Hawaii

HAWAII!!!

Okay, so we had a blast in Hawaii. I cannot get over how gorgeous it is there! Brian has decided we need to move there, so who knows, you might get a call from me one day saying we are off to Hawaii, which would be fine with me! We went to Pearl Harbor, which was amazing. I learned so much about that day, or maybe I just didn't pay attention in history class, but either way, it was so interesting.

The Waimea Falls were indescribable. But, I do have to say, that swim from the side to the falls is a lot longer than it looks. Shellie, Brian and I were the only ones who swam, and Shell, gotta give you credit, you are a much better swimmer than me!! It was such a refreshing swim, and was so worth it to go and sit under the falls, what an experience! And the botanical gardens there, WOW!!! And yes, if you haven't seen on Shellie's blog, she tried to play Jane of the Jungle and it didn't quite work out. Pretty funny!

The sea turtles, now that was amazing! Brian and I actually spotted one outside the condo, but couldn't get close enough to take a picture. Later that day, we all went to Laniakea Beach which is a favorite spot for sea turtles, and we saw quite a few. I'm posting the video I got of one of them, and a picture in the slide show. They would get so close to you, I almost touched one, but then it swam off, which was probably a good thing since we found out it is a federal offense to touch the turtles. Oops, my bad!

Well, the waves on the North Shore are absolutely crazy!!! They knock you down so hard! In the video I'm posting you will see Brian and I go completely under, my leg flips up, and then we finally come back up, and I'm holding my jaw. Somehow Brian hit me in the face when the wave crashed into us. It was so much fun though, we all had fun doing this, even Mom & Dad tried it out. The waves would push you 20-30 feet up the shore than pull you back in, it was crazy! The water is so crystal clear that you can see forever. We literally spent about 4 hours one day at the beach playing in the waves, it was too much fun.

The Polynesian Cultural Center was a lot of fun. They take you on a little tour on the canoes, then there is a canoe race (think parade floats on water) that represent each of the different Islands. The luau was great, the food was ummm....different, they have purple sweet potatoes, very interesting...not so good. The rolls were good though! They had a show going the whole time we were eating. The show they put on at night rocked! There was a bunch of dances, and the Samoan fire guy was crazy! He caught this stick that was on fire from like 100 feet, craziness.

And most of us tried snorkeling. We went to Sharks Cove (no sharks, thank goodness), and wow, if anyone ever gets the experience to snorkel, you need to go. It is an amazing experience! We literally saw about 90% of the fish that are on "Finding Nemo". Didn't see Nemo, or Dorey, I don't think, but there were so many fish, and they would swim like 2 inches from your face! After snorkeling we went to Sunset Beach, and I can see why it is called this, it was an amazing sunset. We played in the waves some more before we finally came back to the condo to crash.

This was an amazing vacation. Being in such a beautiful place, and being surrounded by everyone I love so much made for a great time, I am truly blessed. I wish the rest of the family could have joined in all the fun. I myself cannot wait to go back. Enjoy the pictures (this is only about 5% of the pictures just Brian and I took), but enjoy!