Aloha to Hawaii

This past week, David, Drake, and I (and the whole Men's Basketball Team) spent time in Honolulu. We went for the Diamond Head Classic Basketball Tournament, which is played at the University of Hawaii. Because school is not currently in session, my duties on this trip were very limited. I was asked to keep the official score book for our team, so I had about six hours of work to do in the five days that we were there. The rest of the time, David, Drake, and I had time to explore.

We arrived in Honolulu in the late afternoon of December 20th and stayed at the Sheraton at Waikiki Beach. Waikiki is very commercialized with a lot of tourists. I was actually surprised how many people were on vacation during the Christmas holiday. This was Drake's first plane trip and he really did great. He slept much of the way and when not sleeping, was pretty content. We did learn what fun plastic cups can be for a ten month old as they provided almost an hour of entertainment.

Wednesday, the first full day were were in Hawaii, we just hung out by the pool and walked along the beach. Our family friend, Jill, and two of her children, are living on that island right now, so they came to the hotel pool to meet Drake and hang out. Leslie and Oliver loved the pool and were able to play on the slide and in the hot tub. It was great meeting Leslie and Oliver and catching up with Jill. Wednesday evening was the welcome reception for the teams, which was a luau dinner and show. The show was pretty cool, demonstrating the history of Hawaii through dance. One of the last dances was a fire dance, which was really quite amazing.

Thursday was our first basketball game against UTEP, at the bright hour of 9:30am local time. The team did not play well at all, and lost the game. After the game, David, Drake, and I walked down to the Honolulu Zoo for Drake's first zoo experience. Drake was more interested in the other kids walking around the zoo than the animals, but we had a great time.



Friday was our second game, which was a late start, 10:00am local time, against Southern Illinois. The outcome of this game was much better, with an overtime win. After the game, David, Drake, and I decided to hike Diamond Head Crater. I think it was about .8 of a mile to the top and we made it easily with Drake in the Ergo Carrier. I was amazed at the shoes some people were wearing on the walk...it is not a fashion show people! The views from the top really were amazing. After the hike, we headed out to dinner with the team.

Saturday, Christmas Eve, was an off day for basketball so David and I decided to do a tour to see other parts of the island. We went to the Dole Plantation (total tourist trap), North Shore, the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), a coffee and nut plantation, a temple, and a few scenic overlooks. I am so glad we did this because that side of the island was more of what I thought Hawaii was going to look like. The beaches were beautiful and empty, the mountains were beautiful, and the landscape was rich. I wish the team had the opportunity to see Hawaii outside of Waikiki Beach. The PCC was a pretty cool place also, with each Polynesian island having a little "village" with shows and activities of that island. We only had three hour there, and it was not quite enough time to see everything.

Sunday was our last day in Hawaii and started with a late morning game against the University of Hawaii, which we lost. After the game, David, Drake, and I went to lunch and then spent some time of the beach. Around 8:00, we left the hotel for our red eye flight back to the mainland.