The Hawaiian Getaway

Abe and I have safely returned home from a trip to Hawaii he earned for working hard and doing a great job for Winder Farms.  There were a total of 40 people on the trip including employees and their significant others.  We flew out of Las Vegas on Allegiant Airlines.  If you've never flown Allegiant, count yourself fortunate.  Talk about no frills travel- hardly any leg room, the seats do not recline, no complimentary beverages (including water), no inflight entertainment....

Are you feeling sorry for me yet?  No, you really shouldn't.  We got a free trip to Hawaii but had to be uncomfortable for a few hours to get there...  I'll take it!

Here is the Winder crew on the way to the hotel from the airport.

 We ate A LOT.  Here is Abe at Kahuku Grill as per the recommendation of a friend in our neighborhood who grew up there.

Mmmm, Hawaiian Shave Ice at Matsumoto's.  This was the second time we stopped there.

Here we are picking up our malasadas (hot fried doughnut bread) at Leonard's Bakery.  I won't say how many I ate over the course of the trip.

We picked up my adorable cousin from BYU Hawaii and enjoyed more local eats at Seven Brothers in Laie.

Dinner at a sushi and seafood restaurant wasn't exactly my cup of tea.  But everyone else raved about the sushi so I assume it was very good.  And the dinner did lead up to the absolute most hysterical moment of the trip.

Fourteen of us crammed into one elevator at the Marriott hotel to leave the restaurant and we ...uh... we broke the elevator.  We were stuck a couple of feet below ground level and we couldn't get the doors open.  And it was hot and a lot of people just ate a lot of raw fish.  I don't know what that has to do with it, but it just seems grosser.  Eventually our yelling was heard and we were freed.  Since we were in no danger and we knew we'd be rescued it was just really funny.  Especially since Winder's top leadership was with us and it was their idea to quote "Let's all jump"!

We saw sea turtles and Abe and fellow Winder folks swam with them in the ocean.  That is until the turtle conservationist lady thought they were too close and went ballistic on Abe-- who was not actually too close.

  We visited a Japanese Buddhist temple.

And we visited the LDS Temple in Laie.

We watched surfers on the North Shore at the famous Banzai Pipeline.

They have such beautiful trees and plants we just don't see 'round these parts.  I believe this is an Indian Banyan tree.

 One of our very favorite outings in Hawaii is the Polynesian Cultural Center.  You visit several different Polynesian villages and learn about the people, customs, music, and dance.  It is wonderful .

I love the dancing-- especially in the Tahitian village.

When we visited the Maori culture of Aeotearoa (New Zealand) Abe was asked to play the special role of another chief visiting their village.

We've been rather spoiled to get to go to Hawaii several times since we got married-- starting with our honeymoon.  Abe's parents had a timeshare condo on the Big Island of Hawaii for several years and when the kids were little we took them over there a few times.  It was marvelous and we have such fantastic memories of Hawaii with our little kids.  But we hadn't been back, just the two of us-- so this was a second honeymoon for us.