Trip to Hawaii - Day 1 (Oahu)

I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS TRIP!  Neither Mark, nor I, had ever been to Hawaii, and I've ALWAYS wanted to go!  We have a friend who is from Hawaii, but lives near us now, and he and his wife sat down with me and helped us plan our vacation.  It was perfect!  We got to see two islands and PACKED every single day with fun things to see and do.  I feel like we got to do everything we could possibly have wanted to.  It was SO FUN!!

As much as I try to get my kids to put down the electronics as much as possible, I was SO GLAD to have them on this trip!  Our flight out of Phoenix was delayed for several hours, so we had to do a lot of sitting and waiting.  I had to laugh though at the scene...

When we got to Honolulu, we hopped in a rental car and proceeded to drive to the east side of the island to the condo we were renting which was RIGHT ON THE BEACH!  You could throw a rock off our balcony and hit the water!  It's easy to see why rainbows are a symbol of Hawaii.  We saw lots while we were there.  Little storms come and go pretty quickly - that's why it's so green and lush!  This particular one was a double rainbow!

 As we came around the side of the island, we ran into these GORGEOUS mountains...

 We were rushing to try and get to the famous Shrimp Shack near where we were staying before it closed for the night.  We made it just as they were going to close.  We grabbed a bunch of shrimp, then walked across the street and ate on the beach.  So yummy!!

After dropping off our luggage at the condo, we headed 10 minutes north to Laie, where BYU Hawaii, the Temple, and the Polynesian Cultural Center are.  We stopped at the temple and walked around - so beautiful!  We also went into the BYU Creamery for some ice cream!  Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up supplies.  Food is expensive here!  A loaf of bread was $5!  Still cheaper than eating out though!