Hello Hawaii!  Oh how we loved you!

After the wedding and reception we spent the night at the Little America in SLC and then took an afternoon flight to Hawaii.  The flight ended up being perfect, that is after we played musical chairs and ended up getting the whole row to ourselves.  Now that is better then first class!  We arrived on the Island and headed over to our condo (that Jason’s dad so graciously arranged for us) and got settled in.  After we couldn’t help but get excited about walking around the town and heading down to the beach.  Anyplace with sand between my toes and 90 degree heat means I am one HAPPY girl.  Our first stop was at the local market to pick up some drinks and snacks… oh yea and lei necklace or two!

Aloha!

Best night ever, walking along the beach with cold drinks and the sand between my toes!

I’m pretty sure I am the luckiest girl ever.

Dole Plantation!  We had such a blast here!

Pineapple is Jason’s favorite fruit so he was in heaven!

Yea, we couldn’t resist.

We bought the “must have” pineapple ice cream and jumped on a train that took us for a ride around the whole plantation.  It was so cool to see all the different stages a pineapple takes before it is picked and sold.  Did you know that as pineapples grow they are bight red?  I love to learn all about the places we go and fun facts about them.  The Dole Plantation did it right and had a fun fact board posted as you wait for the train ride to start.  If you want to know why Pineapples grow bight red, see if you can find the answer in the picture below.

Fun Facts about the most delicious fruit on the planet.

Waimea Waterfall

This was a beautiful hike up to the waterfall but I must say that it was the saddest waterfall I have ever seen.  Ha! The pictures online looked amazing, and you were suppose to be able to jump in and swim around, um not going to happen.  I guess it had been a “dry season” and without much rainfall the waterfall isn’t as impressive.  Luckily this little fall is tucked inside of a national park, so there were plenty of other amazing things to look at so the day turned about to be pretty great.

Snorkeling at Sharks Cove on the North Shore

We were so excited to go snorkeling (we even bought all our gear on Amazon.com before we left) so we could go as many times as we wanted hassle free.  Jason LOVES to snorkel and could be in the water all day and be happy as a clam.  I LOVE to layout so I did a little bit of snorkeling but spent most my time on the beach watching Jason swim around.   We had our flip camera in a waterproof case so it was lots of fun chasing the fish around and getting to see life “under the sea”. (its ok if you just broke into song from the Little Mermaid, it happened to me too!)  🙂

My favorite memory at Sharks Cove:  After Jason got out of the water and we were walking to the car he says “I feel like a potato chip, salty and baked!”  Yes, I laughed my head off!  It was SO TRUE!  Perfect description babe! haha!

Paradise Cove

My very first Luau and it was great!  At Paradise Cove you go around 4pm and they do tons of cool traditional Hawaiian activities before the show actually begins.  We went on a canoe ride out in the ocean, watched a guy climb a coconut tree and do a “flower shower” got warrior tattoos, made leaf head wraps, and watched the sun set.  It was perfect.  Then the party really started.

Watching the sunset into the ocean never gets old.

That’s right, Jason made that head gear.  Sweet!

And yes, we bought that Hawaiian shirt just for this activity, it is not apart of his regular wardrobe.

(can you see his sweet tattoo? man he is tan!)

Arriving at Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay is a hot spot for snorkeling so we really wanted to go check it out.  This place was not impressive!  Actually it was kind of scary.  There is lots of coral but none of it is bright and colorful like you see in the pictures, and the water was so low that you are constantly swimming unnervingly close to the sharp coral.  I think back in the day this place was probably awesome, but now it is SO crowed with tourist and the coral is all dead, that it was not worth going at all.  I am so glad Jason heard about Sharks Cove up on the North Shore because that was free, crowd free, and amazing!

My favorite part of visiting Hanauma Bay was laying out on the beach and watching these birds walk around looking for food.  They were not scared of people at all, and they were seriously right next to us for quite awhile.  As the birds walked around there was a particularly one that Jason ended up narrating a life story about, and what the bird would be saying if he could talk… it was hilarious!  I am 100% sure you had to be there, but even thinking of it now has me laughing.  I love him, he makes me laugh everyday.

PARASAILING!

Have I mentioned I am scared of heights?!  But not Jason he LOVES them!  The higher the better and that is exactly how this went down.  They give you the options to choose 500 feet, 750 feet, or 1000 feet and guess which one Jason picked… yeah, you’re right the highest one!  It actually turned out to be really fun and I am so glad we did it.  Some places you have to run full speed ahead on a beach as a boat lifts you up into the air  and your parachute takes wind, but not these guys and I was SO glad.

This company had a super nice boat that takes you out into the middle of the ocean, straps you on, and then reels you out into the sky from the boat.  Pretty sweet, right?!  To spice things up and to get you wet at the end of your ride the reel you in and lets some slack in the rope and drop you into the ocean and then POP you right back out.  It cools you off and then they reel you right back onto the boat.  The guys below were awesome, played cool music on the boat, and took care of us.  It was lots of fun.  My husbands love for heights isn’t going anywhere, and I’m glad because he keeps me on my toes and gets me out of my comfort zone and I love him for it.

Hang Loose!

(it’s easier to say once your back on land.)

 Kualoa Ranch: 4-Wheeling Adventure!

This adventure we one of my favorite!  We actually had our own 4-wheelers and the tour guide was awesome!  He was all about making it fun and didn’t care how fast you went… in fact he was almost always leading the way.  One of our favorite things about this adventure was that the scenery was beautiful and every few miles our guide would jump off his 4-wheeler and disappear into the woods.  After a few minutes we’d see him come running out with a handful of fresh fruit!  He’d reach into his pocket, pull out a knife, a slice open fresh guava, papaya, and passion fruit and hand one to everyone.  It was amazing!

Jason with his fresh passion fruit from the woods of Hawaii!

 This ranch is a popular place for the filming of many movies like Big Foot…

AND LOST!  Does it look familiar?

Jason practicing his golf swing just incase we ran into Hurley!

The mountains are a dead give away that we were in the exact spot that the golf sense was filmed. 🙂

 These are the mountains that we rode through… GORGEOUS!

 This is what I looked like after our ride.

You can see the exact outline of the holes of the riding helmet and my glasses.  It was so fun!

THE LDS HAWAII TEMPLE

North Shore Beaches

We rented a car 4 or 5 days during our visit to the Island and it was so worth it!  It gave us complete freedom to go where we wanted on our own time.  It was perfect.  We ended up spending a ton of time up on the North Shore Beaches because they were just amazing.  You can drive the whole Island in 3 or 4 hours giving you a chance to go anywhere and see anything you want.  It was so worth it.

Its true, I love you babe!

BEST. TRIP. EVER.

Goodbye Hawaii, I hope to see you again really soon!

A big THANK YOU to Jason’s Dad and Melissa for taking care of our condo arrangements!  That was so nice and we appreciated it very much!  We love you guys!