leaving hawaii

Well, you know the ol' saying, "All good things must come to an end"? 

'Tis true.   After a fun ten days, it was time to pack up and go home.  Of course, we had to take a few farewell shots of our little house on the beach. . .

(We love to make our girls squirm!)

Since we didn't fly out 'til late that night, we decided to spend our last day at Pearl Harbor.  Wouldn't you know it, the rides out to the memorial were closed due to the wind (which had died down by the time we got there, but the decision had been made for the day.  Darn Navy, anyway.)   We were pretty bummed about this, because the girls had really been looking forward to seeing that and we knew we may never make it back.

(Claire, who had been such a trooper for the entire trip, finally had enough by this time.  She was pretty tired, and we didn't have a stroller, which made for a lot of shoulder rides for dear old dad.)

The girls liked the submarine tour, and we still laugh about our very energetic volunteer who wanted us to take a hundred pictures of the girls in just the right position.  She was quite determined! 

The air museum was also pretty nifty, but we were super bummed that we missed that last tour for the battleship.  Basically, we were Pearl Harbor tourist failures that day.  Oh well. 

After leaving the harbor, we headed into the city to find some dinner before heading to the airport.  The girls wanted Mexican food, and we had a pretty good chuckle when our handy GPS guided us into Chinatown to get our rice and bean fix!  We had a great dinner, and the girls even got a compliment from a couple who had been watching them through the meal.  The woman said she had grown up with three sisters, and watching the girls interact with each other brought back such good memories.  She also complimented the girls on not being attached to any electric devices while we waited and ate.  See girls, there are perks to having old fashioned parents.  (And boy, were we happy that someone actually caught everyone happy at the same time!  Now that's something to remember!)