Mele Kalikimaka is the thing we say...at Christmas Time

I'm just going to get started with the pictures and go from there. (Don't you love the new template?? I do. It's very Northwesty! Especially the fog lately.)

On Tuesday we introduced John to Matsumoto's Shave Ice in Haleiwa, North Shore. How to describe shave ice? (Notice, there is no 'd', it is "shave ice") I would say it's like a snow cone, but that would be like compairing a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse steak to a McDonald's hamburger. They shave ice off a big block then they put on whatever topping your would like. It's kind of like snow. There is a way to order it as well. You walk up to the cashier. You tell them how many you would like, what sizes you would like, whether you would like beans or ice cream, then the flavor. You may be asking yourself, beans? We also asked ourselves this. You can get beans in the bottom of your shave ice. I don't know what kind of beans they are. Laura was brave and got beans in hers. What we learned from that was that the beans are just weird, and we don't get it. The ice cream is good, but it takes up precious shave ice area, so I wouldn't recommend it. (Brent would disagree with me on that, but I'm typing it, so I get to say whatever I want.) I would also recommend spending the 25 cents and buying a holder. Many a sad shave ice eater has cried when most of their shave ice landed on the ground instead of in their mouth. Brent likes the Hawaiian (coconut, pineapple and banana flavors) and I like the lilikoi which is passion fruit. Whenever you are in Oahu, go to the North Shore and stand in the LONG line of Japanese tourists and locals a like and get a Matsumoto Shave Ice. They also have cute shirts for purchase.


This is the only flower picture I'm going to put on. I once again took a MILLION pictures of flowers, but this one is my all time favorite. Isn't it a beautiful color? Can you just imagine the card this is going to make?? I can. :) For those of you who aren't plant ladies like myself...this is a hibiscus. They are ALL OVER Hawaii. And, come summer, there are going to be a few in our yard as well. Not this pretty, but...

Ok, I have now decided that these are no longer going to be in any order, just as I want to put them. I love Brent in this hat. He looks so great! Don't you think? Like a real adventurer.

This was in the lobby of one of the 3 hotels we stayed in. This one is called the Prince Kuhio and it's in Waikiki. The house is made out of wood, but then they stuck gingerbread all over it. It made everything smell very good. Plus that big tree in the background is a REAL tree. Last year we were curious how much a real tree costs in a place that doesn't have any evergreen trees. Well, a normal one that would be about $40 here was $100 there. So, this tree was probably at least $1000. That's just a guess, but I bet we're pretty close. That's just a little bit nutty, if you ask me.

Now seems like as good of time as any to tell the wonderful story of where we stayed while in Hawaii. When Brent got his orders, there was only hotel reservations from Dec 3-7th. The travel department said they would work on it and let us know where else we're going to stay. So, on Monday, Brent and John called the travel people and they said that we needed to start looking for someplace to stay because they couldn't find anything. What? That's their job. It turns out that this week was the worse possible one for us to be in Hawaii. There was the U2 concert at Aloha Stadium (which Brent is still REALLY sad that he missed), the 65th anniversary of Pearl Harbor (there were a TON of Pearl Harbor survivors there because they felt like this was their last chance), and the Honolulu Marathon. So, we start calling hotels. John gets us rooms at the Prince Kuhio for 11th-16th. I find rooms at the Ohana Beachcomber, which is also in Waikiki, for 7th-9th. So, all we have to find are the 9th and the 10th. We start calling all the hotels in the yellow pages. There were NO ROOMS AVAILABE ON OAHU FOR THOSE TWO NIGHTS. I will repeat that - NO ROOMS!! We called everywhere. I got really tired of having people laugh at me. I mean, that's kind of rude, don't you think?

I have a couple favorite moments from the hunt for hotel rooms. The first one is when Brent called somewhere, I really don't remember where, and the guy on the phone said, "We have 2 rooms available in Lahaina for those nights." So, I'm reading over his shoulder as he's writing this down and I'm thinking...Lahaina is in Maui. Yep, that's right, they were trying to get us to stay on a completely different Island. If you're going to work at a reservation place, don't you think you should know how to read a map?

My second favorite is when I called another hotel chain. (Again, I can't remember where I called.) I asked the gentleman to check if they had any rooms available on Oahu for the nights we were looking for. He said, "Well, there has to be at least on room available...hmmm...ummm...well, there's aren't! What's going on there?"

And, now my ABSOLUTE favorite! I called a place in Waikiki and asked if they had any rooms available. (Oh, Brent and John had gotten us a couple of rooms at the Navy Inn on base for the night of the 10th, so we were now just looking for the 9th.) He said, they did have two rooms available for the 9th, but they only rented for 7 nights at a time and the rest of the week was all booked up. So, when I asked why we couldn't just stay that one night, since they were open he said, "It's like if you make a cake and someone only wants to buy a piece instead of the whole thing." At this point I was so frustrated with him and the whole situation that I just hung up. That is the STUPIDEST argument ever! The reason we only want to buy a "piece of cake" is because someone else has already bought the rest of the cake. What a dork. I wish I could remember what hotel that was so I could tell you never to stay there.

So, finally the travel people come through and find us 2 nights (9th and 10th) at the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters). We were a little worried about the bachelor part, but it turned out to be a really nice place. The only bad part was that they gave us a key and we go to the room and there is already a family in there. Great. But, it all worked out.

Here's the summary...we spent 4 nights in the Prince Kuhio, 2 in the Ohana Beachcomber, 2 in the BOQ and 5 back in the Prince Kuhio. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? It sure was!

The Prince Kuhio is a good place to stay. I like the pool a lot. It was decently warm and there was hardly ever anyone there. The rooms were nice. Not great. They are remodeling right now, so they'll probably be nicer soon. It's close to the beach and lots of good restaurants. It's also right by a bus stop, which is nice.

The Ohana Beachcomber was a CRAPPY PLACE!!! The elevators took FOREVER to get there. I had to do laundry and the dryers were only 24 minutes for $1.50. (Nothing was dry) The pool was dumb and closed at really early...I think like 6pm. All in all, not the best place to stay! Especially for the money. It was the most expensive place we stayed.

The BOQ was the nicest place we stayed. The only drawback was that it was on base and I hate having to go through a check point to get somewhere. There was cable and a DVD player in each room. It was nice!! You have to be enlisted or on orders to stay there, but it was very nice.

This is from the Dole Plantation. I think it's a funny picture. John is holding the baby pineapple because it was so cute, I guess?? We went to the Dole Plantation just before Laura left so we could all get Dole Whips, which are the best pineapple sherbert concoctions ever!!

John is also of the opinion that people should be in pictures. I am not always of that opinion, but...that could be because there are only two of us and Brent starts to whine if he's in too many pictures.

You may remember these figurines from last year. It was fun to see them again. Santa Claus and Tutu Mele. I think Brent looks cute in this picture. And, you might not be able to tell, but my hair looks AWESOME!! It curled so nicely!!! I love it when that happens and on my birthday too!

This is the Christmas tree from downtown Honolulu. We think this one is much prettier than last year's. Last year the theme was bears. This year it was musical instruments. Much nicer!


Well, I was just going to keep putting pictures on until it made me stop and it's not stopping me, so I think I'm going to stop now. Tune in next time for more pictures.

I'm going to leave you with a great joke...
What did Batman say to Robin just before they got in the car?
"Robin, get in the car."

Hahahahhahahahahahahah!

:)