Tonight when kissing Tristan goodnight he told me he's been feeling homesick for Hawaii. I understood completely.
We took a red-eye home from Honolulu Sunday night / Monday morning. We spent Sunday on Oahu, seeing Pearl Harbor and visiting with my cousin, Teresa, and her family. We were pleased to be able to visit the USS Arizona Memorial as this was one of the things we were hoping to see when we originally planned to spend our second week on Oahu (the other was the Polynesian Cultural Center). I overheard Tristan telling Gavin to look for a sunken WWII ship when we were landing in Honolulu. At that point we didn't know whether we were going to be able to go. We ended up getting our rental car and heading straight there. We made the last tour of the day. We saw a film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and took a ferry to the site. It was a very reverent place, I hope we all remember what we learned and the sacrifices made there.
We visited Teresa and her family, they live in East Honolulu. Teresa and her girls drove us along the coast which was beautiful. Until seeing the coast, Honolulu reminded me of San Diego. I'm so glad we decided to spend our second week in Kauai. Oahu was beautiful but I really think it was the right decision for us. The kids had a great time playing in the WWII bunkers near the Makapuu lookout. We drove to Teresa's house and had dinner and caught up. It was so nice of them to have us. From there we drove to the airport and flew home. Our red-eye was an easier flight than our trip from Salt Lake, the kids all slept part of it. I was able to watch a movie but neither Dan nor I slept.
It's been a challenging couple of days, trying to get over the lack of sleep and adjusting to the 4-hour time change. In fact, I was in a stupor most of Monday. The hardest thing of all, though, is missing Hawaii. I didn't expect to fall so in love with the place. Ofcourse it was great to be away from the drudgery of everyday life and be surrounded by beauty, but there was something else about Hawaii that I loved, I guess you'd call it the aloha spirit. Those who've been there will understand. I talked to my friend, Lorraine today. She's been many times. When she asked me how our trip went I didn't have to say anything. I just sighed and she understood. She told me to hold onto the aloha spirit and keep it in my heart as long as I could. Good advice.
I've already started our next Hawaii fund. I'm shooting for 2 years from now. No more eating out or buying clothes, I'm going back to paradise.
3 comments:
It's the laid back life style. No one seems in a rush there. Everyone is kind and generous. I love how everyone says ALOHA to the other. It's the peace you feel looking at the beauty our Heavenly Father created for us to enjoy. I totally get it!!!!!! I can't wait to feel that ALOHA spirit 3 weeks from now. I hope getting back to normal life is a smooth ride. I remember feeling tired for about 2 weeks after we got back last year. The jet lag for us was awful. I'm looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks. By the way, mark your calendar we are having Madi's baptism in Syracuse July 30th. I think it's at 6:00. I plan to get her invites done next week. Hope you can all make it. I might have told you this already, couldn't remember.
Michelle, Ahh, to quote the Brothers Cazimero, a famous local Hawaiian group, "Hawaiian Paradise, Hawaiian heaven, land of make believe come true...please take me to your heart, Hawaiian heaven, never to depart from you." Even though you may be stuck here on the mainland, Hawaii will always be in your thoughts. I'm so glad you got to go to the wonderful land of Aloha. There's nothing quite like it! Mahalo for sharing your thoughts with all of us. Hawaii --- no ka oi! Mary "Kaeo" :) P.S. Thanks for the goodies!
Alan and I just viewed all the Hawaii and the one July blog so he could see how big the kids have grown since he saw them last. Of course other than the Christmas photo, he probably had not seen Mia at all. Looks like all of you would like being beach bums. Even paradise would probably get old after awhile. We humans have a way of wanting new horizons. Janie was there for over 2 years and sent me many pictures so I have vicariously been there. Knowing my bug fetish, I have no desire to encounter the flying cockroaches that I understand are residents of the island.
We have had nice cool for this time of year weather the last few days. My energy level is slowly improving. Hope I can get it together before our trip. Thanks for the pictures, sorry about your camera. I hope the video one is in good shape while we are there as I do not plan on bringing mine. We will be in touch. SUSAN
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