Exploring with Laura...

As mentioned earlier, I had a few family members visiting the islands over the holidays.  Laura flew in after her semester was over, so we explored the island for a week before the 'rents arrived.  Here are a few pictures.

As is our tradition: Sushi time!

I little blurry...oops.

The next 4 pictures are hiking at Manoa.

During our hike we passed an area where they had been filming the second Hunger Games movie earlier in the day.  Unfortunately, they had wrapped up shooting for the day.  Security was not happy about me taking pictures, and they'd probably be less than thrilled about me posting pictures about it (shhhh, don't tell them).  I'm not sure, but I think the big white balls (approx. 7-8 feet in diameter) are lighting props?

We made time to visit Laura's favorite beach a couple times: Diamondhead beach.  It's a locals beach and has a great lighthouse.

We found this little guy on Diamondhead Beach.

The day before the 'rents flew in, we when hiking at Monawili Falls.  President Obama and his family actually hiked the same exact trail 2 days later.  We just missed them. Laura tweeted them a few times, and we tried really hard to invite ourselves over for dinner.  Although, Laura set some rules: I was not allowed to sit next to President Obama during dinner because (and I quote from Laura) "you have too many unfriendly questions."  What?  I may not be his biggest fan, but I think my questions were pretty tame.  I only had a few, such as: When was he going to fix the fiscal cliff issues?  What his exact plans were for our second amendment rights?  And last but not least: How could he get me on the CBS show Survivor?  He has to have some kind of pull, right?  For the record, I did like more of his fiscal cliff ideas, but Laura didn't think that would come across well.  We decided it was in everyone's best interest for me to sit next to Michelle since I really like all of the health initiatives she's undertaken.  Unfortunately, they never got back to us about which date would be best for us to attend dinner.

sorry, iPhone made this picture look funny?

Mahalo for visiting.