Christmas in Hawaii

This is a belated write up about the trip we took to Hawaii for Christmas. I think that this was our fourth time in Oahu, but it was the first for my parents and brother. Coming from spending Christmas above the 49th parallel, a Christmas on the beach can be a bit surreal. Surreal, but a really really pleasant change from the snow and cold.

We all arrived about a week before December 25th. We rented a car and toured around the north and east part of the island. We saw some small communities, ate lots of snow cones (in particular an orange snow cone with an ice cream center) and stopped at lots of beaches. At one beach in particular, we had the opportunity to know what it is like to be in a washing machine, as well as what it feels like to have a pound of sand in our shorts.

Over the two weeks, we all managed to get a good tan, and eat lots (but not too much- remember, we were wearing bathing suits). We had steak dinner instead of turkey on Christmas day, found some heavenly pancakes with great coconut syrup, shopped at the incredible sales in the department stores, and read lots of books. We even experienced a twelve hour power shortage that left us scrounging for sandwiches and cookies, and water and flashlights. Despite the inconvenience that it created for one of our party who was unlucky to fly out that night, the lack of lights and open window (for cooling) made it one of the highlights of the trip for me.

(toes and photo courtesy of JCS)