A Few Hawaiian Highlights

Aloha!  Hello, friends!  I don't normally share lots of personal pics on my blog, but after a wonderful trip to San Francisco and Oahu, Hawaii, I made a few collages that I thought you might enjoy.

If this isn't your thing, no worries!  Thanks for visiting!

If you are interested, here are a few collages I put together from our vacation using a fun iPad app my daughter showed me called "PhotoGrid."  This was super easy since I used my iPhone as my camera the whole vacation!

We did so many cool things on this trip -- too many to put in collages -- including touring Pearl Harbor, hiking to the top of Diamond Head Crater, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, jumping off rock cliffs at Wiamea Bay on the North Shore, and taking a day trip to the big island of Hawaii to see the volcanoes. We still had so many things we wanted to do!  Here are a few highlights.

First up -- Waikiki Beach, by day and night.  We enjoyed swimming, taking surfing lessons, shopping, eating beachside at Duke's...Waikiki is a fun place!

Next up -- our evening at Chief's Luau.  The kids enjoyed getting tattoos, weaving crowns from palm tree branches, and throwing spears in a contest.  The girls all learned a hula dance and my husband and I even got to dance together on stage with all the other couples there celebrating either their honeymoon or their anniversary.  (We were on this trip to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.)  They gave all the women on stage flowers (bottom right)...so beautiful!

The scenery all around the island is just amazingly beautiful.  This collage highlights one of our favorite beaches...Hanauma Bay.  I already posted a collage of the flowers I saw...the wildlife and trees and flowers were all so interesting and exotic!  We saw some pretty unusual fish while we were snorkeling here.

On our last day in Oahu, we went to the annual Hawaiian Ukulele Festival.  My daughter got her second ukulele for her recent birthday and she was really excited to go to this event.  Not only were there vendors selling every type of ukulele available, but the performers were amazing!  We saw bands and Willie K and Jake Shimabukuro perform...AMAZING!  Have you ever heard Jake play?  You must check out THIS YouTube video in which he plays Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the ukulele...it's hard to believe such beautiful sound can come from a four-stringed instrument!

We had such a great time on this trip, it was the trip of a lifetime.  However, I do have three regrets looking back on this particular vacation:

(1) I wish we could have stayed longer...there was still so much to do and see in Oahu!

(2) I wish I was able to meet up in person with the amazing Donna Mikasa (her blog is Three Umbrellas) while we were on Oahu.  We spoke by phone (which was wonderful) but circumstances did not work in our favor this time around.  Bummer!  I guess I will just have to go back, that's all!

(3) I was so close to being able to visit the Hero Arts Factory Store in California...we were actually on the same street on our way home from Muir Woods...but the store had already closed!  NOOOOO!  I thought about going up to the windows and pressing my face against the glass, but my kids assured me that would be weird. Oh, to be so close but unable to go in...sigh.

Thanks for stopping by...I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of our vacation photos (trust me, there are plenty more where these came from!)!

Mahalo!
Judy