January 3 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHASE!!! Dad, Blake and Chase decided that the best way to celebrate Chase's birthday was to go golfing! While the boys were out chasing a little ball around, Mom took Grandma and Erma to get their hairs did and Anna and I ate some breakfast and watched some television. Mom stopped at the store to get all the fixings for Chase's birthday dinner and, of course, an ice cream cake! We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging around the pool. After dinner we all turned in early for bed. Tuesday morning required us to wake up at 3:00 a.m. so that we could get ready to leave the house at 4:00 a.m. We were heading to the island of Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor...
January 4 - 3:00 a.m. is not a fabulous time to wake up!! We all got up and at 'em and were out the door by 4:00 a.m. We were told that we needed to be at the airport 2 hours before our flight...we arrived at the airport at 4:30 a.m., the airport didn't even open until 5:00 a.m.!! So we sat outside of the airport while we waited for it to open. The good thing is that as soon as it opened, we went through security and didn't have to wait in any line!! We boarded our flight and headed to Oahu. We landed in Oahu and Mom, Chase and Anna grabbed a taxi and headed to the USS Arizona Memorial to get our tickets while Dad, Blake, Grandma, Erma and I went to the rental car place to grab a car for the day. The 5 of us got a lovely tour of Pearl City on our way to the USS Arizona Memorial...did I mention that Pearl City was NOT on the way to the memorial? We eventually made it to the memorial and got ready to spend our day at this historic site. We boarded the boat that took us out to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was very surreal and somber to be above the ship where so many people lost their lives. It was even more frustrating and sad that so many people that were there visiting the site didn't take it seriously. I thought it was very rude for people to be so loud in their conversations with each other and to be talking on their cell phones in a place where respect was to be displayed. I am still amazed that after almost 70 years there is still oil that seeps up to the surface. After we visited the Arizone, we watched a video about the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked, toured the museums at the site, walked through the USS Bowfin, walked through the USS Missouri, ate some Dippin' Dots, got stuck in traffic and headed back to the airport. We were very fortunate that we were able to get our flight switched to an earlier flight. We ate some dinner at the airport, boarded a plane and headed back to Maui. We got home, sat in the hot tub for a little bit and then went to bed! It had been a very long day filled with lots of walking so we were beat!
January 5 - Another beautiful Hawaiian day! Most of us slept a little later than normal today. We were pretty worn out from yesterday. This afternoon we went whale watching and snorkeling. We took a large boat about 10 miles out into the ocean to a small island called Moolikini. We saw quite a few whales on the way out to the island. Once we reached the island we tied off and into the water we went. Dad, Chase and Anna did Snuba, which is like scuba diving, but you don't have to carry your own tank. The tank floats in a little raft on the surface, but you can swim down farther than if you were just snorkeling. It looked pretty cool. Mom, Blake and I just stuck to snorkeling. We thought it was pretty funny that the boat crew considered the water to be cold since it was only 74 degrees...we thought that was pretty comfortable considering we swim in Lake Michigan and it's usually only in the 60's! We swam around for a bit, jumped back on the boat, ate some lunch and headed back to port. On our way we saw some more whales. We spent a lot of time watching a mama whale and her baby swim by. That was really cool! After we got back to port, we jumped in our cars and headed home. Dad and the boys and I played some paddle ball until it was too dark to see the little ball, then came inside and had some dinner. After dinner we just all relaxed. It's been awfully tiring being outside all day! Only 2 days of vacation left :(
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