Hawaii

Mike and I have just come back from an absolutely amazing trip to Hawaii! The trip was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, and couldn't have been done without the generous help of Nana and Papa, who flew to Boston to watch the boys for us while we were gone (and those two kids for a full week is no easy task!)

We left bright and early Saturday morning for a looooong day of travel. Boston to New York, New York to Honolulu (11 hours - in coach. But we lived!) and the Honolulu to Lihue. Once in we picked up our rental car (a convertible, like every other tourist) and arrived at out hotel - The Grand Hyatt Kauai - in time for a late dinner. Jet lag did us in early, and the next day we woke bright and early at 5 AM to this:

The hotel was great - lots of pools (the beach was beautiful but not suited towards swimming. The fact that it is called "Shipwreck Beach" is a clue).

We spent our days alternating between relaxing at the pools and touring Kauai - Waimea Canyon, Spouting Horn, Ke'e Beach, Hanalei Bay....

We took a great sunset dinner cruise up the Na Pali Coast - I loaded up on Dramamine and wore my Sea Bands, the surf was ROUGH on the way out!

We had an anniversary dinner out at Roy's:

And took a great hike by our hotel, where we found a monk seal sunning himself on the beach:

The day we left for Honolulu we had some time to kill before you flight, and Mike somehow convinced me to do a helicopter tour with him. Lets just say that heights and motion sickness are a bad combination for me. Here we are before the flight:

And after....I was very glad to be back on the ground, and that I somehow managed not to hurl on board.

We spent our last two nights in Honolulu staying at the Royal Hawaiian - completely different from Kauai but so much fun. Waikiki Beach was incredible.

We took one morning to tour the Valor in the Pacific Monument with the USS Arizona Memorial.

Plus we toured a submarine. You really cannot be overweight in any capacity on a submarine.

Our last day was spent on Waikiki Beach:

It was an amazing trip and we loved every second (well, except for maybe the hour of the helicopter ride for me). Many thanks to Nana and Papa for allowing it to happen!