Palmer People: Celebrating our 10+1 in Hawaii ~ Part 1

We always said that we wanted to take a trip to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary. Sounds pretty cliche, I know. Well, we went and had a baby 4 months before that momentous occasion (plus I ended up with strep throat, how fun would that have been?) which put those plans on hold. We'd been talking with the Barney's for the past 6+ months about FINALLY taking our anniversary trip, together. Their anniversary is one day before ours, same year and everything. After lots of talking back and forth, we decided on Hawaii, but because they had been to Oahu before, they wanted to spend some time on another island. We chose to spend the first half of our trip on our own, then meet up for the second half on Kauai, which worked out perfectly. So we made it to Hawaii, just a year later than planned, hence the 10+1 anniversary. ;)

Brittney agreed to come out from Cali and watch our kids for us, which couldn't have worked out better. I was incredibly anxious because we've NEVER left the kids for more than 2 nights and we've never traveled so far away. Plus Hayden still being so young.... and I had to quit nursing her, which I only did 2 weeks prior to leaving.

We left early in the morning on Wednesday and were on our way to Oahu! It was a loooooong 6 hour flight. Once we landed, I couldn't believe we were actually IN Hawaii!!! We rented a convertible car and headed up to our place on the North Shore in Haleiwa. I loved staying in a quiet little beach town, far far away from the busyness of Honolulu and Waikiki. It was literally right on the ocean and we fell asleep every night listening to the rolling of waves. That first night, we grabbed a bite to eat at Kua 'Aina, then took a little evening stroll along the beach and watched the amazing sunset from our balcony.

First sights of Oahu!!!

The next morning, we woke early and drove to Laie and ate at the Hukilau Cafe. This place was on the movie 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and has also been featured on Food Network! Matt ordered the macadamia nut pancakes and they were HUGE, like the size of a frisbee! Afterward, we drove just around the corner to the temple and as we pulled into the parking lot, I realized that I had left my recommend back at our place, over 30 minutes away! Grrr!!! The funniest thing about this was that Matt usually harasses me to the point of annoyance whether or not I have my temple recommend. Of course he did that before we left on our trip, but neglected to do so that morning, which resulted in us driving all the way back to get it. We got there in plenty of time to do the 10am session, which ended up working out nicely. The temple is small but beautiful. It was a great start to the day.

After the temple, we got lunch at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. We spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was fascinating to visit the little "villages" and learn more about the island people, their traditions and way of life. On the "island" of Tonga, Matt volunteered to be a part of the demonstration and he was SUCH a good sport! He really got into it and I was laughing and crying all at the same time! We attended a luau program for dinner. We got smoothies in pineapples and I vowed to try new things. This buffet plate nearly gave me a heart attack with all the food piled on top of each other!! They called all the couples that were celebrating anniversaries up on stage for a little dance so we got a chance to dance. We got to see Sister Fairbanks' parents, who are currently serving a mission there. We were soooooo exhausted by the end of the day!

Friday morning, we had wide open. We decided to take a trip down to Hanauma Bay and try out snorkeling. We'd hear that this is one of the best places on Oahu to go. While we were waiting in line, we were informed that they were having a huge influx of box jellyfish, which occurs within 7-12 days after a full moon. Just our luck! Apparently these things are nasty little boogers and pack a big punch, which naturally made us very nervous! We decided to brave it anyway and managed to have a great time and avoided any jellyfish. Matt bought a waterproof camera for our trip and it was fun being able to take pictures while snorkeling. They ended up closing the beach after we had been there for awhile due to the high amount of people that were stung.

We had lunch and did some shopping, then cruised back up to Haleiwa and stopped at the infamous Matsumoto's for shave ice (notice there is no D at the end of shave). I guess that was dinner??! YUM!

Our first souvenir purchase~ new flip flops for both of us!

We picked these up at Costco~ HEAVEN!!

Saturday was our last day on Oahu. We rose early to pack up our bags and drove down to Pearl Harbor, which was one of the top things Matt wanted to do while we were there. We scored walk-in tickets for the tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, thank goodness. Before our scheduled time, we walked around the museums and read all the information about that "day that will live in infamy." I was pretty awestruck and somber as I read through all the details of what transpired. When we got out to the memorial, there was a reverence felt for the loss of the men who lie entombed in the ship just below us. It's been over 70 years since the USS Arizona sunk and there is still oil leaking from under the water. We also toured the USS Bowfin, a submarine used during WWII.

We ate at Boston's Pizza for lunch. 1 slice = 1/4 of a GIANT pizza!! It was soooooo good!

To kill time before our flight left for Kauai, we stopped at the Dole Plantation. Inside, they have Maui Divers Jewelry where you can pick your own oyster, they open it and remove the pearls. We decided to get some pearl necklaces for the girls and earrings for myself. We took at ride on the Pineapple Express around the huge plantation and got to see all kinds of things growing- pineapples, bananas, papaya, cacao. We finished the trip off with a delicious Dole Whip. I got some shredded coconut on top. Heavenly!