Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Hawaii Day 8 - July 18th


Our last day in paradise. (Here's the pictures.) There were no activities planned for this day, so it was also a "free day" for us. Since Kerstin's dad is a firefighter, he was tuned in to where all the Honolulu fire stations were. Fire Station #7 was about four blocks from our hotel, so we just had to stop by and visit. We permission of the on-duty firefighters, we took pictures with Engine #7. We were hoping to get some pictures with the ladder truck assigned to Station #7, but they were gone on a call. (Ladder #7 has a surf board attached to the side of it.)

After visiting the fire station, we headed back down to Aloha Tower to visit the ukelele store there and eat lunch at Hooters. Even though we don't have any pictures of it, we went back to Waikiki Beach for a couple more hours of fun in the sun since this was our last day there.

Next, we cleaned up, packed up, and went to a real nice restaurant just across from the beach. All week we had been trying to catch the sunset, but had only been successful a couple of times (with clouds). We were hoping this would be the night since the restaurant was on a second story deck right across from the beach. Unfortunately there were palm trees in our line of sight with the sunset, but it was still beautiful.

After supper we loaded up the rental car and drove to the airport. This was probably our least favorite part of the trip. It's never fun doing the "hurry up and wait" routine at the airports. Our flight didn't leave Honolulu until 10:55pm (Honolulu time). We arrived in Phoenix just after 8am local time on July 19th. From there we changed planes and arrived in Omaha at around 2pm where Deb and Kaylen from Make-A-Wish met us. Deb and Kaylen were there to welcome us back and to gather our film from the cameras that the girls had used while we were in Hawaii. Our limo was also there waiting to take us back to Lincoln.

WOW!!! What a trip. We hope everyone has enjoyed the stories and the photos. We would like to send out a "GINORMOUS" thank you to all the Make-A-Wish people in the Nebraska and Hawaii chapters, and everyone else that has ever donated to this wonderful organization.

We hope you will continue to check in on Kerstin to see how she is doing as she goes in to the last six months of her current chemothearpy treatment. (Hopefully her last six months.) Please keep all the other children who continue to battle this disease in your thoughts and prayers. And pray for all those who continue to search for a cure for all cancers.

God bless and take care.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Leaf's! Just wanted to write and say a big THANK YOU for sharing your make a wish with all of us! I looked so forward to seeing the new pictures! You need to make one of those books on Shutterfly! You also did an AWSOME job of journaling! Kerstin, LOVE the hair do! Can't wait until Abby's is long enough to tell whether it is curly or not! We miss you guys!
Love,
Kristi Bridgewater
www.caringbridge.org/visit/abbybridgewater

Anonymous said...

OK!! I just did not have time to read through your vacation posts until now. Sounds like a fabulous time. I have been to Hawaii only once, but I could picture walking along Wakiki beach from your posts. Back to reality! Kerstin (and you all) looks great! Hope this last six months of chemo goes well. Congrats on the new job, Annie (saw it on Abby's site). Third graders are great (I have one!) :)