It was hard to believe that our time on Maui was finished, but the day came to go to Oahu.
The wedding in Oahu was the whole reason we’d come to Hawaii, we were looking forward to seeing family and celebrating with them, but it was hard to leave Maui when it seemed like we’d finally found a place we liked.
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| Maui Airport |
All the
same, we were also looking forward to staying in Lanikai and enjoying what we’d
heard was a wonderful beach.
We were happy enough to be rid of our banged-up car on Maui,
and after a short flight landed on Oahu.
It didn't hurt that we couldn't check into our cottage until 4 pm, so
we stopped at the Bishop to pass a little time after arriving on the
island. This turned out to have been a
wonderful pick. Not only did they have
several floors of Polynesian history and model boats, they also had a
planetarium and a show on the stars. Husband was not too keen on the idea of sitting through a planetarium show, the line did have a lot of little kids in it, but once we got inside the AIR CONDITIONED theater, he changed his tune.
After the show we drove to our VRBO, a little cottage in Laniki. Lucky for us – it had solar panels and the landlady noted that it wasn’t a problem to run the air conditioning because it was powered by the sun. After several hot nights on Maui this was music to our ears!
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| It actually looked like this! |
We dropped our bags off, texted our cousins and hit the
beach, which was unlike any beach we’d seen so far – calm, aqua green, not too
deep.
It reminded me of the beaches in Cancun.
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| The Missouri |
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| See the Tomahawks? Fist of the the Fleet. |
The next day we went to Pearl Harbor with cousins Andy and
Tom. Their father, Dan’s uncle, was a
Naval Officer, a trip to the memorial was all but mandatory. We toured the battleship Missouri.
Dan was happy because the Missouri had once fired
Cruise Missiles during the Reagan era. He got his start in the IT business programming the cruise missile launch guidance system, and took several trips to San Diego to test the missile.
With an evening of wedding
festivities ahead of us we missed the Arizona tour and headed back to the beach
for some R&R.
That evening we attended the Rehearsal Dinner at the Honolulu
County Club.
Somehow we hadn’t gone to a Luau or had a
Hawaiian themed dinner so the Poi, Poke, Pork dinner was a nice sampling of
Hawaiian foods. We were pleased to meet Brennan's parents and relatives.
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| Molly and Brennan |
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| The Holmes table |
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| A rainbow came out just for them! |
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| Cheers |
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| Molly's sister Sarah and baby Rex. |
Saturday we devoted to the wedding. I took a long walk around the Lanikai area,
did a bit of gift shopping and tried to work off the accumulation of
dinners. We made it to the afternoon
wedding, in an Episcopal church, with no air conditioning. The Pastor, an Australian, had a wonderful
voice. Molly was surrounded by her
sister and cousins and was a fairy tale bride.
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Deborah, Brennan, Molly and Vernon.
Deborah, the groom's Mom is originally from Long Island. |
The reception was at the Outrigger Canoe Club in
Honolulu. The club was less than
memorable, we had a scrape on our car in the parking lot, and could barely get
out of the lot without a dent. Note to
self: Valet Parking would have been worth it!
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| The reception. |
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| Trying to catch the green flash as the sun went down. |
The reception room had a terrific view and added to the festive event. We met more of the groom’s family, learned about his life in Hawaii
before meeting Molly. The bride did a special hula
for her groom. The sun sat on a buffet that turned into dancing .
Before long the action moved to the dance floor.
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| Sunrise from the pillboxes |
During our dinner we heard about a fabulous walk near our cottage along a ridge called the "pillboxes" because the ridge had a series of concrete structures built for defense. We set our alarm and went up early to catch the sunrise.
Some earlier rises got up to the pillboxes ahead of us and staked out seats on the roof of the outlooks. The view was terrific.
Later that day we walked up a nearby hill to the house where the bridal party was staying for brunch. this was the view from their lofty place. Our cottage was below, closer to the beach.
After 17 days it was time to go home. We didn't leave until the afternoon so we drove around Oahu a little more, and finally bid Hawaii goodbye. Until we meet again.
