Our second leg of the journey was in Oahu on the North Shore.  This time, instead of staying in another resort, we lodged in an adorable three-room beach house.   The backyard was literally the beach, which meant every morning we got to wake up to the sight of the ocean through the windows.  We decided to chill more than run around, so we'd spend a lot of time relaxing by reading, kayaking, tanning, eating dried pineapple. I found that I was able to break through a mental block and begin writing a new novel, which was really exciting for me.  At night, we flicked on flashlights and crab-hunted. 
Our parents spoil us when we vacation.  At least food-wise.  They cooked up Spam {since apparently that's a Hawaiian thing to do} and Kalua pork and hooked us up with plenty of shaved ice, friend bananas and macadamia nut ice cream.  Oh, and we found out that birds like food a lot too when this little duo would not leave us alone and even snatched a bag of Doritos.
  We were only five minutes away, so we visited both BYU campus and the temple.  Man, would I love to go to college here.  Us older people had the opportunity to do baptisms for the dead; the design is beautiful and as always the Spirit could be felt.
Snorkeling and scuba diving were most definitely amazing experiences.  Like I've said, it was magnificent catching a glimpse of some exotic sea animal, even if sea urchins crowed the rocks and we had to swim carefully.  But look!  I never thought I was a good swimmer till I swam all the way to that cove in the photo below and back, probably a distance of 1-1.5 miles altogether.  Angel fish, sea turtles, sea stars, unicorn fish, ten dozen creatures I can't name... I've definitely never experienced anything like that. 
  On the last morning, Mom and I decided to get up early and watch the sunrise.  Boy was it worth it.