We were so blessed to be able to take a family trip to Hawaii last week. This trip actually wasn't connected to my first two trips (the Sterner family was back on the mainland, so unfortunately we didn't even get to see them). However, knowing that I would have this opportunity to come back with the rest of the family, I had been storing up ideas of things I wanted to show them. We stayed four out of our five nights in a cabin at Bellows Air Station over on the east side of Oahu. It's a lovely little spot, and it was a prefect "home-away-from-home." I didn't take as many pictures as I expected, but one thing that definitely brought out my camera was the sunrise on the beach at Bellows. It was a wonderful thing to experience.
No sun yet, but lots of color. That's Rabbit Island on the right there.
Looking south. (And yes, I know this is the only picture with a copyright. I'm still working on that.)
There's the sun!
I spent more time boogie-boarding than photographing. We were in the water pretty much every day. It was so much fun! We did go on some hikes to a couple places I visited this spring, Diamond Head and Makapuu Lighthouse Trail. I took pictures again, but they look pretty much the same!
Here's a picture from Makapuu. This is looking north. Remember the mountain range in the picture above? Makapuu is the farthest little point on that range going toward the ocean. We could see the lighthouse light from Bellows at night. So in this picture, you're actually looking out to the stretch of beach that Bellows is on in the background.
This is the Makai Pier where we went snorkeling. There was some nice coral and pretty fish, and the water was very clear!
It was a great trip. The best part about it was being able to do these things together as a family. We had a lot of fun and just got to relax. It's good to get away from the normal everyday.
Now we're back home to cool fall Northwest days. Hawaii, I miss you and warm days in the sun.