More on Hawaii

Day 1 - Thursday - June 26th - Long flight!! 7am - Greensboro to Atlanta, 10:30am - Atlanta to Honolulu - flight was an hour late leaving, so 9 hr flight quickly became 10 hrs! Showed three movies so that helped pass the time, and sat beside a really nice lady who lives in Hawaii and gave me all kinds of tips on where to go and what to do. My brother, Andrew picked me up from the airport, and after getting back to the hotel just walked around and got oriented with the hotel and surrounding areas. Dinner that night was PF Changs and then time for Bed!

Day 2 - Friday - June 27th - Breakfast Buffet for 2 for $60!!! We learned our lesson and grabbed granola bars from the convenience store the rest of the week :) Went driving around the island in the morning to check out some awesome views and figure out places to go. At 11:30 I treated myself to a pedicure at the spa at our hotel.....little did I know it was going to be $75! Oh well, can't top a pedi in Hawaii ;) Hung out by the pool after lunch, and then headed to the Navy base to pick up one of the guys from Andrew's team that was just getting off the last ship that came into port. I was real close to the big big ships, and it was really cool. Unfortunately, weren't allowed to take pics on base. Dinner that night with some of the guys Andrew worked with from Panana City, FL at Cheeseburger's in Paradise. Fun time! And then we ended the night with a treat from ColdStone :)

Day 3 - Saturday - June 28th - Hiking day! Hiked Moana Falls (waterfall that ended up only being a trickle, but still cool to see all the different vegetation), and then hiked Diamondhead. I thought I was going to Die!! We started up Diamondhead around 10:30am and by that time it was super hot already, but the views were worth the struggle to the top. That afternoon we treated ourselves to some relaxation time by the pool and beach, and then had dinner at LuLu's with Andrew's team from Charleston, SC. I had a huge plate of chicken Parmesan that was yummy! Gotta love the carbs after a day full of hiking!!

Day 4 - Sunday - June 29th - Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay - really cool! It took me a while to get used to the mask, and couldn't quite get the underwater camera working great, but enjoyed it! We saw a couple of sea turtles and tons of fish. Thank goodness no sharks!! :) Quick lunch at Wolfgang Puck and then Andrew was off to do some work, so I enjoyed an afternoon of shopping!! We stayed in Waikiki beach, and our hotel was on a strip full of restaurants, hotels and shops. Dinner that night at Tiki Bar (known for their Mai Tai's, so had my first official Hawaiian Mai Tai with dinner....along with a few other drinks!) and then more drinks at LuLu's later that evening. This was our latest night. Most nights we had been in bed by 9pm because we were tired from the days activities and because we weren't sure what else to do at night that didn't involve spending lots of money on drinks. I did good and kept up with the boys, but at 12:30am when everyone else was ready for bed, I was too drunk to sleep!! So, I hung out by the pool at our hotel and call my hubby to say good morning since it was 6:30am in NC :)

Day 5 - Monday - June 30th - A little burnt from snorkeling, and Andrew needed to do more work, so just hung around the hotel in the morning and watched TV and read my book while enjoying views from our balcony. I hit a view more shops that afternoon and developed our underwater camera pics. We decided we needed a good dinner full of veggies, fruit and meat, so went for the buffet at the hotel again. With dinner drinks, our bill still came out cheaper than our breakfast buffet from the first day! We figured since there weren't many breakfast options, they could go up in the price, but just didn't seem right. After dinner, we walked around the strip and took some cool sunset pictures and did what I like best, People Watching!! Later we met up with the Panama City gang and walked around the International Market and then ended up a club below street level and played a round of darts and enjoyed some "normal" music. We loved all the "island" music we had been hearing so far, but it was getting old. So, was nice to just enjoy a normal bar scene. We picked the right night to go, because it was "Broke Ass Mondays" as the theme with 75 cent drafts!

Day 6 - Tuesday - July 1st - Drove up to the North Shore area and took in some awesome scenic views along the way. It was amazing how the color of the water changed at different areas around the island. We had a Hawaiian lunch of Ham and Pineapple Pizza before heading back to the hotel. That night was the Luau at Paradise Cove which was really cool. We went with the Charleston crew (Andrew's team). Lots of good food and entertainment, and experiencing some Hawaiian and Polynesian traditions.

Day 7 - Wednesday - July 2nd - Our last day :( Took advantage of a few more hours by the pool to catch some more rays, and then checked out and headed to the airport for our 3:15pm flight. Again, three more movies to help pass the time. For some reason I couldn't sleep on the plane. Andrew flew back with me, and kept telling me to try and sleep, but turned out he had trouble as well. We landed in Atlanta around 6am on Thursday and then parted and went our separate ways to catch our connecting flights. I landed in Greensboro about 9:30am and was greeted by my sweet husband with flowers ;) Headed home, unpacked, and then crashed! I slept a lot over the weekend, but that was what was so great about coming home and having a long holiday weekend.

I had an awesome time, and can't wait to go back!!