Aloha!

Well it's been about a month since we went to Hawaii and I still haven't gotten to writing about it. I finally got some time so here is some of our trip. Enjoy!

When we arrived in Honolulu on May 7th I was ready for a vacation. The last time we went we used a travel agent and when we go anywhere again we will do the same thing. We had to change our tickets a couple of times due to the airlines moving around flight times and leaving us too little time to make our connection home. After retrieving our luggage that had been damaged so extensivly finally that my suitcase would no longer stand up because the bottom legs had broken off, we got our rental car and checked into the Waikiki Sunset. We had gotten a two bedroom suite this time because our good friend from work, Pam, came with Mom and I. What a view! The suite was at the end of the hall and when you walked in the sliding glass door and lanai looked straight out to Diamond Head. Then out of the two bedrooms you had extensive views of the ocean and Waikiki beach (through a few hotels). We ran down to the beach right away and the air was so warm that the water felt cool and nice. The waves were excellent too with quite a few large swells. We ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise that night which is right across the beach and 2 out of 4 walls are compleltely open. The birds come in and graze off the floor. After dinner we drove up to a Safeway in the Manoa valley and got water, breakfast food and snacks. I didn't find any road maps there so we drove down a little to a Long's Drug and I got a map there. This is because I am such an OCD navigator that I want a road map with actual road names on every street and not every fifth street like the one the rental car place gives you. I was going to buy one off Amazon before we went that was $4, but then it was going to cost $7 to be shipped to me. I looked at where it was coming from and it was voila! Hawaii! I thought it was a tad bit silly to pay to have a map shipped to me from Hawaii and then pay to take it back there. On the way back to the hotel I was metioning Lilo and Stitch to Pam and when Mom was channel surfing back in the room she found it on TV! I asked if maybe they have it on constant repeat in Hawaii. We watched the opening song which is our favorite and then went to bed at about 8:30, which is 11:30 our time. Before we went to bed I got some shots of the full moon and Diamond head. The picture was taken without a flash or long exposure the moon was just that bright. Funny story -- We almost missed our flight to Hawaii! The gate on our ticket said B5 and we get there and it says that gate is for a flight to Kahului, Maui. So I walk down to the next gate, B7, and it says the right flight to Honolulu. We were all like "Geeze, glad they told us the gates changed." So we sit there for two and half hours talking and then I say "...we should have been called for boarding.." so I walk over to the screen and they had switched to gates back! So we grab our stuff and run over to gate B5 and the lady has to unlock the door to get us onto the boarding ramp. Everyone was already on the plane and as we're getting seated a flight attendant comes up and asks us if we are the Menke party! Holy cow we almost missed the flight!!

The next day we took everything really slow. We walked down to the International Marketplace and priced new luggage, which I had been planning on buying but now really needed to buy. We ate a Dole whip and I listened to messages on my phone from our pet sitter that our rooster Parakeet had successfully escaped his enclosure and was free with his hens. Since he didn't come after her like our older rooster Dud it was all okay. Then we walked back to our hotel and got the car and went to an amazing Hawaiian Fabric store. Dangerous, that is very dangerous. Mom and I both spent about $100 on fabric, which is not light (think about how heavy our bags could have been if we hadn't been so reserved!). We also found the Walmart after some circling and picked up more sunscreen, an eggcrete pad for my bed cause it was already killing my back, some assorted macadamia nuts and ToffeMacs (yummmm). After we got back to the hotel we snacked a little and then went down to the beach again. We would stay in the ocean until we were shivering and that was the indication it was time to get out. After showering and resting a little we walked back down Kalakaua (the 3rd time that day!) to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I detoured us to the Duke Kahanamoku statue on the beach and called Uncle Fred so he could see us on the live webcam. This didn't work the last time, but this time there was a crowd control officer that offered to take our picture. That let Fred find the website and let the time delay catch up so he could see us. It was a blast! (See Uncle Fred is in the picture too!)