Aloha!!

Well Tank and I got back from a very relaxing trip to Hawaii on Tuesday. Before I go into the details, I need to thank my wonderful and amazing Mom. With out her, we would have never been able to go on this vacation. I never have to worry about the boys one bit while she is watching them. So thank you , thank you , thank you!!!

Now for the details.....

Our Room
We flew out to Kona (which is on the Big Island) on Tuesday. We got to our hotel which was called the Kona Village Resort. It was an all inclusive place and each of the rooms were private bungalows called Hales. Our room was not quite ready so we headed over to the lunch buffet they had set up. All of the dining is outside about 100 yards from the ocean. So we always had a great view and nice breeze. The food here was amazing, breakfast was ordered from a menu and they had the best pancakes, (Tank fell in love with the banana pancakes with coconut syrup), Lunch was always buffet style with fresh sushi (Tank loved) 2 hot entrees and they always had a chef who grilled up burgers, hot dogs and sword fish. I will fill you in on dinner as I go on with the days.

The view from outside our Hale

After we had lunch we checked into our room and it was so nice, King size bed, bathroom with separate tub and shower, and out own little porch with chairs. We were right next to the lagoon so we had a great view.

Tank had some work stuff to take care of so I headed out to the beach to take some pictures and get some sun. We got a new camera and I was excited to try it out. After Tank was done with his work stuff we strolled along the beach and then laid out for a while.

It was so cool there were sea turtles that were right out on the sand and in the water.

That night for dinner they had a Hawaiian Cowboy BBQ. They set up tables on a big grassy area and had a buffet of BBQ food. They had chicken, ribs(best ribs ever), steak, lobster, and some other kind of fish, Corn on the cob, baked potatoes, salad, baked beans. It was delicious. Then we had dessert and listened to the Hawaiian Cowboys serenade the group.

Wednesday we ate breakfast and headed out to see some waterfalls.

We went to Akaka State Falls. It was really pretty. After that we headed to the Mauna Loa Factory in hopes of finding some great deals on Mac nuts. No such luck.

We had planned on going to the Volcano on Thursday but we were only 29 miles from it at this point so we decided to go. I was all excited to see some lava. No such luck again. We did get to see some Steam Vents and the Lava Tubes. But that was it. We headed back to the hotel by now we had driven around the entire Big Island. It was so neat how one side is totally lava rock everywhere and the other side is green and lush.


After we got back, we got ready to go to the Luau our resort was having. Once again the food was delicious and the entertainment was great. It was so nice to have everything right at our resort so we didn't have to go everywhere to find food and entertainment.

Thursday we decided to do the beach thing and checked out a Kayak from the beach shack had headed out. The water was so calm in the morning and we were right in a bay, that we could paddle out and stop and see right to the bottom and see fish as they swam by. After that we headed to a beach down the road in search of bigger waves to boogie board on. There wasn't a whole lot of success there so we swam for a while and headed back.

Later that afternoon, we headed into Kona and visited the Temple and went shopping. He had another great dinner which was sit down at the restaurant this time.

Friday morning we got up and decided from all this great food we were eating that we should hit the weight room. Tank lifted and I rode the bike. We took a walk around the resort and got ready for lunch.

That afternoon, Tank wanted to golf so I was his chauffeur. It was really relaxing, the course was on a mountain and there was a nice breeze. Other than me almost getting attacked by 5 peacocks it was a great time. That night was another Luau, the food was pretty much the same as Wednesday but still awesome.


View from our balcony at the Hyatt

Saturday, we packed up and left The Big Island and headed to Oahu. Tanks boss hooked us up big time. He is friends with the Hyatt Rep for the West Coast so we got our room upgraded to the penthouse suite. It was awesome. The 39th floor, with 3 balconies that over looked Waikiki Beach and it had 3 TVs and the bathroom was as big as some hotel rooms! So nice!! After we checked in we grabbed some lunch and then hung out for awhile before one of Tank's mission companions, Nate Sadowski and his family came by to visit. We went to dinner with them, it was fun to see Nate again and meet the rest of his family.

Sunday we hit our big destination for Oahu.... the swap meet. It was everything we hoped for, we got everything we wanted for our souvenirs. After that we headed to Sams Club to get some more items and then on to Best Buy so Tank could critique that store. We went back to the hotel and laid out for a while.

Then we headed to our friend Keala's house on the other side of the Island. She lives across the street from the Laie Temple. So we visited for a while and then walked over there and took some pictures. We headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Monday was our last day in Hawaii, our flight left at 9:00pm that night. We headed back out to the North Shore and visited Sunset Beach, Waimea, and The Pipeline. The waves weren't very big but it was neat to see. Then we headed back to Kealas house and visited some more. Then we drove back to Honolulu to get ready to leave.

It was a great relaxing trip and we had a great time. We have decided we are going to go back every 5 years if we can convince my Mom to watch the boys again!!