Home Sweet Home

Our journey home started Wednesday night at 8:10 HST, and ended on Thursday at 5:30 CDT. We arrived with tired eyes and swollen feet. Richard counted that we had been awake for 36 hours when we finally went to bed last night and yet neither of us felt like we slept well. It is nice to be back to our cozy apartment. It only took about an hour for our apartment to cool back down...it took hours for the house to cool off. It only takes about 10 steps from our bedroom to the kitchen. It took a flight of stairs and about 40 steps in the house. Richard commented that he loves being able to see for miles and miles on our way home. All in all, we are happy to be back amongst our friends and familiar places.


So, I realized I did not do a good job of updating for the 4 last days in Hawai'i and now, I am having trouble remembering what we did!

Sunday afternoon we went on a drive on Tantalus Rd. It was a 10 mile drive up into the mountains/jungle and back and it was pretty cool. Vines hung down over us and the road continually switched back and forth as we climbed. We stopped at a state park lookout area and had a great view of the entire Leeward side of the island. Afterwards, we rented "Office Space" and ate pizza.





On Monday, we took 2 waterfall hikes and officially were "hiked-out" for this vacation. They were beautiful and fun, but our bodies were tired. We chilled at the house that afternoon and then went shopping that evening. The mall had a very interesting layout. The stores were inside, but the halls were completely open. Does that make sense?



Tuesday was our anniversary. We slept in and took it easy for most of the day. We celebrated by going to Waikiki and eating at Hy's Steakhouse. Definitely the fanciest restaurant either of us had been to. The steak was great and the atmosphere was neat. As we walked back to our car, we stopped at a little jewelry store and Richard bought me a new ring. The gemstone, peridot, is referred to as Hawai'i's diamond because it is mined in Hawaii. My new ring has a peridot and 2 amethyst stones. Isn't my hubby great?



And, our last day. We started the day off with a 4:30 am hike up Makapu'u point to see the sunrise. Of course, the trail didn't open until 7am, but our solution was to park up the road a ways and crawl over the gate! Haha! Our last day happened to also be the cloudest day of the entire trip, but we still got a few good pics and it was fun. After some blueberry pancakes and a nap, we decided to head to the beach for the last time (sad). I think we were in a hurricane warning or something, because it was cloudy everywhere, windy, and raining. We stayed for about 2 hours and then went home to pack and clean. We ate a quick dinner at Chili's before heading to the airport and then we officially left Hawai'i.








What an amazing vacation. We are studying the names of God in a Saturday morning women's Bible study and Elohim is the name we are on right now. This name speaks of God as Creator. We saw plants, terrain, and ocean life that we have never seen before. God's creation was realized even more as we marveled over flowers, trees, giant leaves, sea turtles, fish - all as we sat in the middle of the largest ocean in on earth. How Great is Our God!


And a few randoms:



Local McDonals sign.



Richard in the Mustang Convertible