HAWAII Day 2 (February 13, 2010)

Like I said in my last post, we got to bed around 1:00 am. We got up around 8:00 am and went out on our deck and we were able to see exactly how close we were to the ocean. We were so excited at the view we had from our room. After we got ready for the day, we headed down to Koko's Resturant that was located at our hotel. They had a really good breakfast buffet. We enjoyed breakfast and had an amazing view too. After breakfast, we decided that we had better go and find a Wal-Mart to get some things that we needed. We found Wal-Mart. The parking lot was a parking garage. It was basically the same as we have here except the isles seemed smaller. The food wasn't that bad priced either. After Wal-Mart we decided to go back to our hotel and go to the beach. It was cool to be able to just go on an elevator and be right there at the beach. We stayed at the beach for about 2 hours. Travis enjoyed floating around the ocean. Brielle and Lainey loved playing in the water and trying to find some shells. Cooper didn't really like the water, but he enjoyed the sand and I liked just putting my lets in the water and then setting on the beach. While we were on the beach, a Monk Seal made its way upon the sand. Brielle and Lainey went down to where it was (about 25 yards away from where we were) and took some close-up picture of it. Lainey said that it made a snorting sound. We had a really good view of Diamond Head Crater from where we were setting so we decided to go and get dressed and head there. We left our hotel and went to Burger King for lunch and then headed to Diamond Head. Oh, did I mention that our hotel had a Travel Office. Anytime we wanted to go somewhere, we'd just go to the Travel Office and they'd give us some printed directions. It was great. We got to Diamond Head and we weren't sure what to expect. We had our walking shoes on and had our water. At the beginning of the trail, we stopped and asked this younger man and lady how far and hard it was. Come to find out, they were from Springville, Utah. Anyways, they told us it wasn't bad until we hit the stairs. We weren't sure what that meant, but we were excited to keep going. The trail really wasn't that bad, but we came to these stairs and ummmm, they were steep. There were 99 stairs. We trudge along and finally made it to the top. My parents made a little while after we did. The view was amazing. We had fun looking around and took some pictures. We finally decided it was time to head back to our vehicle. It was a fun hike. Later that evening we (everyone except my dad, he was dead tired from the hike) went and ate dinner at Bibas (another resturant at our hotel). The food was nothing to write home about. After dinner, we went and checked out the Exchange Store and then headed to our room and to bed. We had an amazing day!!!

The view from our room!! Loved it!!!

Cooper not really liking the water.

Lainey and Brielle loving that they're finally in HAWAII!!

People gathering around the Monk Seal.

A closer look...

Me and the kids at the beach.

Travis and the kids playing in the water.

More water fun. Travis was trying to get Cooper use to the water, but he never really liked it.

The fam by some cool trees. I'm not sure what kind of trees they were, but they were all over the island.

A view from the trail as we hiked to Diamond Head. We saw rainbows all of time while we were in Hawaii.

Going through a tunnel.

Yikes...99 stairs to the top. And yes, Travis carried Cooper from the bottom of the trail all the way up to the top on his shoulders. Yep, that's my man!!

FINALLY, we made it, red faces and all!!

Grammy and the kids.

Brielle

Lainey

Awesome view of the city/ocean.

It was a lot easier going down the stairs.

Cooper at the end of our hike.

We made it!!