Haaaaaaawaaaaaaaaiiiiii. Mimi and I went to Oahu for a week in September. It was heaven. Before I left Chris summarized why he isn't my ideal travelmate when he said, "Tell Mimi to have fun watching you sleep on the beach all week." I was like, "What do you think she'll be doing?" Duh! We slept on the beach all week next to each other, reading books, playing in the water, sleeping, reading and sleeping. It was wonderful. We shopped, ate good food, saw a movie, slept in, went to bed early (staying on WA time when in HI is ideal), had fun with our hostess, Tammy and her cute family and in general loved the week.
She's purdy.
We went to church in Kaneohe because that is where my mom's cousin's son Johnny is serving a mission. It was random and fun to run into him and send love from home.
This is no joke the view from the Kaneohe church.
More of us with Johnny.
Thank godness for this umbrella...who is that curled up sleeping or reading? My travel companion...who likes relaxing in paradise.
When we arrived, Mimi had a minute of her old mojo when she somehow managed to make our economy car rental into a convertible mustang with no extra cost. Whaaaaaat??!! So much fun! Push a button and the top goes back and then...
Hair in yo face! Lol.
We still had fun but had to put the hairs up.
I am in love with Kailua beach. It is amazing. The lat pic on the bottom is just the beautiful green mountains. So pretty.
We were so lucky to have a friend, Tammy Bankston, who hosted us all week in a KING size bed on Hickham AFB. It was really, really amazing to stay free and hang out with Tammy. We were so lucky!
We took a Pearl Harbor tour one morning. It was really sobering to have a refresher of that horrible chapter in our history and remember those who died senselessly that day.
Our first beach day we went to a beach across from the zoo in Honolulu and we stayed until the sun set. It was on the side of Waikiki which I remembered not liking when I visited Oahu when I was fourteen with my grandparents, but this section where we were was really clean and quiet and perfect.
This is what happens when the wind makes it too hard to position the umbrella so it is shielding the sun. Since I didn't really want shade, it worked find for Mimi...ummmm...is that a view or what?!
Bestie selfie...
We were shopping with Tammy for something for her to wear for her family portrait shoot we did for her.
This is a beach only accessible by people with military ID. It is called, "Bellows" I think but it is the locked down part of Bellows. So pretty, but windier than I like so I still vote Kailua as the most perfect spot on the island.
The pics don't do justice to the green hills we passed as we drove. It was just really beautiful.
Me in the water.
We hit the town one night wiht Tammy and had some good eats and did some shopping.
Fountains in front of the LDS Temple. We were able to go there twice, it was really nice.
I caught up with my CHS bestie, Jennifer Pugmire (now Hippolite). She is "the one that got away" because no one escapes my long term friendship manaical efforts...but this one did. She is a Hawaiian mama, married to a Mauri man from New Zealand and he is a professor at BYUH so they live there and have seven kids and it was SO fun to catch up with her!
These are two of Jenn's kids. They are sweet and were excited to ride with me in the hot rod car to go buy dessert.
We loved Giovanni's Shrimp Shack. Yessssss please. Garlic abounds. So good.
