August 11, 2007

  • Thursday morning we had another nice buffet breakfast in our hotel. Great place to eat, but $17.50 was a bit much for a breakfast buffet....but when you are in Hawaii, there is no inexpensive place anyway. They had a three story aquarium in there, filled with local fish and rays. Pretty cool. We went across the street to the beach, and I got the kids surfing lessons...

    100_0273

    Allen and Kyle doing their test lessons....then Maureen and her paired student practicing standing up on the boards....a lot easier when they are on the beach....

    100_0275

    then they got out there and hit the surf. And all three did great....

    100_0276

    100_0277

    a bit hard to see, but Maureen was riding this wave...

    100_0278

    Allen was pretty easy to spot in his red t shirt....

    100_0280

    Kyle managed to get up a bunch of times....

    100_0284

    100_0286

    100_0281

    Maureen was in the lead here, with Allen and Kyle on the next wave behind her...

    100_0282

    here both boys were up...

    100_0285

    Allen was up on this one....

    100_0287

    100_0288

    100_0289

    Maureen was paddling like mad, anticipating the oncoming wave, she just got up and...

    100_0290

    perfect faceplant, just as I snapped it....

    Sadly the time went all too fast, as it did all week. We got a pic of their very tan, very Hawaiian teacher as we left...

    100_0291

     

    We checked out of the hotel an hour late, but no problem. We went to Pearl Harbor to the gift shop and got our T-shirts, then headed back to the North Shore to the Polynesian Cultural Center again. The kids liked it so much they wanted to return. So we spent the afternoon there, then headed back and turned in the rental car, then off to the airport. Trip home seemed much faster than the trip out. At least from Honolulu to Denver we had a 767, a bit more room. We had an unexpected layover in Denver, an additional 45 minutes, but that didn't mess anything up. We made it back to Omaha at 1 instead of 12:20, then got our car from the Budget lot and Allen drove us home. I had to recharge the A/C when we got home, pretty low. The kids headed on into Lincoln, and helped me drag my dead washing machine out and put it on a trailer, I headed into town with that. I got a new used one, and brought it home only to find it leaked too. A few fast phone calls to the guy, and I had that fixed. Now to go mow in 100 degree heat, work on the Explorer, etc. Always something. But it was a great week, we had a blast, and made a bunch of memories. And that is what counts...