Hawaii ~ May 2014

I love visiting Hawaii. I can never get enough of the ocean, so it's a prime target for my vacation desires. Add to that the fact that my sister and her family live there, and it's an additional bonus. 

The day after we arrived, we buried my mom's ashes at Punchbowl National Cemetery. Well, not really buried, more accurately we placed her ashes in a vault. My dad is a veteran, so they qualify to be buried at a National Cemetery. He served during the Korean War and spent most of his time in Pearl Harbor, working on submarines. So we chose Punchbowl. It was a quiet day at the cemetery. We were almost the only people there. It was very humid and hot. My mom would have hated it! We just laughed and laughed about that. My mom always insisted on keeping temperatures ridiculously low so that she would never be hot. Meanwhile the rest of us were always freezing. I call this poetic justice. 

me and Tweeter

Me, Jennifer, Tweeter, Mike, Christopher

 

me and Ray

The day we buried my mom was also my niece Jennifer's 17th birthday. We came home from the cemetery and had a delicious dinner and chocolate coffee cheesecake for dessert. 

Ray and my nephew Christopher out for some good lunch.

My goal while in Hawaii is to spend some time of each day at the beach, rain or shine. I think I made it all but one day this time. Pretty good. Here's a view of my ideal vacation: reading next to the ocean.

Mike and Tweeter have a nice boat for fishing. Ray went out a couple of times with them and spent the day on the ocean, fishing (meanwhile I had time all by myself - see the picture above).

Mike at the helm (sort of) and Chris

Chris and Mike

Mike took us to lunch and we had some poke. (Raw fish on rice.) Delicious.

Here's how it looked one morning when the boys took off fishing:

Ray and I made our usual trip up to the north shore. We stopped at Ted's Bakery and bought a chocolate-haupia pie. So delicious!

Of course we stopped at Kua 'Aina for lunch. So delicious again!

Usually we get their burger. This time I tried the Mahi Mahi sandwich. It was terrific.

We usually stop for shave ice at Matsumoto's - best shave ice on the island. But there was road construction and building construction blocking access. So we skipped it.

It was a great, relaxing vacation. Just what we needed. I got a lot of reading done, and spent a lot of time near the ocean. What could be better?