ALOHA

We just got back from Hawaii and had the most amazing time ever. Hawaii is truly a paradise. Here’s a quick recap of what we did.

Monday: We arrived at Honolulu late at night on Sunday and checked in our hotel. Since there is a 3 hour difference between Hawaii and Las Vegas, we were up super early and went for a little walk at Waikiki beach, which is only a 5-10 minutes away from our hotel. The weather was great, especially compared to Vegas. Scott’s cousin Merlin lives on Oahu so we met up with him and went snorkeling at Sharks Cove on the North shore. It is a beautiful place for snorkeling. The water is really clear and there is a ton of fish and even some turtles. It’s a small rocky bay with coral reefs that form ledges and caves for the fish to hide and for Scott to swim through. Merlin had his digital underwater camera that took these amazing pictures.

Scott swimming through one of the tunnels.

On our way back we drove through little town called Haleiwa, which is considered to be the Surfing Capital of the world. It’s full of surfing shops and surfing dudes everywhere. We also stopped by the Dole pineapple plantation. Fresh, just picked pineapple is so good. Yum. They also have the world’s largest maze there, which we decided not to go through – I’m not a big fan of mazes. Later that evening we went to the airport to pick up our friends Eric and Camille. We had planned our trip together but they were flying in one day later. We all went out to dinner at the Hilton hotel’s little beach café that was right on the beach and had some live band playing. It was a perfect relaxing end of our day. We were all exhausted, Scott and I from the hot Hawaiian sun, Eric and Camille from a long 12-hour flight.

Tuesday: The entire Tuesday was pretty much devoted to the Polynesian Cultural Center. But since it doesn’t open till noon, we took the scenic route on our way there and drove around the South and East coast. We stopped by the Blowhole. The blowhole is a natural occurrence formed by molten lava tubes from volcanic eruptions thousands of years ago. The lava tubes run to the ocean and, when the surf is right, the blowhole shoots water, supposedly, up to 30 feet in the air. The larger the waves, the larger the spray. This picture really doesn’t do it justice but it was pretty cool.

Our next stop was Pali Lookout, the lookout overlooks the 985-foot cliffs of the Koolau Mountain Range (translated, "pali" means "cliffs"). To give a little history, the Pali Lookout is the site of King Kamahameha’s victory over Oahu’s chief Kalanikupule, forcing the opponent off the rocky cliff to their deaths below and making the Pali site one of most important and bloodiest battles in Hawaiian history. Kamehameha’s victory began the process of the islands’ unification. Here're some pics... It is crazy windy there.




We then stopped by the Temple and the visitors’ center. It is one of the most beautiful temples I had ever seen. It seriously takes your breath away.

Polynesian Cultural Center is right there by the temple and by BYU Hawaii. It is a nonprofit institution founded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and dedicated to helping provide educational opportunities for students at BUY Hawaii.
They had shows and activities for different Polynesian islands, Canoe Pageant, big Luau dinner, and the infamous Night Show. It was a lot of fun. The only bad thing is that it was a very hot day with no breeze. The night show was by far my favorite part, we absolutely loved the Samoan fire dancers. I think Scott’s favorite was the Tahitian girl dancers with their insane hip dances. It was pretty impressive, I have to admit. I found this video on youtube of the Tahiti dance, it was part of our night show, it’s pretty cool

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bPN3UH9fRE0&mode=related&search

We are showing off our freshly painted tatooes.

At the Luau dinner.

Wednesday: Wednesday was our beach day. We went swimming at Waikiki beach in the morning and then rented snorkeling gear and boogie boards and headed for the North Shore. On our way to the North Shore we stopped by the Dole Plantation to get their famous pineapple ice cream. For all of you “Lost” lovers, we drove by the Mokuleia Beach, where “Lost” plane wreckage scenes were filmed. We couldn’t get anywhere close, because it is a private area and is blocked off. However, Scott’s cousin Merlin was hiking in the area some time ago and saw the plane wreckage props. He said it looked pretty real and it took them a few minutes to realize that it must be staged for a movie. We finally made it to Sharks Cove and went snorkeling again. We then headed for the Hukilau Park Beach to go boogie boarding. The waves weren’t the greatest, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

Sharks Cove

Hukilau Beach

On our way back to our hotel we stopped by the Sunset beach. I’m guessing it was named for its beautiful sunset views.
That night we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. So good!!! My mouth is starting to salivate just thinking about it.

Thursday: In the morning we headed for the Pearl Harbor and took the Arizona Memorial Tour. The USS Arizona Memorial is the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The Memorial commemorates the site where World War II began for the United States. It was a really sad but humbling experience. We were literally standing over a grave site where 1177 men lost their lives.

Parts of the ship are sticking up above the water.

The names of those who died on the ship.
Afterwards we went back to Cheesecake Factory for some lunch. We really wanted some of their cheesecakes but just couldn’t make ourselves eat it the night before so we went back the next day. After a yummy lunch, we caught a flight to go visit our friends Nic & Heidi on the island of Kauai. Kauai is a beautiful island. It is a lot less touristy than Oahu, it rains a lot there so it is really green. Most of the developed areas are around the coast. The center of the islands is undeveloped and just has the most beautiful mountains and forests. I had never seen anything more beautiful. The words or even pictures just don’t do it any justice. There are roosters just walking around on the roads everywhere like they belong there. I think Scott even tried to chase one down for dinner but lucky for the roosters, they’re too quick. Scott and Eric found a mango tree by Nic and Heidi’s house, knocked some mangos down and enjoyed fresh, off the tree mangoes. We spent that evenining relaxing, eating dinner, and watching Blades of Glory (weird, that’s all I gotta say about that movie).

Friday: Kauai has some of the most beautiful beaches, so we rented some snorkel gear and went to the Tunnels beach to check out their sea life. It was pretty amazing. The water wasn’t as clear that day but we still saw a ton of fish and a couple turtles. I always thought of turtles as really slow creatures, but in the water they’re impossible to catch up with.

Heidi’s family was also in town and were renting a beach house, so we went to visit. They were super nice and let us hang out there and eat their food. We then, together with the Murray clan (there were like nineteen of them), went boogie boarding. They waves were a lot bigger this time.

For dinner we headed back to the Murray’s beach house. Scott found a coconut tree in their backyard and him and Heidi’s little nephew Colton managed to knock a coconut off the coconut tree and then spent the next hour trying to crack it open. They had finally succeeded and we all had some coconut milk and fresh coconut. Life is great in Kauai, I don’t think you’ll ever go hungry there, fruit grows everywhere and you can even have some meat if you can run as fast as those darn chickens.

Saturday: Saturday was a sad day because Scott and I were going home. Before it was time to go to the airport Heidi and I snuck in some shopping time while the rest of us were still asleep. We then went to the Secret Beach. I’m not sure why it’s called secret but it’s a really pretty beach with some lava pools. The waves were huge there; sometimes when they’re big enough they crash over the rocks into the lava pools. There is a short but very steep hike to get to that beach. The way down wasn't so bad, just a lot of sliding on the dirt. The way up kills, though. Very pretty there.

Lava pool
That was pretty much the end of our Hawaii adventure. We cleaned up, went to the airport and flew to Honolulu and then Las Vegas. We were sad to leave Hawaii but so excited to go home and see our little boy whom we left home with the grandparents. It was hard being away from Ben so it’s really nice to be home now.

Thank you, Nic and Heidi for letting us stay with you guys and for showing us a great time. Thanks to Heidi’s family for adopting us into the family for the few days that we were there. Thanks to Eric and Camille for sharing the awesome Hawaii adventure with us. And, of course, thanks to Alan, Elaine, and Zina for taking such good care of Ben while we were away.