Personal - Hawaii Vacation: 08.2011 Part 1

September 9^th, 2006 was the day Mikhael and I were married, which makes this year very special - our 5th wedding anniversary!!!  We wanted to take a special trip to celebrate, and thought of possibly doing a cruise, or visiting the east coast, or - could we go over the pond to London??? (…we decided that one would have to wait…but we do plan to make it there one day!) All the while we also had Hawaii as an option since that is where we spent our honeymoon.  We decided to go back to the island of Oahu and are so glad we did.  It truly is one of our favorite places to vacation!  While we were there I took "just a few pictures" :) and thought I would blog some of them.  Hope you enjoy this recap of our trip. :)

Day One

We woke up to the beautiful harbor view from our room at the Hawaii Prince Hotel, (which is the same hotel we stayed in for our honeymoon.)

We walked…and walked, and then walked some more until we found Rainbow Drive-In, which is a locals favorite.  This place has been in business for 50 years!  Since it was so busy, a couple asked if they could sit at our table to eat.  They told us about all the places and sights we should see, and also told us about Waiola's shaved ice.  As we were finishing up our Teriyaki BBQ lunch they asked, “Would you guys like a ride to Waiola's?  It’s near your hotel and we are going there for dessert anyways.”  (Now that’s not something we’d normally do, "go with strangers in their car" but they were a really sweet couple, and all is well that ends well, right?)  So they brought us to Waiola’s which is famed as Oboma’s favorite shaved ice place, and it didn't disappoint. :)

We then went to the Ala Mona Regional Park, (which you can see from our hotel room window and is on the right side of the first picture in this post,) to relax, read and watch the sunset.

This night shot is of the harbor, and part of Waikiki Beach.  (Our hotel is the two tower buildings on the left hand side.)

Day Two

Here is a back shot of our compact rental car… (hehe, we wish...)

Another favorite thing of ours is Dole pineapple whip.  It’s kind of like frozen yogurt, and is really yummy.

Next we visited the Waikiki Aquarium, which is part of the University of Hawaii.  I had a great time taking pictures of these sea creatures!

I love this one!

This picture is one of my favorites; he’s so colorful and tiny!

For lunch we ate at Teddy’s Bigger Burgers which was delicious.

Next up was the Zoo!

We are 2,511 miles from the San Diego Zoo!

While taking the shuttle bus back to our hotel, we were pulled over by a policeman for obstructing traffic – this made for interesting conversations with the other driver the following days. :)

We got out our books again and relaxed, enjoying the sunset which was beautiful once again!

The view from our hotel room, at sunset.

We ate dinner at Duke’s which has beach access and great food!

Day 3

We picked up our rental car - a black KIA, (since we couldn’t find the keys to the little red Lotus..., and we headed to the Dole Plantation.  There we enjoyed more Dole Whip, this time with fresh pineapple topping, and a train tour which was fun.

Part 2
Part 3