North Shore

The Tuesday before we left Hawaii we took a drive up to the North Shore. Its a windy slow drive along the ocean all the way there. It's really not that many miles, maybe 23?, but takes at least 45 minutes. We stopped in Laie first. I got to show the kids where I went to school, the gym where I spent a lot of my time, and we went into the campus book store.

Next we drove around the corner to the Laie Temple. Billy and I really wanted to go inside the temple and do a session, but I couldn't line up a sitter, so we settled for the visitors center and walking the grounds. The kids really enjoyed the visitors center, and they happened to be showing a really neat video about Laie and the beginnings of the town and members there. It was very neat!
We left there and headed for a beach. Found an easy spot at Sunset Beach and enjoyed the water and sand there for a bit. I smiled, because Sunset beach was one of the first beaches that I went to and swam in when I first moved to Hawaii for school. It's so easy to just get right in.

From Sunset we slowly made our way to the historic town of Haleiwa. I wanted the kids to experience Motsumotos shave ice. By the time we pulled into Haleiwa and found parking and waited in line for shave ice, it was dinner time. So, we all had shave ice for dinner! I guess when you are on vacation, anything goes :)

We circled back and headed home to Kailua after getting a couple souvenirs on the North Shore.  I love this part of the island so much. It just has this special country beach feel, kinda like home.

Wednesday we visited Pearl Harbor and taught the boys that special piece of American history. William is going to do a school presentation on our visit and what he learned. We also walked a part of the swap meet at the Aloha stadium which was only a mile from the Harbor. I got lots of gifts and souvenirs to take home there too. And that about wraps up our 10 days in Hawaii. Thursday was a smooth (but long) travel day home.