Jamie and I took the boys to Hawaii for our spring break trip last month. We flew direct from Dallas to Honolulu and stayed at the Disney Aulani resport on the leeward side of Oahu, expect for a one day trip over to the big island to see volcanos.
We spent a lot of time at the outstanding water park in the resort itself
(just having dinner watching the sun set is an experience, but the snow cones were the highlight
), but after a couple of days ventured out to do some things. The first big event was a 
submarine ride off Waikiki where we took a boat 
out to a 68 person sub and went down just over 100 feet too see reefs and ship and plane wrecks. 
Very, 
very cool.
On the way to dinner at La Mariana with Gough cousins Ryan and Angela who are in Hawaii these days 
the boys each got a 
pearl out of an oyster and put them into necklaces
, which they've saved with their Aulani tiki necklaces.
Next up was a luau at Paradise Cove, which happened to be next to Aulani, so not a bad drive.
Of course the highlight of any visit to Hawaii for the Smith boys is Pearl Harbor
, where we took in the USS Arizona Memorial and its museums (with terrific gift shops), followed by an audio guided tour of the submarine 
USS Bowfin, followed by a great seafood lunch at a place next door to the
museum. 
At this point Jamie decided that an afternoon nap in the car was preferable to the other two museums, so the boys and I rode the shuttle across the bridge to Ford Island where we did a very fast walking tour of the battleship USS Missouri, 
saw the USS Oklahoma Memorial, and did a quick run through the new Pacific Aviation Museum.
The trip ended with 
Collin and Parker getting their junior ranger pins after completing the really neat scavenger hunt booklets the Park Service 
had out for them.
Next up was a day trip to the big island, 
where we saw the southernmost point of the United States, and stopped at a 
black sand beach, which was 
really, really cool. And that was before we saw the sea turtles sacked out on the beach
.
We did the world's fastest tour of the volcano park, 
hot the M<auna Loa macadamia nut gift shop, 
and drove across the island to catch our flight back to Oahu.
The next day we spent playing at the pool all day, 
then headed for the airport midafternoon for a night flight back to Dallas.
All in all, a great trip.
