John & Jessica Day 1

The time had finally come for Jessica & John to arrive in Hawaii! DeAnna was finishing up packing our belongings in Minnesota, but she had previously prepared the house for their visit, so I just polished things up a little and dropped by the store to pick up a couple of leis. I headed to the airport to pick them up and anxiously watched for them.

I first saw John's red hat - a signature look, I think. They both looked great and we enjoyed getting caught up as we waited for the luggage. Both Jessica and John had heeded my suggestions and packed very lightly. Indeed, the rest of the week was spent primarily in flip flops, t-shirts and swim suits!

We drove across the island to our apartment but before we even got to the house, we stopped by Teddy's Burgers and had the best burger on the island! Afterwards, we dropped off our stuff and headed on to Kailua Beach.



Turns out that John had never walked a beach in the waves! It was very interesting to hear his impressions as the water washed around his feet. We walked along the beach for a long while chatting and watching the clouds. The weather forecasts were pretty gloomy for the rest of the week and we all hoped the predictions were wrong.

By the time we wrapped up at the beach, it was late afternoon, but for John & Jessica, it was already after bedtime (Hawaii time vs Oklahoma time)! We wanted to stay up a while longer to adapt, so I took them to get their snorkeling gear for the week and then we drove to the Pali Overlook. The drive was beautiful, but when we got out to the overlook, it was cloudy, cold and windy! We took several pictures and quickly got back in the car!

So what do you think Jessica wanted to do now that she was in Hawaii? She wanted to go to Wal-Mart of course! She needed a cover-up for the beach and the local store didn't have what she wanted. In downtown Honolulu, we wandered the Wal-Mart, but Jessica didn't find anything she wanted. However, John found a pair of reef shoes for hiking and Jessica subsequently found herself some as well.

Driving home after dark, we chatted some more about the next day and when we ended up at home, the travelers were completely worn out! We planned an early start on the Eastern shore and turned in!

Jessica is writing about her experiences of the vacation as well. Click HERE to read her blog.