Aloha!

Well as you may know, we just went to Hawaii for the first time! It was really exciting. I was sent TAD for 6 days (4 working days plus a travel day on either end) to be the Marine Corps Installations West Colors bearer. Since I was going to Hawaii for free and since we have a baby on the way, we decided, with some prodding from my OIC, that there was no better time to take a trip together to Hawaii. Despite all the forces acting against us--buy me a drink and I'll tell you all about it sometime--we had a great time!
We went to a few different beaches while we were there. We were staying a few blocks from Waikiki beach, which is next to Honolulu. We didn't like it too much, because it was crowded and had reef chunks all over the place and was very shallow quite a ways out, so it was hard to enjoy without a board. We also went to Waimea on the north shore. That is where the huge waves come in, but not this time of year. It was cool swimming there because the swell of the water would shove you way up on the beach and then yank you right back out, but it never broke so you never got tumbled or pushed under. Our favorite beach, though, was Lanikai. It was so gorgeous. The water was perfect and the sand was like baby powder.
We also hiked up Diamond Head crater which had an amazing view from the top. It was used as a fire control station by the military because the view was so good. They recommend at least and hour and a half to make the hike, but Yogurl did it in an hour even though she is 33 weeks pregnant. What a superstar! Some of the staircases there were really steep too!
One day we went to Chinatown, which wasn't that exciting, but we did find some delicious foods and saw a dead pig just sitting on a cart outside a store with flies buzzing around it. Yummm! My favorite part was going to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which employs BYU Hawaii students and is right next to the campus and the Hawaii temple. The shows were incredible, and the food at the luau was delicious. We also got to take tour of the Honolulu temple grounds from the PCC, which was really nice.