a few hawaii pictures

Good Saturday morning stamping friends! I want to share just a few pictures from Hawaii with you guys. Unfortunately I can't get my favorite pictures of the USS Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor) off my camera's card so I don't have one of my favorite pictures but I think you'll love what I picked for you. Although we aren't sure when...we are definitely going back!

The first night in Hawaii we attended a Luau at the hotel which was fun and yummy! Prior to the activities starting I took some pictures of different flowers. This lovely flower caught my eye right away. I don't know what it is called but the colors and the little bit of rain still on the flower and leaves are so lovely!

You movie buffs will probably recognize the above photo. This is a building that was in the movie Pearl Harbor. It is one of the air strips that was attacked by the Japanese on Dec 7, 1941. Visiting Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area was my favorite part of the trip. I have learned that you just don't "get" the pain and loss that occurred at Pearl Harbor until you go there. I just can't imagine having been there. Just wow. A little bit more about the movie Pearl Harbor...you can see the USS Missouri in the movie (some of the movie was filmed there) but the Missouri was not sitting in Pearl Harbor...it was still being built. Did you also know that the Missouri was used during Desert Storm? Yep, they took a 40+ year old battleship updated it some and used it in the war. I'm totally in amazement of that piece of information.

The above picture is one of the views from our Lanai (balcony). We were SO blessed to have a lanai that gave us a view of the city and the ocean. It was great to sit out on it and see the sights each day. We were treated to a rainbow outside of our room almost everyday. This is one of my favorite pictures of one of them. Gorgeous!

Again, the above picture is a view that is just breath taking. Due to being military we got to see this site that most people don't. There is a road that connects Wheeler AFB and Schofield Barracks (I think it is those two) kind of like a short cut between them and at the top of the road this is the view that you are treated to. Amazing!

The final two pictures are of Manoa Falls. This was one of those things that I wasn't really thinking I wanted to do. You see...I'm a girly girl and the information we read about this little hike was that there was lots of bugs and to wear bug spray...ewww! But...Todd wanted to do it so away we went. I was SO happy we did go. The hike was easy and beautiful! The waterfall below was our reward for taking the time to do the hike.

One other thing that we got to do while in Hawaii was to visit with our friends the Laszlo's. I wasn't sure if it would be okay to post their picture so I chose not to but it was SO good to see them again. Pammella met us at the airport with lei's and helped us get our rental car, find our hotel, and gave us a map and some other goodies. We also got to have breakfast with them on Saturday and they showed us their favorite place...the North Shore. I agree with them...it is a wonderful place to be! We also got to see their sons Volleyball game (he went to school with Kyler when they lived here) and have dinner with them on a different night. Thank you, Laszlo's, for showing us your island!

And there it is in a nutshell. Our trip to Hawaii. Of course we did much more than what you see here but this is a long enough post so I'll let you go for the day.

Stop back tomorrow to see my card with this week's Page Plans sketch!