Last Day in Paradise

You've almost made it through my entire travelog! Sorry to have taken up so much space on the blog, but I was really enjoying myself, and once I started, of course I had to finish. I have come to learn that buying souvenirs like straw hats or silly jewelry that I will never wear again doesn't ever capture the memories that we hope to preserve from vacations, so I've resorted to taking LOTS of pictures. :)
Day 8, North Shore, O'ahu
After we disembarked the Pride of America on Saturday morning in Honolulu, we drove up to the North Shore to go to the temple in Laie and then hang out at Pipeline beach watching the surfers.

Derek couldn't resist the huge, crashing waves as we watched the surfers, so he finally went for a swim. It was like watching a kid play, totally amused by himself. :) I didn't have any energy left and battling those waves looked to exhausting to me, so I watched from the shore while I collected seashells for the boys.

We ended the day back at the Tai-Hooks home for dinner with them and Russell's family.

The trip was a perfect, revitalizing break for both of us.

We decided that the cruise is by far the most economical way to see so many of the Hawaiian Islands.

If (when) we ever go back, it's hard to say which island we would choose-- Maui was our favorite beach-bumming island, Kauai was great for hiking and adventure, and O'ahu offers a great variety. All of them are beautiful-- I don't think you could really go wrong. The big island (Hawaii) was fine, but I wouldn't necessarily choose to go back. Unless my choice was between Saginaw, Michigan, and the Big Island (as Derek just put the question to me), I guess the Big Island would be okay. :)

Thanks to four awesome grandparents for watching our boys-- I think they had so much fun that they didn't have time to miss us!