Aloha! - Oahu and The Big Island of Hawaii (ALMOST)

On our way back from Japan we did a stopover in Hawaii.  The most cost effective way I found to do this was a red eye through Guam allowing us to sleep for a few hour on a bench waiting for our connecting flight.

Aloha!

Jolene and Mike Hang out in the Guam Airport!

It had felt like many people we knew had gotten a chance to visit the Hawaiian islands and one way or another it just wasn't meant to be for us.  This trip back from Asia to the States seemed like it might be our final chance to see what all the great stories were about.

Oahu definitely exceeded our expectations.  It was beautiful, it was easy to get around, the food was great, and we even got a chance to explore through a friend who now lives there and her boyfriend.  While not floating on Waikiki we toured and hiked the island.

• Pearl Harbor - This is something historically I've always wanted to see.  Definitely still a lot of lessons I hope we all learned from World War II.
• North Shore for a sunset, a sacred hilltop and some good grub (Uncle Bo's, etc.)
• Turtle Bay for a Mai Tai with Rae
• Diamond Head - Hiked from downtown choosing to get the full experience.
• Hiking to Waterfalls with Mostaffa! - We lost his shoes during this excursion and still feel bad about it.  We also learned that I have been raised in a world of shoes and I can't walk barefoot without complaining about how it hurts.  I need to work on my "Hawaiian Feet".
• Maui Brewing Co. - To try as many types of local brews as we could while listening to live music.

No trip to Hawaii is complete without a Luau!  To say Jolene enjoyed herself would not give it justice.  It was a great evening with a fascinating show of various Polynesian dances and stories.  There were also arts and crafts stations where we learned to make our own local head dresses, and start fires.

     

The final leg of our trip was to be to The Big Island (Hawaii) where we would stay in a AirBnb Tree House on the outskirts of the Volcano National Park.  As it turns out mother nature had other thoughts.  What appeared to be the worst hurricane to hit the islands in at least 50 years (Hurricane Lane) approached the islands on our last two days of Oahu before we were to fly south into Hilo (where the storm was approaching).  On what I'm sure will continue to be a story told for years I made the decision at 3 in the morning the day before our flight to alter our plans and fly back to the mainland rather than "into the eye of the storm" two days early.  I'm pretty sure if left to her own devices Jolene would have had us in a tree house fending off 30 inches of rain the following day!  Regardless of how the trip ended we had an awesome time with no official injuries.