ALOOOOOHA!

OK, I am WAAAAAY overdue for an update- I apologize profusely, but life has been insane! Now that I've made amends... here is my Hawaii post!

Believe it or not, it was a really busy trip. When we're in Hawaii we always work hard. That's really true of any site visit that we do. There is always more to do and observe than can really be done in the time allotted, and my co-worker, who planned the trip for her judges and stakeholders from Omaha had us extremely busy.

I flew in on President's Day, and coincidentally shared my flight with a former OJD co-worker and her daughter and partner. What a surprise! We shared a cab to Waikiki and had dinner together that night, which was really nice.

Just for you Will- a Mai Tai at Dukes!!!

The view from my lanai at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa...

Tuesday-Thursday consisted of meetings, court observation, and observation of special projects that the Honolulu court has at its disposal. Each night was filled with a dinner meeting, which left little time to enjoy the sites on my own =-( Here is a picture of us with the Honolulu and Omaha Judges.

The view from our table at the Outrigger Canoe Club where we had a dinner meeting with one of the local judges.

Friday was my birthday and I decided to spend it at a wonderful place called Kualoa Ranch on the North Shore. Below are a few pictures from that day. Sadly, the pictures don't even come close to showing the beauty of this place.

This is a view of the front of the ranch from the parking lot down below.

Kualoa was great! They have numerous activities like horseback riding, ATVs, a "jungle" jeep excursion, a movie/television site tour (Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, Lost, 50 First Dates) an ocean outing on a catamaran to Baby Turtle Reef, and possibly my new favorite pasttime... shooting stuff =-)

24 of 40. Not bad for a beginner! Of course they were supposed to be evenly spread between the top (pistol) and bottom (rifle) but I think I can work on that!

"Chinaman's Hat" a small island off the coast of the ranch near Baby Turtle Reef.

Another shot from the catamaran trip.


Baby Turtle Reef. We saw quite a few turtles, but they were too fast for the camera. LOL!!!




The view at the top of the jeep excursion.

The beautiful mountains above the ranch.

Sunset at the Outrigger.