Aloha, Hawaii!

This is a loooong post. I probably should have broken it up into several parts, but here it is in its entirety. We had an amazing time in Hawaii. We had four full days of sunshine and one of torrential downpour. We packed in as much as we could in Edward's free time, but also left some time to relax. We missed Nate a whole lot but it was great to have time for just the two of us again.

Took about 11 hours to get there (direct flight). I have to say I didn't mind the flight one bit. I read and read and read and the hours flew by.

our first sight of land

we arrived the evening of the 14th. we walked around a bit, grabbed dinner, and then crashed.

Wednesday, Dec. 15. Edward was tied up with his conference (the reason we were in Hawaii) and I hunkered down on a pool chair for the day. Pretty awesome view, huh?

Loved these pool bean bag chairs! Looked into getting some for my parents' pool but they cost almost $200 each. Bummer. Guess I'll have to go back to Hawaii to enjoy them again.

We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki which is where Edward's portion of the conference was taking place. The conference was so huge that it was held in at least four or five other hotels in Waikiki. Over ten thousand physicists and chemists in attendance.
Above is one of several sand sculptures depicting Mr. and Mrs. Claus packing for and arriving in Hawaii. (And yes, they played that "mele kalikimaka" Christmas song, along with "santa island" nearly nonstop in the lobby.)

Kids' pool (adults only at infinity pool)

Diamond Head

Gingerbread house at Hilton Hawaiian Village. My family stayed at the HHV years ago when we visited Hawaii so I had to revisit the hotel to see what I remembered.

Honolulu

Carolers in the lobby

Pacifichem 2010. The conference is held in Waikiki every five years so perhaps we'll be back again.

While Edward was busy doing whatever he was doing, I explored the hotel grounds and found things to do, like make my own flower lei!

dog on a paddle board.

super fat koi

each afternoon kids lined up to feed the koi

dinner

pink christmas trees at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The RHH was next to our hotel and has a pink facade. It's one of the fancier hotels in Waikiki. During WWII and the Korean War it was closed to tourists and used as a place for rest and relaxation for soldiers returning from war and while I was showing these pictures to my grandparents over Christmas, my grandpa told me that he had stayed at the RHH after his time in the Korean War. Pretty neat!

And so begins the pictures from our five hour "Lost" hummer tour. What does that mean you ask? It means me, Edward, and a tour guide in a hummer, driving around Oahu for five hours seeing tons of filming locations for the tv show "Lost". It was really cool. If you are a Lost fan than you'll appreciate the pix below, if not, you might still enjoy the beautiful scenery.

the first and last scenes of Lost filmed here

do you see a tiny dock out there?

there it is. the structure at the end fell over. remember it? also, drew barrymore ran out on this dock in 50 First Dates, which I never saw.

This is actually from a new show called "Off the Map" that starts January 12. It takes place in South America but they did most filming in Hawaii.

also from off the map

Widmore's sub was docked above
(it's also the amazon river in "Off the Map")

Widmore's sub--made of wire mesh and fiberglass

a picture of a picture of the sub

The Tempest (which was really a WWII bunker)

Richard's house

Set from the second Journey to the Center of the Earth movie staring "The Rock". He had been filming here just two days earlier.

Where Ana Lucia discovered Goodwin was an "other"

giant eggs from Journey movie

where the bomb was held. also the hill in the first episode where they heard the french woman over the radio

our driver had lots of funny little props, including Hurley's bus

and the smoke monster

Locke stood here looking down at the other's camp by the group of palm trees on right side of picture.

Jurassic park--dinosaur stampede and the guy and kids ran and hid behind this fallen tree

stampede scene

Hurley's golf course (also used as a golf course in ithe movie Pearl Harbor)

building where Obama was raised

super early morning hike to Diamond Head

our hotel is to the left of the pink hotel (Royal Hawaiian Hotel)

looking into Diamond Head crater

That's where we hiked!

It was dark when we started our hike at 6am but it was hot and sunny by the time we were back down. I have a picture standing by this sign with my sisters when we were kids.

next we hit up a local farmer's market

breakfast--pineapple smoothie, beignets, and a loaf of bread

Next stop for the day...Hanauma Bay

There's Edward snorkeling! His first time and he was a pro. I on the other hand was a sissy. I saw a few cool fish but never really got the hang of it.

my camera did not capture just how blue and beautiful the water was

Our last day we went to Pearl Harbor. It POURED the entire day. Unfortunately they weren't running ferries out to the USS Arizona because of the rain so we could only see the memorial from a distance. I was incredibly moved by our experience at Pearl Harbor.

USS Bowfin. I could not have survived on a sub--too claustrophobic!

Grant, this one's for you!


Next, USS Missouri Battleship. I hadn't remembered this from my first trip to Hawaii. Turns out it wasn't brought to Pearl Harbor until 1998. That explains it.

Japan officially surrenders over this spot on the ship in Tokyo Bay. The end of the bloodiest war ever. Over 69 million lives lost.

Arizona memorial.

This was Sunday the 20th. After hours at Pearl harbor we headed back to our hotel, got changed, grabbed dinner, and headed to the airport. We flew through the night and got back to NJ by 10:30 the next morning. There were really strong tailwinds (and turbulence, ugh) which pushed us along at 750 mph and the flight was just a little over 8 hours. Crazy.
We were greeted by my parents and Nate, who was about as happy to see us as we were to see him!