An Escape to Hawaii

It has never taken me so long to update the blog.  We went to Hawaii in mid-January, yet I'm still struggling to bring myself to look at the pictures and summarize the fun we had.  It was honestly the trip of a lifetime.  We went with Geoff and Melissa.  Arlene and Aldo came to the Toon to watch the kids for us.  It was the perfect recipe for fun - our minds were at ease knowing the kids were in the best of hands, and we were in paradise with wonderful friends.  We had so many fun adventures.  We learned to surf, went swimming with sharks, paddleboarded up a river full of giant honu sea turtles, screamed our heads off when we found ourselves front stage at a Beach Boys concert in Honolulu and John Stamos made a surprise appearance (ok well Melissa and I screamed... the boys sat back with drinks in hand and laughed at us), hiked the coast, took in Pearl Harbor (a sobering day to say the least), and generally just had an unbelievably awesome time. To follow are a few pictures in no particular order...

Out in Halei'wa for Melissa's birthday dinner.

Aboard the Missouri - Pearl Harbor

Honu turtles lounging on the beach mere steps from our condo - they came up around 5pm every night and we timed our evening walks to watch them settle in for the night.

At the Beach Boys concert in Honolulu

Sunset beach

Surfing pros (we all got up multiple times)

Who says surfing isn't a full contact sport?  Pete surfing right into Melissa's board and knocking her off.

Swimming with sharks bright and early the morning of Melissa's birthday.  Geoff got up at 5am to take 4 Gravol to battle his seasickness.  It worked and we all went down in the cage together.  FREAKY!!

A shark swimming by the cage before we descended.  There were about 20 circling us while we were underwater (in a cage with open bars... yowsers).

Big smiles after surviving the tank!

Hanging out on the beach watching surfers in record high waves

Our last picture in Hawaii - on the east coast of Oahu