Hawaii: Day 7

This is it.  We've come to the short, anti-climatic end that is Day 7.  A day spent saying good-bye.

Good-bye palm trees.

Good-bye, exotic plants.

Good-bye, beach front property.

Good-bye photo shoots with twisty trees.

Good-bye, spiteful clouds that rarely let us see the Hawaiian sun.

Good-bye free time spent doing ukulele graffiti.

Good-bye Mistborn.  I hope Kelsier and his band of merry men end up saving the world after all.

Good-bye Hawaiian sand that looks so cool in pictures but is actually the worst sand in the world - almost two months later and I think I'm still finding some of it stuck to me.

Good-bye carefree boys we watched dive for hours.

Good-bye awkward photo shoots of trying to flip my hair in the wind like a true K-mart model.

Good-bye, great big ocean, big black rocks, and itty-bitty shells.

Good-bye delicious shaved ice with sweetened condensed milk and beans(!).

Good-bye (and good riddance) wild, victorious-over-every-hair-product, Hawaiian hair.

And good-bye ninja videos.

When our good-byes were done, we got on the plane and bundled up for the long flight home.

Sixteen hours later, we (and our ukuleles) were home safe and sound.

Hawaii was different than I ever imagined it to be, more like a home away from home than an exotic paradise.

If I had to rate this trip (and I do because I am Greg Kitchen's daughter), I would give Hawaii 5-0 a great big High Five.  Times three.

Saying good-bye is always sad, but if you feel yourself getting lonesome for paradise, just watch this video over and over and over again and it will take the edge off the sadness.

Aloha, Hawaii!  

And mahalo for joining me on this two month Hawaiian tour.  

Next time, let's all go together.