The North Shore

 We found a beautiful home on airbnb in Laie, where Dad's great grandfather serves his 3 missions.  It was actually in the next town over, Hau'ula.  The first night there, we cooked up dinner and then went out to see the temple.  Emily lived right in this area for a summer, so she was our tour guide.  It was fun having her be so familiar with the area.  She knew all the good beaches and best food.

 One thing we did not expect was the cacophony of roosters!  They crowed all night long!  Emily even had a dream that the roosters were playing Marco Polo.  I really think they were!  In addition to the wild roosters who roam the island, the neighbors all had caged chickens and roosters.  You would not believe how loud it was!  By the second night, I was liking it and found it soothing.

 Our house was just a few steps away from this view in the morning.

 We relied on Josh and Emily for the inside scoop on stuff.  Josh was watching the twitter feed of the Volcom surf championships so that we could be ready at a moment's notice to see the semi finals and final round.  It all depended on surf conditions.  This video is highlights of the parts we saw.  It was really amazing!  We saw the defending champion get a perfect 10, but he lost the competition.  John John whoever won.  When they anounced the surfers, they said what country they were from.  Those from Hawaii were announced as Hawaiian and not American.  I thought it was an interesting distinction.  Anyway, the surf championships were fun.  We sat right by where the surfers go in and out.  After watching yet another tanned, chiseled specimen go by, I said, "I guess there are just no ugly surfers."  So true!

 Coconut shrimp at Giovanni's.  Dad's comment, after a couple of meals, was, "What's the deal with people selling food out of these rusted-out old campers?  I don't want to eat any more food out of a rusty old motor home."  Germophobes and food trucks don't mix.  Except we continued to eat food out of broken-down trucks because it was just really good.

 The surf was way up when we went to Waimea Bay.  Getting in the water was scary!  In fact, the lifeguards kept saying, "Today is not a day for the casual swimmer.  Don't get in the water unless you have extensive experience.  You could die."  Needless to say, we stayed very close to the shore, just going in long enough to get pummeled by the waves.

 On up the coast to Haleiwa!  I admit it.  The shave ice was delicious.

We overdosed on Seven Brothers, when we weren't hitting up the food trucks.  I think we explored their menu quite thoroughly during the week.  Totally delicious.  They had a satellite place, too, called what, Kahuku?  We kept being drawn back for their coconut macadamia shrimp.  Does it sound like we ate a lot?  We did.  Except for Trajan and Micaela who lived on apples and nuts the whole time.  I don't know how they do it!

 Ran into Court and Kelly, friends from Kaysville.

 The life!

 That night Dad and I walked to the beach and marveled at the moon.  I missed the kids and loved that the same moon I was looking at was shining over them at home.  There were some snafus at home with missed classes, jr. high rumors, missing shoes and, well, crashed cars, but oh well.  I just prayed everyone would be in one piece when we got home!