Day 7: Pearl Harbor, North Shore and Pooltime

So Sunday, Day 7 was a super busy day for us. We started out the day at Pearl Harbor. Mom being a history teacher, was very excited to see this. Both Grandpa Don and Pa (Dave's paternal grandpa) fought in WW2, so both Dave and I were very educated on the war growing up. It was truly an amazing experience just being there. I can't explain it, but just being surrounded by those ships, the memorial, etc is something surreal to experience if you get the chance.


After we spend the early morning at Pearl Harbor, our plan was to tour the island. We wanted to head up to the North Shore and drive around and see the beautiful parts of Oahu. We first headed up to Waimea and saw the Bonzai Pipeline. The waves were huge- and to think that folks said these were nothing compared to what they get in the winter!! We then went up to Turtle Bay for lunch. We were able to see some of the places that "Lost" got taped at, pretty cool. Then we drove around the rest of the island making quite a few scenic stops on the way. I was able to get lots of pretty scenery photos on the drive. It was just so beautiful!!


Maddyn was pretty well rested after all that car time, lol. So we went back to the hotel and spent the later part of the afternoon at the pool. It was great. I have some videos I'll try to post below. For dinner, we ate at the Outrigger Reef Resort, at a restaurant called the Shore Bird. I highly recommend it!! We had a table right on the edge of the restaurant, so it's right on Waikiki Beach, and the view was simply amazing. We were pretty much staring right at Diamond Head and the Ocean- it doesn't get much better than that! We ordered our meal, and the restaurant's gimmick is that you order your meat- they bring it out to you raw- and then half of the restaurant is filled with big grills- and you cook the meat yourself. It's pretty cool!!! Dave didn't think so, cuz anyone who knows us all knows he is the only 1 of the 3 of us who can cook. So mom and I had a blast watching, LOL. But the ambiance was fantastic and we had a lot of fun!


When we got back from dinner, and Maddyn was down for the night, Dave & I went out on the town. Waikiki has a fun night life and some cool shopping and bars. Our hotel was right in the middle of it all - so it was perfect for a nice nightly walk and a few drinks! The weather was perfect for it!!



Some photo teasers from Day 7:







Some beach and pool time videos:

I was not able to get the funny Luau ones posted b/c the files are too big. If anyone knows how to 'crop' a video to make it a smaller file, please let me know!!

i just have Day 8 left, so I will try to update that tomorrow evening, so I can finish up with this Hawaii stuff ;)