The Hawaii Trip

The weather outside is truly frightful tonight.  It's currently -3° and it's predicted to be -15° tomorrow night.  So this would be the perfect time to recall our trip to Hawaii.  

Matt and I had been planning this trip since we found out the ISU women's team had committed to play in the University of Hawaii's tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I was able to use part of my remaining Jeopardy! money to cover the cost.  It was great not having to charge any of the travel costs and relaxing to know that the trip was paid for 7 months in advance!

Traveling to Oahu wasn't the adventure we were expecting it to be.  For once our flights were on-time and relatively trouble free.  I spent the money and bought exit row seats for the flight from Minneapolis to Honolulu.  Having the extra leg room was well worth the cost. Once we arrived in Hawaii we received the traditional Lei greeting (another expense worth the money) and my skin started tingling just from the humidity soaking in.  We were greeted to a rainbow as we left the airport on our ride to the hotel.

Our hotel, the Princess Kaiulani, 

was AMAZING! The hotel is next door to the International Marketplace and across the street from the Moana Surfrider, the team's hotel and the oldest hotel on Waikiki Beach (built in 1901).  What really surprised me about most of the hotels in Honolulu was that the lobbies were open air.  I'm sure they have ways of sealing off the lobbies in case of hurricanes or bad storms, but you can pretty much come and go as you please.  

On our second day there we took a tour of the island.  We were taken with the natural beauty of Oahu.  From the coast to the inland, there is no shortage of things to see.  On the windward side of the island, the mountain has been eroded so much over the centuries that it looks like someone has taken a giant fork and just carved huge gouges.  

On Thanksgiving Day we hiked up Diamond Head. 

The hike was a challenge but it was worth it. The view from the crater rim was incredible. Something that struck me about Hawaii was for how "touristy" the state is, that the majority of things to do are physical.  Whether it's the beach, hiking, etc., you can choose to do as little or as much as you want to, but it's very easy to stay active.  For as well as we ate out there (and we did eat well) I didn't gain any weight because we were always doing things.

Another of my favorite moments was heading to the beach on Thanksgiving Day.  How great is it that you can be on the beach before going to eat Turkey and the fixins.  It was the first time in a long time that I had been shirtless in front of a lot of people and while I was self conscious, I wasn't embarrassed.  The working out and eating better had paid off and while I still have a long way to go, I loved the progress that I had made. :-)