For the first time since our honeymoon more than five years ago, Page and I made the commitment to take a “bigger” trip this year. To maximize days off from work, we spread it out over the last few days of 2012 and the first few of 2013. We chose Hawaii because neither of us had been and the climate beckoned to us in the middle of a freezing and snowy Iowa winter (the timing couldn’t be more welcome, we lost power in a blizzard just days before leaving!). A good friend of ours who had been stationed on O’ahu for a couple of years was immensely helpful in helping us know which tourist traps to avoid, where the awesome “secret” beaches were, and gave a us a list of foods and activities to try while we were there. Like any good trip, it went by all too fast, but we still managed to cross many of our to-do items off our list! I could easily load way more pictures and stories into several posts, but I’ll try and keep it as brief (??) as possible….

Here’s a photo overload of our week in paradise:

• Exploring beaches
• Stand-up paddle boarding (Page excelled at this, there are few shots of me actually getting to a standing position!)
• Dinner and drink dates around downtown Waikiki
• NYE fireworks from our hotel “lanai” (Hawaii’s version of “balcony”)
• Hiking to Manoha Falls waterfall
• Checking out the crazy North Shore waves (we had hoped to watch some surfers but the tide was too wild)
• Visiting the Pearl Harbor memorial
• Using the one rainy day to accomplish some shopping!
• Golfing (and riding along) the Arnold Palmer course at the North Shore Resort – while the weather literally went from sunny to dark skies and back to sunny every five minutes!
• Anniversary dinner