Aloha!!

Sorry for the delay in posting. . . I didn't have internet access until today! My sister, Monica, and I made it to Oahu, Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon. We rented a car and headed up to the North Shore of the island until I had to come to Honolulu for a conference for work. I really wanted Monica to experience the laid-back atmosphere of the "country" North Shore before we made it to the city for the remainder of our stay.

We stayed at a backpacker hostel right outside of the famous surfer town of Hale' Iwa. It was a hostel, but not in the same sense of the word as Andy, Alexis and I experienced in Europe. Although this place had dorm style accomodations with bathrooms down the hall, we payed extra to have a private room with it's own bathroom in a building right on the beach. As you can see from this picture looking out of the sliding door of our room, we really were right on the beach! Although it's been overcast for much of our visit so far, it was still supremely relaxing to lay around on the beach and watch the surfers right in front of us!

True to Hawaii's license plates, we saw full-arch rainbows everyday. It doesn't really matter if it's overcast or not, the sunsets every evening are breathtaking as you can see from this pic of the sunset. Monica and I must've snapped at least a dozen pics each as the sun went down, but every one of them came out frame worthy. This place is a photographers dream!

I have so much more to tell about our first few days in Hawaii, but we just got back from the opening dinner for the conference I am here to attend and I'm pretty tired. This island holds such a special place in my heart that I want to make sure I can give it my full attention as I attempt to describe it and our experiences here. So thanks for bearing with me as we settle into the conference. I'll back post from our experiences on the North Shore and I have a whole post to do on food just waiting to be told. . .