Our trip to Hawaii, day one

At the very end of January we planned a sudden trip to Hawaii and left two weeks later on Valentine's Day--it was a whirlwind trip. I had been wanting to take this trip for some time, but didn't think it was going to be able to happen. Lexi moving in with us and being willing to watch our kids for a week was one thing that prompted the trip, but the main problem had been that Keith said he couldn't take the time off to go. Suddenly, after several of our friends tried to convince him that we just needed to go, he changed his mind and said he could probably get the time off of work. That was all it took! We looked at flights that evening and booked them the next day. 









There were two reasons why time was of the essence for taking this trip--one was that Cassidy and James have been living in Hawaii for the past few years, and they are leaving this summer. The other reason is that we were having a baby soon, and February was the last month we could travel. Of course, we flew on Hawaiian Air. We landed in Honolulu around 11 in the morning and Cassidy and Tru picked us up at the airport. After getting settled in at their apartment, we went to Diamondhead to hike and see the views.









It was a beautiful, fun hike, although there were some steep parts. Like these rather dirty 100 stairs.

I was surprised at how well Truman did on the hike, although he was very fascinated with every twig and leaf we passed. Keith carried him on his shoulders part of the way, but he walked a lot of it himself.

The military previously used this place as a lookout, and you can see why. From the top you have a beautiful view. Here we are with Waikiki in the background.

We saw a prettybird back near the bottom of the hike.

Then we went to "sea glass beach" to search for sea glass. I don't know the real name of this beach, but Cass said they always find sea glass there. It is rather rocky and not one you would want to swim in. (Kind of like Waikiki, in my opinion.)

We found some pretty pieces, and Truman made some sort of collection of rocks that he didn't want to leave, so we took his picture by it.

After James came home from work we went to Duke's for dinner, which is a place we have been hearing about for years, I tell you! We got to sit basically on the beach for dinner and had the most gorgeous view of Waikiki as the sun set. It rained on us a little as we were eating dinner, but it only lasted about 10 minutes and then it was gone. We just held our menus over our food and carried on. Of course, we ended our meal with the legendary Hula Pie. Sadly, I didn't realize Duke's would be so picturesque so I didn't have my camera with me for this outing. Fortunately, we would return before our Hawaii days were over...