We also decided to take the kids along. After all, we wanted to celebrate the marriage, not just the wedding.

Anyhow, we set off from Wichita to Honolulu July 11. The flight was not significantly more expensive out of the River City, but it was typically odd in its path. Is it strange to reach the 50th state via Minneapolis, Minn., or is it just me?

The good news about the trip west was that we picked up five hours. The bad news was that we had to spend just more than five hours flying over ocean. There was a distinct lack of scenery. All we could see out the window were clouds and the ocean. I was struck by the sense that I was observing an upside-down sky.

We arrived in the early evening, Honolulu time. However, our bodies told us it was already after midnight. Wife Kathy and I had risen before 4 a.m. that day, so that fact in itself was exhausting.

Of course, our eating schedule was also severely disrupted. We ended up tired enough to eat at a McDonald's at 9 p.m. local time.

For the mathematically challenged, that's 2 a.m. Hillsboro Daylight Time.

Surprisingly, the recovery was quite quick. We slept until 7 a.m. the next morning. Of course, that was noon back home. After that long snooze, our internal clocks felt fairly normal.

One of the first things we noticed on the island was a lack of out-of-state tags. Makes sense, seeing as how Hawaii is made up of islands. But we did spot a plate or two from Oregon and California and even one from Arizona. That must have been quite a scenic drive.

The weather in Honolulu was exactly the same all five days we were there. A fog and drizzle hung over the mountains to what I believed to be northeast of our hotel. The sun nearly always shone on the beach, a distance of fewer than 10 miles from the hills.

Though the temperature was between 85 and 90, a steady breeze (trade winds or trades as the locals called them) blew at about 15 to 20 mph all the time.

The humidity seemed to be lower than in Kansas, unless we were in the mountain shroud of fog.

All in all, the weather was quite comfortable. In fact, the air conditioner in our room didn't work. We left the windows open all the time, and we were fine at night.

Plenty of activity opportunities await tourists on the island of Oahu, and there are also plenty of tourists to go around.

Kathy's cousin, Bob Schroeder, and his family live west of the big city. He works as a professional fish counter for NOAA out of Fisherman's Wharf in the heart of Honolulu. He told us that Waikiki, the area flanking the beach, claims a turnover of 100,000 tourists per week. By my unofficial count, about 99,900 of them are Japanese and speak very little English.

Not that this is a problem, since all the shops and tourist stops are geared toward visitors from the Land of the Rising Sun.

I did sense a bit of irony, however, in visiting the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor surrounded by Japanese tourists.

We amused ourselves one afternoon by shopping for picnic supplies in a store where all the labels were in Japanese. Our kids particularly enjoyed trying to figure out the ingredients of snack foods.

Because space is at a premium on the island, parking also carries an amazing price tag. Even after paying the high cost of the small but tidy room at our hotel, we were socked for $10 per day to park in the garage that comprised the first six floors of the 43-story building.

Cousin Bob pointed out that, generally speaking, parcels of land in the Honolulu area are worth far more than the buildings that are located on the lots.

Groceries are also expensive, at least near the beach. We spotted a gallon of milk for nearly $8, while the box of cereal to go with it was $5.75. We tried to be frugal when dining out, but we still averaged more than $10 per meal per person.

And the price of gas? About $2.40 a gallon. (It was $2.30 in Hillsboro when we left home.)

The most prevalent stores in Honolulu are ABC convenience shops. They are everywhere. I'm not exaggerating. As I stood on a street corner waiting for the light to change, I counted five ABC stores within my line of sight. There are about two on every side of each block, and they all sell virtually the same thing.

The highlight of our stay was when Bob took our family snorkeling on the famous North Shore. In the winter, the waves, fed by storms in the North Pacific, routinely tower 40 feet or more, making it the most famous surfing beach in the world. During the summer, however, the surf is mild.

Naturally, Bob is an expert diver, and fortunately for us, a very patient man. My daughter Anna and I really made the most of our opportunity to sneak a peak at the underwater world of the fishes. They were everywhere and with a stunning beauty and variety.

We quickly spotted the Hawaiian triggerfish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, the unofficial state fish of Hawaii, whose name is larger than the fish. We saw clown fish, parrot fish, mahi mahi, banner fish and many others.

In terms of my personal athletic endeavors, the experience was second only to my April marathon. A very close second, I might add. I highly recommend that any trip to a coral reef should include some snorkeling time.

We left Honolulu on Saturday with mild sunburns and a need for a more relaxing, less hectic pace. We found it on the island of Maui, which was an entirely different world.

We stayed at a resort complex on Ka'anapali Beach, just a stone's throw from the ocean. Once again, we had to pick and choose our activities since the opportunities were so plentiful.

We had leisurely lunches at the famous Maui Tacos and Alexander's Fish and Chips. We took in a luau at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and we drove our rental car around the western end of the island and up the highest peak on Maui, the extinct volcano Haleakala, which towers 10,000 feet above the beach.

We drove through nearly all types of ecological zones, from tropical rainforests to treeless tundra. The peak is a windswept and barren cinder cone above the clouds. It was the only time on our visit that we needed jackets (not counting the plane ride home, that is).

Haleakala, a national park, was the second volcanic summit we reached, having climbed Diamond Head on Oahu by foot the week before.

I could go on and on about what we saw and did in Hawaii. But, it is a place you just must experience for yourself. A number of Hillsboro residents have done so, and I am sure they would all have different observations. Here are a few of my brief conclusions about our island state:

-- If you don't like the weather where you are on the islands, drive a few miles, and it will be completely different.

-- Wal-Marts and McDonald's truly have permeated our society. They are everywhere.

-- When given an option, always choose the larger rental car.

-- Just because an island is surrounded by water doesn't mean it won't suffer droughts. Hawaii was in the middle of a major dry spell this summer. Wild fires were quickly becoming an issue.

-- When people on Maui don't want their cars, they apparently just strip them and leave them beside the road. Either that, or cars that stalled were being quickly reduced to windowless and tireless hulks by thieves.

A couple, who had lived on Oahu for 50 years, told us Hawaii has the highest crime rate of any state in the Union. No matter the cause, highways were littered with a surprising number of junk cars, especially on Maui.

-- At least some luaus still roast a pig in the ground, a process that takes a full day.

-- There's nothing like starting up your car in the morning and finding a tiny live gecko stuck to the windshield. He took a 10-mile ride with us, then disappeared under the hood.

-- Bugs were not a problem on the two islands we visited. Maybe all the geckos eat them.

-- Maybe we should take a lesson from Hawaiians, who seem to be less concerned than we are about keeping an eye on everyone. I saw maybe one or two lifeguards on the beaches, and beach goers were not forbidden from traveling long distances out in the surf.

We often require two or three lifeguards for a small swimming pool. Are we overly safety-conscious or are we truly safer?

-- The Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters in it. That's why the names of streets, highways and towns all start with a "k" or a "w" and all sound about the same.

-- I heard a rumor that the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu is owned by the Mormon Church. Interesting, if true. That's like the Mennonites purchasing a casino in Kansas City.

-- How would I rate our trip? As family vacations go, it was a fun adventure. The plane ride was uneventful, though extremely long, thanks to the fact that so many seats are crowded into each jet that the guy in front of me practically sat on my lap.

It was an expensive 10 days, but it had its share of pleasant moments.

Overall, I would say Hawaii is a nice place to visit, but I couldn't afford to live there.

Aloha and mahalo.