Hawaii and back again

Whew! Finally home after two weeks...vacations are nice, but it's always good to be home. Things did not go quite according to plan in Hawaii...for starters, Rose was sick up until the last day and a half, and it rained very steadily up until the last day and a half. About the only thing we did for the first 3 days in Kauai was went on a zipline trip. Fun, but not as scary as we thought it would be. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was beautiful though. Kauai is the second to northernmost island in the chain, and also the second least populated and modernized. We would have done a lot of hiking and kayaking and biking, but the weather did not cooperate. First day in Oahu rained, but we did get upgraded to a suite instead of the room we booked for free, so our hotel room was huge and nice. Or nice and huge. The second day we were there was beautiful...we went to the beach, I went surfing, we had some good food. Surfing was easier than I thought it would be. Standing up and riding the wave is easy, anyway. Paddling back out is not. Riding bike everyday and having a well developed lower body didn't do me much good. My shoulders and arms are still stiff. Oahu is kind of like Union Square on the beach. There's a storefront for every designer name out there in one shopping area. We managed to go snorkeling the morning before we left at Hanauma bay, which was great. Lots of fish and pretty coral reefs.