2005 Happy Anniversary

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We have been blessed to have survived and enjoyed our marriage since 1987. In June 2005, we had an opportunity to have an anniversary in a tropical island. Oahu Hawaii. Excellent. I told my wife we better enjoy traveling while we can still walk. While we still have our health. Thank you Lord for giving us this fantastic adventure. Five days in Oahu. Not a long time but we did what we can.
After getting our luggage, we proceeded to get our rental van. Got a map of the island. Proceeded to our hotel at Waikiki. No problem. The flight was okay from Colorado Springs. Stop over in Las Vegas. Then Hawaii. No lost luggage. Nice clean rental van. Got to the hotel around 8:00 pm. We can still feel the warm breeze. Awesome weather. No traffic. Perfect. The hotel was across the street from the beach along Kalakaua Ave. Beautiful. We check-in. Then it hit me. We only had a reservation for one room. Be calm. I'm sure we can all find a solution. Sure we can fit in one more folding bed in the room. The room has two full beds. But there were five of us. My wife and I and the three teenagers. The front office clerk tells me I need to call my travel agency. Fine. I called them up. I'm already furious inside. I tell my kids to go by the beach. You can see the water from the lobby. They said if we want to wait till the moring we can fix this because right now there's just no more rooms available. I just needed a shower. So what else can I say. Fine. We're just gonna sleep here anyway. We had worst scenarios.
The next day, Sahtee and Nancy, our army friends from Hanau Germany, picked us up for a tour of the island. Went to the blowhole, Hanauma Bay, China Man's Hat, Bellows Air Force Station, Waimanalo Beach, then to Schoffield Barracks. We ate dinner at Manny Layug's place, another amry freind from Germany. Then went to Waikiki. Perfect. The next morning we woke up late. Got up and strolled the beach. We decided to go snorkeling and Hanauama Bay. We left around noon. There is a sign at the gate "closed." That's fine. So we ended up going to Kailua Beach. Very pretty.
Our third day, we were ready for some snorkeling. A friend of mine recommends Hanauma Bay very highly. It's around ten in the morning. Let's go. There was this sign at the gate just like yesterday. Closed. I'm beginning to wonder what the heck is going on. So I ask around and the reason they close the gates is because they can only allow a certain number of vehicles inside. That' it. All you have to do is wake up early. So we went to Waimea Falls Park, intead. On the way home we stopped at the famous North Shore and Banzai Pipeline.
Our fourth day we had reservation for surfing lesson right at Waikiki Beach. Caught the wave a couple of times and that was it for me. My kids had a blast and they were ready for the banzai pipeline. Not just yet. In the afternoon we visited the Arizona Memorial. Very educational. I wanted them to see what started the second world war. Unbelievable. In the evening Nancy picked up the kids and my wife for a Luau.
Our fifth and final day. And we still haven't snorkeled. At 5:30 a.m. we were ready to go. We were there so early, the ticket booth people were not in yet. We were there before 6:00 a.m. We were there so early they let us in for free. So we finally saw some fishes. Beautiful. We left around 3:00. Just in time to catch the boat cruise around Wakiki. Happy Anniversary. The next day we flew back to Colorado Springs. That night I told my self......I'm just going back....

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Photos

we.... are not ready to go home....