Beauchamp Family: Hawaii

Ez and I have been talking about taking a trip to Hawaii for years, but it has never been the right time. Now that the kids are a bit older and more independent, we decided this was the year to make it happen.

A HUGE thank you goes out to my parents for coming out and staying with the kids while we were not home, and to Ez's mom who came in and filled in the last day as well.

Hawaii was wonderful. We stayed on Oahu with the intention of doing some of the touristy kind of things, as well as relaxing on the beach. We spent the first couple of days in Honolulu. We hiked Diamond Head, visited Pearl Harbor and the Punchbowl Cemetery, as well as a neat botanical garden. We hiked Makapuu Point, we wandered downtown and visited the Dole Plantation. It was busy and fun to just see so many neat places.

One of our favorite parts of Honolulu was our dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We've wanted to go there for quite a while, but have never made it. Vacation seemed like the perfect opportunity. The steaks were delicious, just as we have heard, but I think my very favorite part of the meal was their sweet potato casserole. Seriously. I will never be able to eat sweet potatoes again without comparing them to that casserole. Seriously. They were that delicious!

The last couple of days we headed out to the other side of the island for a nice, quiet, relaxing stay at Turtle Bay Resort. We took wonderful, long walks on the beach and swam a bit in the ocean. We also got to visit BYU Hawaii and the Laie Hawaii Temple. Unfortunately, the temple is closed for some reconstruction so we were not able to go inside, but did enjoy the visitor's center.

We spent our last day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which was such fun! We had a great tour guide and saw and learned a lot. We enjoyed the luau and show in the evening. Directly after the show, we headed to the airport for a red eye home back to reality and 5 children that missed us dearly!

We had such a fantastic time!