Vacation boosts the soul!

Hello all! Had a great vacation in Hawaii with my family (husband, kids and mom)! Visited Pearl Harbor, Volcanoes National Park, a black sand beach, the towns of Hilo & Volcano ... kayaked on the Pacific to an offshore island, relaxed in a beachside cottage, hiked (lots) and took in all the sights that Hawaii has to offer. At least as much as we could possibly squeeze in in 8 days! Even though we were active, we still had lots of down time to just relax and soak it all in. Doesn't sound like activities someone with stage IV breast cancer can do? Wrong! I'll admit the hiking wasn't as easy as it used to be. I'm not in the shape I once was, but I pushed myself (as always) to do all that I wanted to ... so I can say I did! The only thing we didn't do that was on my list of Hawaii "must-do's" was snorkel. The plan was to snorkel in Kailua Bay after our kayak excursion. BUT, my kayak adventure got a little marred from the get-go: before we left the kayak rental facility, I got sunscreen in my eyes! What bad luck! Ugggghhhhh! It was horrible! Leave it to me to ruin a perfectly good event that I'd been looking forward to for months. My eyes ran (poured, really) and burned like fire the entire time. Disappointing, to say the least ... I wasn't able to fully and clearly visualize everything, what with the squinting and eye-running and for a large portion of time, closing my eyes. But I still count it as an awesome and beautiful experience! Anyways, after the kayak trip my eyes were still pretty bad off so we decided to forgo the snorkeling. Which turned out to be for the best anyway, because we had planned a lovely dinner that night at a special restaurant for my daughter Christa's 14th birthday. By the time we ate lunch and went back to the house and all of us cleaned up and showered, it was time to head to Honolulu to eat at the Top of Waikiki, a rotating restaurant on the 16th floor of a downtown building. A little pricey, but definitely worth it for a special occasion during a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Then we perused a little marketplace for some unique souvenirs with a Hawaiian flair. A fun time ... for us girls anyway. Danny wasn't too happy ... his wallet was MUCH lighter at the end of that night! We took LOTS of pictures, because I love taking pictures and I don't want anything to happen that isn't documented in photos. Of over 700 pics, we got several really good ones, but even the good ones don't do Hawaii justice. Especially at the beaches. You can't GET the whole experience of the sights, sounds of the crashing waves, feel of the constant breeze, and look of the swaying palm trees, in a photograph. For those you have only your memories! That's it for now. It's too bad that the vacation high doesn't last long once you're back to your regular day-to-day life! Thanks for reading, more later. (hopefully not a whole month later!)