Hawaii!!

My mother was crazy enough to take all of us--my husband, daughter, dad, two sisters and nephew to Hawaii the week before Christmas 2011.  This was sort of Mom's farewell trip--she has pancreatic cancer and we were very lucky that she could make the trip and do as much as she did.  Hawaii is an amazing place--the pictures I've seen don't do it justice and I'd like to go back today if I could.  This trip I discovered the website vrbo.com. It stands for vacation rentals by owner.  We rented a terrific house on the north shore that slept everybody and provided some fun extras that one would never get in a hotel--like a whole closet full of boogie boards and sand toys.