A-lo-ha, vacation!

So, it's been a few weeks since my last installment, and I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of activity that I have to update.  Spoiler alert-- the Markowski family has been busy, busy, busy! So, I'm going to take it a little at a time and give each memory it's own moment to shine.  Forgive the frequent posts over the next few days....or maybe just consider them postcards from our many adventures!

At the end of October we loaded up seven Markowskis and 14 suitcases (everything that we owned that hadn't been shipped to Korea), and boarded a plane bound for Oahu.  It was our first family vacation that didn't have 1) family visits or 2) Air Force training attached to it in FIVE years! And, it was the first time in 4 years (since we came back from Germany) that all the kiddos had been on an airplane. (I know that seems strange for a family whose very existence is tied to airplanes, but 7 plane tickets to ANYWHERE is always more expensive than driving.  So, we put 20,000 miles on our vehicle each year, but hardly ever fly...)

An hour after take-off from LAX, there was a medical emergency that necessitated a return to the airport.  The unfortunate part of making a flight across the ocean is that the options for diverting to an alternate airport are slim to none, so when an elderly gentleman began to experience severe dizziness, the crew made the decision to return to Los Angeles.  The EMS and the crew did a remarkable job of caring for the passenger, getting his luggage off, and refueling the plane, so that we were back in the air within about 2 hours.  This delay made our total flight time much longer than anticipated, but we were happy to arrive safely nonetheless.

Coming from Phoenix, the wave of humidity coming off the airplane in Honolulu felt thick and oppressive-- Hawaii definitely does not share the same dry heat that Arizona is defined by! The kids peeled off layers of clothing as we waited for the rental car, and ran the A/C at full blast as we traversed the breath of the island on H-3.  Our week was spent on the east side of the island between Kaneohe Bay and Waimanalo Bay, at a lovely little place called Bellows Beach at Bellows Air Station.

We stayed in a two-bedroom cabana a stone's throw from where the waves broke on the beach. It. was. amazing.  We purchased three boogie boards (the best $30 we ever spent!), and inherited two others from people whose vacation was ending as ours was beginning (SCORE!), and the kids were in the water from sun-up to sun-down. There was sun in our eyes, sand in between our toes (and everywhere else on our bodies), and relaxation washed over us in a matter of hours.

Thanks to adventurous kids and affordable snorkel sets, we got up close and personal with some breathtaking fish in Hauanama Bay.  Thanks to the purchase of a underwater camera, we have proof of all of these close encounters.

We ate Hawaiian Shave ice,
pineapple whip at the Dole plantation, 
coconut and pineapple from a road-side fruit stand (and yes, they were chopped open by a little woman yielding a machete!), and island-famous red-velvet pancakes.

We flew kites, built sand-castles, saw turtles swimming in the surf, hit the mini-golf course, and just enjoyed reconnecting with each other.  There were no agendas. No plans. No schedules.  

When the kids were salty and sun-kissed and exhausted in bed by 8 pm, we knew it had been a good day.  That, and the line full of swim suits drying on the back porch.