Hawaii on the blog...

So, thanks to Brett's great deals through Marriott and Joy's many trips back and forth to Los Angeles with frequent flier miles, a trip to an exotic destination was in our near future! And no kids allowed! The girls spent a long weekend with their grandma and mom and dad flew out to Hawaii for a little break. It was so great! We only stayed for four days, but we packed a lot into that time! We started out with a little silly Luau (isn't that Hawaiian law? That you have to go to a Luau?) and watched the dancers and the amazing hips fly. The next day was my favorite day--we took our cool little convertible jeep (yellow!) and found the set to the TV show "Lost" on an amazing deserted beach on the North Shore. It felt so familiar, it was bizarre. We found huge sea turtles laying eggs on the shore, and hung out on the Pipeline watching surfers. We ate Giovanni's famous garlic shrimp and bought some Papaya from a local Hawaiian who grew it in her backyard. That night we went out to the famous Dukes' Bar and met a talkative Australian who joined our table and wouldn't leave! The next day we rode out on the waves in a Catamaran and snorkeled around, swimming with dolphins and turtles--really! And finally, we had to brave the tacky and touristy Waikiki Beach where we purchased the obligatory chichiatzki's... how do you spell that... and Brett attempted to surf. I hung out with the other bodies and wound up being stung by a Hawaiian Bee. But not to end on a sour note, we had a great dinner at Chuck's (mmm Mahi Mahi!) and we swung in the 2-person Hammock under the stars.

Flowers for your hair at the front desk of our hotel...

Love this shot of me and Brett at the Luau...

This is how far we were from California!

My favorite day in Hawaii was the day we traveled to the North side of the Island, bumping around in our convertible jeep (and getting caught in the rain!)

Gorgeous view of the lush mountains from our jeep...

We snorkeled with the dolphins and sea turtles... the dolphins rode out on the waves of our boat, about 20 of them, it was unbelievable.

Blue Sea, Gren Mountain on our snorkel boat...

A grocer told us that Hawaii consumes more SPAM than all of the rest of the United States put together! They have entire shelves dedicated to it!

Does this beach look familiar to you? If you watch Lost, it should...

Here are the shelters that the survivors of Lost built... didn't they know Waikiki Beach was just a few miles away?

Brett built us a shelter... er.. wait, the members of Lost did that...

Food from the Dharma Initiative... it was all wrapped in plastic since they aren't shooting right now, but still so fun to see it close up!


We found TWO sea turtles on the beach near the set of Lost....


The Famous Giovanni's Garlic Shrimp... mmmmm