couple weeks before our trip I tried on my bathing suit. I was appalled by two things. First of all, I was blindingly white, and secondly the design of my bathing suit really made my pooching stomach poke out. (I should mention here that I'm pregnant again--13 weeks along. I will post more about that later). I solved the tummy problem by finding a great swimsuit on sale that was specifically made for "tummy hugging" and it helped A LOT! I decided to solve my pale problem by buying some sunless tanning spray. The bottle promised a "natural looking tan" that gave "complete coverage" and was "streak free". MmmHmmm. It turned me orange, I had a couple of big spots where the spray missed, and a couple of big streaks down my leg. It was not cute. Luckily I tried it out a week before we left on our trip and it wore off by the time we headed for Hawaii. I ended up going as my natural white self. My mom flew into Pullman a couple of days before we left so she could get the routine down. She watched our kids the first half of the week, and Joe's mom watched the kids the second half of the week. Both grandmas were amazing and wonderful to take on all five kids! We are so grateful and appreciative of them both.

The Trip: Part 1

We arrived in Hawaii late Saturday night. It was dark, so we didn't see much of anything. We were surprised the next morning to wake up and see beautiful beaches right before our eyes. We were on the 38th floor of our hotel, and had a stunning view of Waikiki beach and the city of Honolulu. Joe and I got ready for the day, enjoyed the complimentary continental breakfast that the hotel offered and went for a walk on the beach.

Then I stayed at the hotel while Joe went to the convention center with his co-workers to set up for the tradeshow the next day. They were hoping to finish by noon, but ended up not finishing until 4:30 because of some problems with some of their display projects. That meant our plans to attend an afternoon meeting at a nearby LDS church were nixed and we were bummed. One of the co-workers wives, who came along with her husband, planned for our group to go to a luau that evening at the sea park. When Joe came home he was really sick. We're still not sure what caused it, but we think it was a combination of milk allergy mixed with some heat stroke from our morning walk. He could hardly walk or move when he got back to the hotel. We called the co-worker to cancel, but they said that they already made a reservation and had paid and it was non-refundable. I'm really shy and awkward at making conversation with strangers (I had never met the people we were on this trip with before), so I was really apprehensive, but with Joe's encouragement I decided to go. Joe stayed home and tried to recover.

The evening was really fun. There was a dolphin show and other sea life exhibits to see before the luau. Then we were all given fresh flower leis and seated at tables outside. They served the Hawaiin food buffet style and as we ate we watched the dancers perform different polynesian dances from several islands to traditional music. The food was good, the entertainment was good, and the atmosphere was really nice.

On the way to the Sea Park with our group from Joe's work

A sea creature on display at the sea park, underwater, inside it's tank



A fire dance performed at the luau

Part 2: coming soon!