April Hawaii Trip

Spring Leadership and Anniversary Trip


I am obviously way behind in my blog... so time for a little catch-up!

Toward the end of April, Kirk and I flew to Honolulu for a Leadership conference. We decided to make it our 10th anniversary trip a few months early. We absolutely love Hawaii and spent our honeymoon there, also took a trip when I was 12 weeks pregnant with Elena, so this would have been our place of choice. We were lucky enough to couple it with a business trip, spend some extra days and be able to tour the island, too. We did have trouble getting out of Chicago, as there was a huge rainstorm that kept on going and we were non-reving, so we were at the mercy of the airline. Still cannot complain! Beth took care of Elena and Maren while we were gone and she got rain, snow, power outage, flooding... you know - typical Midwest weather! But she drove all over Chicago and they had a fabulous time.

This is after the conference with a few people we met. Hawaii's groups are quite young, as you can see here. I love this picture of Kirk. 

  

This was an area we stopped at on the North side of the island. I so wanted to see the huge waves on the North Shore but we were too late in the year. Kirk took this as a panoramic and I love the way it turned out.

These are called rainbow shower trees. When they bloom they are covered in pink flowers. They are like huge canopies. There was a small one in Phoenix I always kept an eye on - it never seemed to flourish in the desert - but I just love these trees. 

This was also on the North Shore, though a little more toward the eastern side of the island. We had a lot of fun just walking the beaches and I liked looking for little sea creatures or shells or whatever other fun ocean things I might find. 

Absolutely loved this place... great beer, (which says a lot coming from me), great food, sat outside right by an inland marina... I would be a regular if I could!

We tried to make the most of every minute, so our last day there, a Tuesday, we walked from our hotel to Diamondhead. We were not sure if we would hike it, but once we got there... why not? We did have time. It wasn't long, but as you can see here, it was steep. Completely worth the entire trip.

 Honolulu near Waikiki Beach

View of Honolulu looking north from Diamondhead