Aloha! part 3

This will hopefully be the conclusion of my extremely late posts about Hawaii.

Beautiful Lani Kai beach

 So. Sunday was Easter! Happy Easter!! we woke up early, as usual. And started watching the Travel Channel. We'd talked about going to an Easter Brunch on the beach with Kens mom. Buuuut they were full, or something. So we watched. and the travel channel was showing the top 10 beaches or something like that. and low and behold the number 1 beach was in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii. HEY that's the same island we're on!!! LETS GO!!! so.. we print directions. pack up. and go!! we stop at Matsumotos on the way. grab some delish shave ice. drive all the way to Kailua. H-3. w00t w00t! and finally arrived at Lani Kai beach. it was packed. but BEAUTIFUL!! clear waters. clean beaches. beautiful view. we LOVED it. so we laid out. swam. walked the beach. swam. laid out. OH we swam with TURTLES!!! yeah. ken was lookin under the water and said 'that dark spot right there... is a turtle' and then he looked again and said 'actually it should be reaching the surface' and boom. it was not too far. it freaked the crap out of gill! (not literally thank goodness) and it was AWESOME. and then the small (we called in the baby turtle) came up a lot closer to us. it was SO FUN!! totally amazing. after a few hours at the beach, and not enough sunscreen on me. we leave the beach to finish off our circle island tour. we drive through Kaneohe, and stop at Valley of the Temples for some sushi. then here we go! inside i'm like a giddy school girl for this whole drive. everything is so familiar. and so the same. yet, things are different. i loved it. i gave ken directions a few times. and that blew my mind. but i guess, i did make the drive a few HUNDRED times with mom and dad. we finally got to Laie. we took pictures of our old houses. we took a picture of our old back yard - now a parking lot. i got a picture of the elementary school for tony. we went up the point. we went to temple beach. i just loved it! gill was exhausted and not too thrilled about this, i dont blame her. but was ecstatic!! then on we went. passed Kahuku, passed the new wind turbines past kahuku, and on and around and back to pupukea. 

Gill needed a major rest once we got home. so i did a little photog sesh around kens yard. and it was awesome. he lives on the back of this hill/mountain/cliff thing. so there were all sorts of ups and downs to the yard. it was neat-o. then we chilled at home all night. watching food network and being too sunburned to move.

Monday was Laie day!! We went to BYUH for a little bit, stopped at the bookstore. Went to the temple grounds, toured the visitor center, then we went to PCC! ken dropped us off and Gill and i toured the polynesian islands without leaving Hawaii. i saw familiar faces, and familiar sights. it brought back memories. and made a whole bunch of new ones. We had a blast. we ended up paying a little extra for the 'first class' of PCC. we got served first at the Luau! and got better seats at the night show. and got free pineapple delights at the night show too! sweet deal!!

while we were there all 10 hours (that's a looooong day!) Ken was running all sorts of errands for us. and he even got a teds pie! mmmm so when we got home that night i got to have some teds chocolate cream pie! it really is as good as you remember.




Tuesday was our low key day. and actually, the only thing i really REALLY wanted/needed to do. i didn't get to do. i wanted to get to Kahuku.org to get shirts/gifts for my family. but because this is Kahuku. it wasn't open. ridiculous. reminded me how much i actually hate that school. along with the fact that the band practice field, is now full of portables and a parking lot. STUPID!

but that's okay. First we went to Waimea Bay. the swells were HUGE!! and it was early enough we got parking, and not a whole lot of ppl. then we went and had Giovannis shrip truck in Kahuku. then attempted kahuku.org. after that failed we went back and finished packing up. we headed to Waikele shopping outlets where gill found her shoes for the wedding! yesss. i also found a Leonards malasada truck so i got 2 malasadas! mmmm yes, they ALSO are as good as you remember. then we went to Outback steak house as our last stop in Hawaii. we were all in the mood for a good steak. and we all got good steaks. tho kens was the best, by far. lol.

And finally, we're at the Airport. it was a tearful goodbye for me. but an exciting one for Gill. she was missing her fiance pretty bad by now. so there we were. in sneakers, sweat pants, and t-shirts. carrying huge backpacks, fleece jackets, and a pillow each. waiting in the hot and humid HI weather... for the stupid security. we were twins all over again (that's the same way we looked when we flew to HI) but we survived the trip home. i wasn't as excited and we were both absolutely exhausted from a week of jet lag. but we made it home!. and boy was it great to get a hug from mom at the airport. <3

This trip proved to us, that Gill and i CAN survive a weeklong trip, without wanting to kill each other. we just need separate rooms to sleep in, and some time apart each day. and we're STILL best friends! the funniest thing, so SO many people thought we were sisters. since we're so friendly, we'd stop and talk to people at the airport, or at the luau, or just.. anywhere. and they thought our trip was so funny. 'a pre-wedding de-stresser' i called it. for Gill at least. but we had a blast. and i can't imagine doing that trip with anyone else.

it was perfect.

i.
loved.
every.
minute.