Hawaii Day Three (2/28/09)

I tried to take a picture of the view from the house every morning. Saturday was a beautiful morning. Very sunny and not a lot of clouds--although the clouds didn't really make it any worse.

Saturday morning Heath was at his breaking point with no Internet or access to email. He headed into town and found a rather nice place to check email and get caught up on some work.

Heath went into town and I decided to follow on foot later. It didn't seem like it would be a long walk--it felt short in the car. So, it was kinda far but it was worth the effort just to walk and take in all the sights. This tree was just around the corner from where we stayed.

In the boat harbor were a few of these shark cages--ya know, for swimming with the sharks. We decided we would save that experience for our next visit to Hawaii. Not something we wanted to do without Layne!! :)

When we were leaving the house, the neighbor had his fishing poles out for the day. First, they were huge and second they had bells on them. I would imagine it would take a pretty large fish to make those bells ring. I really wanted to just hang around and see if he would catch anything.




Saturday was also the first tryout that Heath would have to run. I dropped him off at the University of Hawaii and headed to the mall and then to the beach that was right across the street. The Ala Moana Beach--just down from Waikiki Beach.




I got to see a real life guard. As you can see, he had a long sleeve shirt on. It was colder and very windy--not an ideal beach day but nice anyway.

My feet in the sand again.

This was just too cute, this man was paddling around with his little girl.

A view of downtown Honolulu.

Heath in action at the gym. The gym in Hawaii looks like like the gym in the states.

After tryouts, we were given tickets to go watch the University of Hawaii men's team play Stanford. Stanford won in three and they actually have 5 Hawaii boys on their team--boys from Oahu. It was cool--they warmed up to a little Bob Marley, very cool.

We finished up the day by heading to some local volleyballers house for some great food and conversation. They sit around and talk about the same things we would--they just talk cooler.

Aloha

Hawaii Day Two (2/27/09)

Day two in Hawaii was extra special--it was Heath's birthday. I will admit that I actually forgot and didn't say anything for about an hour after we had gotten up. I also really didn't have anything for him--including a card. I think a trip to Hawaii during your birthday is enough. So, my card to him was the photo below.

I took the picture right after I finished, but by the time he got to it--half was already gone. I think he looks older. I won't disclose his age, but we will be celebrating the 40 in just a few years.

Honestly, wherever we went was beautiful and the photos really don't capture what we saw. It was winter there and a bit colder than normal. It also rained everyday--but just little rains that only lasted a few minutes.

These photos are just up from where we stayed. I really liked it there because it wasn't busy with other tourists.

This is a dead crab we found. It was the highlight of animal life--besides the wild chickens and friendly ducks.

The one thing about travel with just two is getting good pictures together.

The following is a series of photos we took trying to get just the right one. We wanted the palm tree in the back but not the house. It took a few tries.

This was the winner, I guess.

If you look really close at the center of this picture you will see a sand crab. I guess I shouldn't say it was a sand crab because I don't know what one is--it was exactly the color of the sand and when I first spotted it, I thought it was just something blowing in the wind.






I know that scenery photos get kinda boring after awhile, but I was so impressed by all the vegetation. I am not sure if these tress grow like this or someone prunes them all?? Wow either way.




The highlight for Heath on his birthday was going surfing. Our great friend Daryl, who is a HP coach, is also a surf instructor. He took us out for a lesson--it was a lot of fun. Heath loved it.

They take you out on really small waves and that is a good thing. The also give you these really big surf boards that are easy to stand on.

We tried to get up at the same time and we almost got it.

To get to the surfing spot, you have to drive through this really cool forest that is also a camp site. I could camp there.

After surfing, we were starving and Daryl took us to the pier where all the fishing boats come in. There was a little place that served fresh fish and we had the best pan seared swordfish. This was the BEST meal of the trip.

Just a photo of a really big boat.

We headed into Honolulu to have dinner with the Aloha Region Commissioner, Kent Ma, and his family. It was a lovely dinner at a Sushi buffet. After dinner Kent's son, who's is about 10, taught Heath a thing or two about guitar hero on Nintendo DS. It was very impressive. Then the Ma's introduced us to the ABC store--the ultimate gift shop and they seem to be on every corner.

Stayed tuned for day three.

Aloha

Hawaii Day One (2/26/09)

Yes, I know--it has been so long since my last post. The good news is that I have plenty to share and it should take me several days to get it all out to you.

For those of you who did not know, Heath and I were able to take a trip to Hawaii. Yep, I said Hawaii. The Hokes, who never vacation and only take volleyball trips, were able to go to Hawaii. I guess, however, this was technically a volleyball trip. Heath was the lucky one to go to Hawaii to do the USAV High Performance tryouts there.

When he and I sat down to look at his 2009 tryout schedule, I was very sad that the Hawaii tryout fell on a weekend that I would have to coach. I really had settled on the fact that I would not be able to go along with Heath. At a practice I was telling this to the coach of our Stellar 14 Regional team and she said--you should go, I will coach your team. I was amazed by her generosity and accepted her offer. It wasn't easy for me to make the decision to leave my team, but I made arrangements for the team and they were more than fine without me. My sister and her family made the trip from Iowa to stay with Layne. It was so wonderful of them to come out and help us out--unfortunately their trip was not the best and that is an entire blog in itself.

I took lots of photos and plan to give you a day by day account of our trip. I also highly recommend that everyone take a trip to Hawaii--it is as beautiful as you would expect.

Our trip took us to the island of Oahu which is where the city of Honolulu and Waikiki Beach is located. Heath knows many great coaches there and their hospitality was truly amazing. I will introduce you to them and all the wonderful things they did for us during our trip throughout the next few blogs.

To begin, you have to get to Hawaii and our trip out took us through San Fransisco--it was 3 hours to San Fran and 5.5 hours to Hawaii. I guess the headwinds were very strong. The plane from San Fran to Hawaii was huge--9 seats across, two five and two, we luckily got the two on the side. I can't imagine being in the middle of the 5 seat section. I fully understand where the islands of Hawaii are located, but to look out the window and only see water for 5 hours is just a little bit freaky. To finally see the island was exciting.




When they say "Welcome to Hawaii" they truly mean it--everyone is so nice and I really did feel welcome.

We decided to go with the red Jeep Wrangler--I guess it was a cheesy touristy thing for us to do, but it was fun anyway.

Our first meal in Hawaii was seriously at Big Boy!! We were met there by Debbie, Natalie and David. The restaurant had an entire section of Hawaiian meal choices and we went with the Pork and Cabbage (Kalua Pork) plate. It was the second best meal we had.

I mentioned Hawaiian hospitality, and it all began with our accommodations. Debbie Yee is the club director and coach for Jammers. Her family owns a beach house on the North Shore in the town of Haleiwa (you pronounce a w in the middle of a word as a v). She rents it out regularly and she held it for us on our trip. It really was a beach house and the view below is taken from the patio. We could hear the waves all day and night--so peaceful.

We were also left with a great fruit basket from Natalie Oana on behalf of the Jammers Volleyball Club. I have never had pineapple that was so fresh and amazing--it could have also been the fact that we were in an amazing setting.

The next photo was taken from the second floor deck. Keep in mind that I had been traveling for many hours. :)

After our gracious hosts left us and we threw our bags down, we headed out to explore the island. We only had to drive for about 5 minutes to find something interesting. Below are a few photos from the Wahiawa Botanic Garden. The vegetation and animals are so different and beautiful.

So, Heath always has to do things that are inappropriate--here he is trying to climb a Ficus Banyan Tree. These trees are massive and their roots grow downward from the branches.

After the gardens we stopped to check out the ocean. I am convinced that there isn't a bad place to stop and just look at how beautiful this place is. Heath did take a nice little slip on the rocks after this photos--I didn't laugh.

That concludes day one. Aloha.