Hampostle Goes Hawaiian!

Well, we're back!

Hawaii was awesome. It was restful and refreshing and everything we'd hoped for. Spending ten days with Noa & Julie was definitely the highlight of the trip!! We had a blast together laughing and shopping and golfing and running and laying out and hiking and gaming and karaoke-ing........where do I even start? :) Pictures tell the story best, right? So let's get to it!

Julie and me on their first morning there. Mike and I flew in the night before and then picked them up Saturday morning which was perfect. We headed back to the hotel with them and enjoyed a great breakfast at one of the restaurants on the resort.

Hampostle gets lei'd!

We had game night - played Uno Attack which is a hysterical new version of the age-old favorite Uno. We literally laughed ourselves to tears!

Julie and me on our resort, heading to the beach! Nothing better than reading Us magazine on the beach with a best girlfriend!

Loved the ice cream shop just steps away from our hotel.

Enjoying some wine on our balcony. We scored an AWESOME upgrade after the staff overbooked our original hotel room (there were five high rise buildings on the resort grounds), and ended up in an ocean-front condo. Two bedrooms, full kitchen, two balconies off the living room....it was seriously amazing. We felt so blessed by this surprising free upgrade. We took full advantage of the views and spent HOURS lounging on the decks.

My hubs and me on the North Shore. The waves were awesome!

Julie and me on the North Shore, also.

Cutest couple ever award.
Might be my favorite picture of the trip!

I was usually the first one up in the morning (day shifter, now!) and spent that quiet time out on the balcony with my coffee and the view. Unbelievable.

Oh my. The karaoke night was a blast. In Hawaii (like in Japan) karaoke bars have private rooms - so there is no singing in front of a whole bar full of people. We just grabbed snacks and drinks and had at it for a couple hours one night. Absolutely hilarious. We laughed our tails off at and with each other, and it was a highlight of our vacay!

Hampostle sings great, let me tell you.

Our best guys.

I think Julie and I had a shaved ice (I keep calling it a snow cone because that's what I grew up calling them, but Hawaiians call them "shaved ice" so - whatever!) every single day!! Well, almost. We loved them! Here we try a couple new flavors - mango, pineapple and coconut. Mmm!

The four of us on Waikiki beach, which our resort sat right on. That's Diamondhead in the background, left side of the pic. Stay tuned for views of Waikiki beach FROM Diamondhead.

Relaxing post-massage. We had a couple rainy days that messed up our plans for daily sun-soaking.....and after three or four days cooped up in the room we splurged on a massage and it was well worth it.

The view of Waikiki from the top of Diamondhead. It was a really neat hike up this old volcano crater - beautiful views in every single direction! I loved how you could look down from there and see our hotel, and then look up at the mountain from the hotel.

BFFs on top of the crater. Oh that's probably not cool in guy-language. Well, they are two of a kind, for sure!

Making our way up to the top, but always time for a photo-op!

We walked to dinner one night to a really cool restaurant down Waikiki from our hotel, called Duke's. About a thirty minute walk, at sunset, and it was beautiful! This is the outdoor patio where we sat for dinner and listened to live music.

All four of us in front of Duke's with our pina coladas and mai tai's. Delish!

Noa and Julie walking to dinner that night.

We spent Easter Sunday wandering around an outdoor market, browsing for all sorts of little random stuff. We ended up with earrings, dried banana chips, another shaved ice of course, Julie got a cute little wrap dress, plumeria clips for our hair, a sign for Mike's garage and more?! It was such a good afternoon together. This is one of my favorite pics of the Hammers, from that day.

A view down one of the aisles. Everything is so random, and fun to look at.

Noa sporting the Kanye look.

New favorite J&J pic!!! Love the real plumeria blossoms.

We visited Pearl Harbor one morning - an absolute must see if on Oahu. It was amazing, and moving. I was brought to tears reading the telegraph message to a wife from the Navy notifying her that her husband was killed on the Arizona. It was such a humbling look at our history there. This is part of the USS Arizona sticking out of the harbor - they left the ship where she sank, with more than 1500 sailors entombed still under the hull. The ship still leaks oil some 60 years later - and this is what is reflecting on the water surface. When you walk up to the edge of the memorial to peer over at the ship, you can smell the oil, and I was surprised by that reality. It was probably my favorite part of our vacation, something I'd been wanting to do forever.

Another view of the ship. The buoy just above this part (remains of one of the gun turrets) marks one end of the ship, and there is another buoy marking the other end.

The memorial sits perpendicular over the sunken ship.

Mike and Noa on the USS Missouri, which is now a museum standing watch over the Arizona. The Missouri was damaged in the bombing of Pearl Harbor and repaired, and sent to Japan in the ensuing war. It is also where the surrender document was signed by Japan a few years later. Very cool to stand in that spot where history was made again. This ship was also put back into service during the first Gulf War!

A view off the front of the Missouri, looking towards the Arizona Memorial.

Oh my goodness, the guys played some serious golf on the island! They had a great time, and usually walked out each morning wearing the same thing!! Hilarious, and typical :)

Love the mountains and low clouds.

Yet another beautiful view of the coastline and the course. I think they played five or six rounds! Julie and I were happy to entertain ourselves those mornings with shopping, the beach and a massage :)

And yet another "twins" pic!

We saw the most amazing sunsets from our balcony! Love this harbor that was next door to our resort. Tons of sailboats were out in the water each evening and it was so pretty.

This is the view from our balcony too, of the resort lagoon and Waikiki beach and the ocean behind it.

Another beautiful sunset!

And the Honolulu lights at dusk.

Our last night in Oahu, we dressed up and went out to dinner at a great steakhouse called Hy's. We had great conversation and great wine, and even bananas foster for dessert (which they make tableside with fire!). Me and Mike afterwards....

The Hammers all dressed up.

Love these people! It was a bittersweet last dinner together, the time between visits is never short enough! We had such a great time together that night.

Such a great vacation!! Thanks for sticking with the million pictures in this post, but how the heck can you narrow down such a full ten days? We had the Best. Time. Ever. Hard to come back to reality this week, but we are reliving & loving all the fun memories we made.