Hawaii

In August we had the opportunity to go to Hawaii for our 10 year anniversary and we had the most amazing time!!!  The weather was great and the island of Oahu was beautiful though I did picture it a tad bit different then it was.  We forgot our camera so we had to take all the pictures on Casey's phone, but it still took us two months to get around to uploading them to our computer so we can post this blog!! The first day we grabbed a bite of breakfast at Dukes a restaurant right on the beach (coconut syrup, Yummy), got all of our souvenirs bought, drove around the island, went to a Macedonian farm, checked into our condo in Turtle bay area, bought some groceries (yikes, it was expensive) and chilled on the beach @ Turtle bay.  We hiked a little ways on the beach so there wasn't so many people where we layed out.  It was hard work reading a book, taking a nap, and playing in the water in the middle of the day.  We even got a free show that 1st day on the beach.  How you might ask, well Fabio (is the name we choose for our new friend) came walking by me, in a hammock style thong speedo, chanting and dancing something to his 2 little furry stuffed animals.  Casey was in the water while the "episode" took place and its taking all I've got to keep from busting up laughing and thinking where is Casey when i need him.  My friend "Fabio" even did some bum slapping. I'm telling ya watch out Vegas Fabio is on his way.  Cas came back over to me just laughing, apparently he didn't miss the show he just didn't want to interrupt.  Day 2:  We got up and fixed us some breakfast at the condo then went to the Dole plantation (were I learned how to properly select and cut a pineapple), we had lunch there which was yummy pineapple ice cream. Then we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Tracy trying some fresh pineapple at the Dole plantation.

Riding the train at the Dole plantation looking at the acres and acres of pineapple!

Casey just had to get a picture of his favorite tropical plant!!

Here we are at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  This was a fun place and we learned a lot of interesting things.  Note for next time though, do not get a tour guide and do not pay for the luau, it was not worth the money!  They are good at upselling on the phone and I had no idea what I was suppose to be getting.  Oh well, we still had a blast and even more fun when we went back the next day to do some of the things we didn't have time to do with our guided tour group.

I volunteered Casey to go up and help out for the Tongan show.  He got to play the drums and yell and scream into the microphone, everyone after the show kept calling Casey "Utah", which was what the Tongan guy kept calling him.  Because we were cheap we did not buy the pictures from the center, we just took a picture of them!

This was at the big show at the end of the night.  Very fun, especially the fire dancers at the end.

We hiked Diamond Head.  We only had one hour until it closed so we had to book it, but we had time for a few pics along the way.  This was an old machine gun station used during WWII.

A look down at the Diamond Head lighthouse.

Looking down on Honolulu and Waikiki beach.

Turtle.

This was our 2nd day at Poly we learned how to play the ukulele, weave leaves into fishes and headbands, and I learned how to do the Hula!

Golfing on the beach!

They wouldn't let me wear my sandals on the coarse so I had to wear these beauties w/ no socks.  I had a few blisters when i was done.  Which took a while b/c I swung that dang club about 15 times each time I went to hit before I actually made contact with the ball.

All along the North Shore there are tons for fresh shrimp shacks.  After a little trial and error we found the best one of all.  They serve the best shrimp and oh it was good out of this piece of crap van/bus and they let you sign your name on it.  We also liked North shore for food and we found a salon that had a lady that gave one heck of a massage!

Sunset on the beach

One of our favorite places was Pearl Harbor.  This was an interesting and solemn place.  Going to see the USS Arizona memorial was something to remember.  Over 900 brave sailors are entombed in this sunken ship.

You can see the black oil still spilling out the the fuel tanks.

We each had to take our turn shooting the bad guys.

Another  fun thing we did, but not really worth the money was a submarine ride.  That's me going down into the sub.  We saw some cool fish and some turtles and some old ship and airplane wreckage all at about 100 feet below sea level, but really going snorkeling you can see most all that stuff anyway.

I think our favorite part was when we hiked to Manoa Falls.  This was the most beautiful hike we had ever been on, this little jungle was exactly what I pictured Hawaii like.  The falls itself wasn't that spectacular, but getting there and back was!  Right when we got there it started down pouring!  We took shelter under a tree and when we both realized we were already soaked we decided to just hike in the rain. 

We had to try to climb a tree and swing on some vines while we were in the jungle.

We also really loved swimming/ walking/ boogie boarding, from a beach out to this little island called Goat Island.  It was like it was our own secluded island b/c their really wasn't any one on it until we went to leave.  We walked around the whole thing, found some cool shells and stuff.  We also loved snorkeling.  Especially once we bought our own snorkel stuff.  One day we went to snorkel at Hanauma Bay (which was crazy with people) their was a line of people to get in and a lady that worked their was walking by telling us that there was sighting of a shark but he wasn't a threat yadda yadda and I asked her so you don't think I'll be bothered even though I have this big cut on my foot?  You could have heard a pin drop, everyone around me was staring at me and waiting for the poor workers answer.  I quickly said I was kidding and don't be alarmed (though I was secretly hoping I would clear the water when I got in). We also really liked the North shore for snorkeling and food. 

We were all set to go to the temple while we were there but it was closed for renovations so we just took some pictures.  We even made a special trip to a clothing store for Cas b/c he "forgot" his church cloths.

The last day we wanted to make sure we weren't going to get stuck in traffic when we should be at the airport.  So we decided to just chill on Wikiki beach.  We had to check out of our condo earlier so we didn't have towls or anything with us so Cas pulled a Michael Weston (Burn Notice) move and said, "If you act like you belong as a member of this hotel no one will question".  He became a member and snagged us some towls and we even dipped in their pool to rinse off before we had to leave for the airport.

Going to Hawaii was easily the funnest vacation Casey and I have ever been on.  We had a blast going and doing things by ourselves.  We were excited to see the kids though when we got home and are very grateful to Joy, Steve, Lisa, Cindy, Mom and Denny, and Janette and family for helping out with them while we were gone, especially Joy and Lisa.  We would go again in a heartbeat if we could afford it and if all these wonderful people would babysit again, but since both of those aren't possible, we'll just have to wait.