Hawaii Vacation Day 8 (last day)

Our last day in Hawaii...  (bummer, I love it here and don't think I ever want to leave) 

Today we got up, packed up all of our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and headed out to the North Shore.

this is the foyer/front desk of our hotel.  To give you the general idea - I was sitting the car to take the photo.  it was just wide open!  I loved it!

Our first stop was the Dole Plantation.  It didn't open until 9:30, and we had to be out at the airfield by 11:00, so we didn't have a lot of time here.  We went on the walking audio tour (in the POURING rain) and it was very nice.  Lots of interesting plants to enjoy and I learned a lot about the produce/food exports of Hawaii.  - - Did you know that it takes 18 months after planting before you can harvest a ripe pineapple!?!?!  I found that absolutely incredible!  (and they don't grow on trees either.  They grow on these short spiky plants...)

if you click to enlarge you'll be able to see the rain just pouring down!

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One of the plants I liked was the "birds of paradise" plant - I just think they are cool looking.  In the picture above you can see a larger plant, and below a close up.

From there we went out to the Dillingham Airfield where Tim had signed up to take a beginning flight lesson on this crazy flying machine (I don't remember what it was called) that was like part motorcycle, part hang glider, and part airplane.  I chose to skip this activity, (what with my intense fear of heights and my serious motion sickness issues) but I have to admit it did look pretty cool - and the pictures he brought back were amazing!  (I don't know how to get them from the disk to the computer, so you'll just have to take my word for it until I can get some posted.

all suited up, buckled in, and ready to go!

taxiing back down the runway before take off

 After Tim's flight - which he really enjoyed, we made a quick stop at the North Shore Soap Factory, and then popped in for a Matsumoto's shaved  ice. (I know everyone says you "have" to get a Matsumoto shaved ice... but to me it just tasted like regular shaved ice...  I kinda wish I had spent my money and calories on a pineapple ice cream at the Dole plant instead...)

 As we continued along, we stopped at a spot along the road that locals call "turtle beach" (or something like that).  It is not marked, but with so many cars parked along the road it is hard to miss.  We watched the sea turtles swimming in the waves and that was really cool, PLUS there were two big girls that were up on the beach sunning themselves.  They are amazing animals.

  

 We continued on to the Waimea Valley, where we toured the botanical garden as we hiked to the falls.  It was so GORGEOUS!  I just couldn't get enough!

We bought lunch at the Waimea snack bar - I had a Mahi Mahi (fish) sandwich.  It was pretty yummy, with garlic fries.  Notice our little peacock friend, just hanging around waiting for us to drop food.

It was amazing to me that even through we had been here for a week, and tours multiple botanical gardens, we kept seeing "new" flowers.  It was really spectacular.  Tim and I both through these  were pretty interesting looking.

Tim chose to wear  his swimsuit and swim out under the falls, but since we were going to the airport right after this, I opted to stay dry... and I was only a "little" jealous!

It was almost time for the sunset by the time we got back to the car, so we just went over to the Waimea beach park and sat there watching the big waves roll in and watching the sunset.  A "surge" was scheduled to come in the following day so the waves were already on the rise.  It was fun watching the people surfing/body surfing.  Tim went and and gave it a try, but stopped after he got SLAMMED into the sand pretty hard. 

Tim heading into the waves

I know it's kinda hard to tell, but check out the curl on this baby!

a beautiful sunset to cap off a wonderful vacation

After the sun was down, we started out for the airport.  We had pre-paid for a tank of gas, so we wanted to return the car with as little gas as possible, but we were riding on EMPTY and I was getting super nervous.  I was having visions of us running out of gas and missing our flight all all sorts of fun scenarios like that.  Tim was trying to convince me that you don't really run out of gas when it is on empty... that they always build in some leeway cause they know people like to push the limits... 

here you can see the gas gauge (the small on in the center) - and the LOW FUEL warning message in the lower right corner - it was at this point Tim said, "yeah, it's getting a little low."

Apparently I didn't buy Tim's logic, because we got to a little town with some gas stations - I picked one and pulled right in. 

This is after we added a gallon.  the name of this picture is "Jeri's peace of mind"

We returned our rental car, took the shuttle over to the terminal, then the nightmare began!  Getting through the agricultural checkpoint, checking in our bag, and going through security were all awful!  Due to the mail bomb scares that took place while we were on vacation, airport security had been tightened, and the lines were HORRIBLE!  Plus when we tried to check in our bag, we found that it was 10 lbs overweight, and we either had to dump 10 lbs or pay an extra $75!  So we sat on the floor of the airport, opened up the bag and started deciding what we could throw away.  We managed to transfer most of the stuff from our suitcase into our carry-ons, threw out a couple little nothings... and we just barely managed to squeeze it all in - but it made our carry-on bags extra heavy, bulky, and awkward.  

Back at the airport - a funny story about this picture.  I was standing by the statue, waiting for Tim to take the picture, and I happened to looked up.  Wouldn't you just know it - the sculptor didn't bother to put a swimsuit - or loin cloth - or anything... on this guy.  HELLO!?!?!?  Is a little modesty asking too much?

Our flight left Honolulu at 10pm Monday night, and after another 2 hour stopover in PHX, we arrived back in SLC at 1:00pm, Tuesday afternoon.

flying over the Grand Canyon  (we couldn't see it on the way out cause it was super cloudy that day - the whole flight)

  It was great to get home and see the kids.  It was nice to feel loved and missed.

My sweet kids (3 of them at least) in their "Hawaii clothes."

Postscript - the first full day back (Wed) I was totally ready to be home.  I was loving being with the kids, enjoying working hard to get all the laundry caught up, etc...  Reality set in by Thursday I was feeling major OVERLOAD and was totally ready to go back to Hawaii. 

Hey Tim - It was a WONDERFUL vacation!  THANK YOU!  I love you!