The winter season of 2020-2021 was very long and very cold for us. So this year we decided to take a break and go somewhere warm. Gratefully, some friends from Korea had reached out to us to let us know they were stationed in Hawaii and wanted us to come and visit them and stay at their house. With housing provided, we committed our cash for airline tickets (not cheap) and a rental car and took a trip to Oahu, HI. As cheap as I tend to be, I have nearly given up on traveling at odd hours of the morning to save a few bucks. With 4 kids to tote around and knowing how grumpy they can be, it is worth spending a few extra dollars to enjoy the trip and travel and reasonable hours. So here are some view of us leaving out land of ice around noon on our way to Anchorage for our layover.
Long layovers require spontaneous games and photo shoots.
The weeks leading up to our trip we put ourselves in quarantine and turned down play dates etc just to minimize the risk of contracting COVID. While we were in the airport we noted that many of us had not been cleared by Hawaii to travel which caused a momentary panic. Jari and I called and were on hold for a long while before we learned that we would simply have to be screened upon arrival. It would have been nice to know that as it would have decreased our stress levels 10 fold.
But we made it and I celebrated with a morning run with Jarom Ricks our host. He is an Army lawyer who lives behind Tripler Army Hospital.
We discovered in the weeks leading up to the trip that Kara would be in Hawaii the same time as us and on her birthday no less! So she hung out with us on day 1 at the dole pineapple plantation.
We took a train ride to learn about the island the pineapple growing process and I will say that the warm and calm of Hawaii was so nice after 5 months of winter.
I brought along a cheap action camera I had purchased in Thailand which was instrumental at keeping Zachary's fingers busy.
I had seen a pineapple farm on my mission once and learned about the growth cycle but for the rest of the crew it was news to hear that pineapple plants take 2 years to produce and then only produce one pineapple. It makes you a lot more grateful for the pineapple you buy at the store.
They also told us that from the moment they harvest the pineapple it does not mature or sweeten any further. I still have my doubts about that but for now we will share that as fact.
Saw this sign and it made me smile as we have been to Seoul and just came form North Pole (though probably not the one they intended on this sign)
We were encouraged to get some pineapple whip. It was super sweet I think looking back on it we could have all gotten 1 small serving each but they were sharing so it seemed like a good idea at the time. The world is small as we all know but it seemed all the smaller when I found one of my neighbors form Eielson AFB standing in line to get some Pineapple Whip as well.
Next activity was the maze on site. I was hoping for a repeat experience of what we experienced in Germany but it was not as cool. We had a map and were able to roughly follow it to find the stations on the map and use the build in stencil to fill the check list they gave us.
Next stop was lunch. We each found a food truck along the North Shore. I had to go with a fresh bento box and the girls went with tacos (spicy).
Rebecca joined us for the lunch and the afternoon.
Next stop was Turtle Bay. Only some came prepared as it was not intended to be a beach day but turned into one.
Kara met up with us with her friend Ian. It was cool that she was on vacation the same time we were. We found small crabs in the tide pools but had to cross a lot of sharp rocks to get there.
Always hard to say goodbye to family.
Last stop of the night was to watch the sunset on North Shore. I could move back to Hawaii and be happy as this view would never get board.
Not sure what we were laughing about here but this makes me look way taller than I actually am.
Next morning the Ricks were kind enough to watch our kids in the morning so Jari and I could go hiking. Behind their house is a nice little ridge line trail that we climbed about 2 miles. Jari was having some anterior ankle impingement issues so we stopped and turned around but the view was worth it.
One cannot visit Oahu without going to Pearl Harbor and that is what we did on day two.
Submarines are always fun to explore. It is amazing to think that men lived on these things for so long. It was also crazy to learn about how many of the torpedo's did not work and would hit their mark and not explode or simply not make it to the target.
One of the highlights of visiting Pearl Harbor is going to see the USS Arizona:
We also made a quick visit to the USS Utah and saw the big battleship but did not spend the money to go inside as we knew the kids would be tired. I guess that gives us an excuse to go back some day and see it.
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