Aloha Hawaii!! (Oober long post!)

Casey and I finally went on an awesome vacation, that actually went perfect, unlike our honeymoon in Vegas. Read our anniversary post if you don't know the story haha! But anyways, we left tuesday the 25th for the 6 1/2 hour flight to Oahu Hawaii! We stayed on the Waikiki side of the Island, and had a partial view of the city and ocean. We stayed in a hotel call the Aqua Aloha Surf and Spa. It was kind of old school, but we were out and about anyways to really want to sit around and enjoy a hotel room! I love the hotels and restaurants there because there are no doors! It's so open because it is just so warm!! The only thing is there are tons of birds flying around in and out begging for food! But here is a little layout of our fun time there!

On the Plane!

Day 1 when we flew in: We went to the closest food place to our hotel becuase we were starving after our long flight! KFC! Haha, it was the closest and we knew what to expect from it! After that I immediatly wanted to see the beach and the ocean! So we went back to our hotel, got our swim stuff and headed to Waikiki beach!! Here's a fun fact! The beach is very pretty, but we learned that the imported all the sand from Australia! Otherwise they would be blacksand beaches, becuase of the volcanos! So the was interesting to learn! So that is what we did on the first day. We watched the sunset and went back to our hotel to sleep! We were exhausted!

Day 2: We just wanted to relax! So all day we found a place on the beach where not very many people were, and just swam and laid out! It was so nice! When we were hungry for lunch we went to a little place right on the beach (it wasn't very good) and I watch some old bum steal some girls shoes. After which Casey and I had went over and told her. She was to scared to go get them, so Casey kindly went and asked the bum if he could have them back. We weren't sure how the bum would react, but he gave them back! It was too funny! After that we went back out on the beach, swam and laid out some more, then walked downtown to see the sights. Not that cool, we weren't really into the city part of Hawaii. We found a place called Dukes and decided to try it out. We didn't like it all that much, we got a dish that we thought would be something else! But we did get some yummy fruity drinks that were delish! After that we kinda just hung out on the beach a little more and went back to our hotel to sleep!

Our fruity Drinks!

Day 3: We went snorkaling at Hanauma Bay! This was seriously my favorite part of visiting Hawaii! It was so beautiful! The water was so clear, and we got to see so many cool fish! This bay is kept natural and clean, no fishermen or boats are allowed so as to keep in nice, and the coral doesn't get ruined! Also we learned that this bay was where only the old royals were allowed to bathe. We had so much fun doing this, we did it for hours! It's like a completely different world once you get your head under the water and start following the fish around! This is highly recommended if you visit Hawaii, it is so much fun!!

The beautiful Bay!

Snorkal Gear!

Day 4: We rented a Jeep Wrangler

and drove it to hike up Diamond Head, which is an old Volcano Crator! I like to call this hike, "Hike of a thousand stairs!" If any of you have been on this you know what I mean! This hike was very interesting, we learned that in 1898 when the U.S. annexed Hawaii, that harbor became a main defense lookout because when your at the top you can see so much! So they built a fort on the highest part of the crater, which is what you hike up to. The first bit that you hike is actually a trail, but then you have to go through a tunnel which makes it easier the go through the mountain to the fort. After the tunnel comes the stairs. And I'm not joking when I say it's like a billion (264) stairs! My legs were certainly burning and Casey and I were so sweaty by the time we got to the top! It's a very cool hike, and certainly worth it once you get to the top! After we hiked Diamond head, we decided to drive around to the north shore! I like the north shore alot better than Waikiki. The pineapple feilds just went on for miles!! On our way to the north shore we visited Turtle bay in hopes to see a turtle. But unfortunatly there were none. However we went out on this little natural dike made of volcano rock that had a ton of blow holes where fish and crabs would get stuck, so we saw alot of little crabs!! Most of them were black and looks like big spiders, so naturally I didn't like themm and didn't get too close. When we left turtle bay and continued onto the north shore, we noticed lots a little old trucks selling shirmp! We stopped by for lunch and it was so yummy! I love shrimp and they were big yummy shrimp and not at a bad price!! After we ate our lunch we found the beautiful Hawaii Temple. Sadly for us it was being renovated, so we weren't able to do a session, but we stopped by the visiters cented were we met a sister missionary who was also from Logan utah! That was so much fun for us and her! When we left the temple we drove by the ranch where they made Jurassic park and other movies! We didn't take a tour though. We tried really hard to find a cool rain forest hike, but the roads were a little confusing for us, so we didn't end up finding one. It was pretty rainy that day anyways so I guess it's good we didn't find it, or else our shoes would have been very muddy!

Turtle Bay

The Temple

Day 5: We went to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial! We got there at about 8:30 in the morning, but ended up having to wait a few hours till our tour started, so we headed over to a Swap meet nearby and I bought some fun gifts! And a few things for myself as well! When we were finished with that we headed back to pearl harbor, ate a snack and walked around the area where they had some cool information. When it was time for our tour, we hoped on a boat which took us over the the Arizona Memorial. I've heard that it is and eerie place, becuase bodies are still entombed in the ship. I didn't feel that way at all however. They treat that place as those soldeir's final resting place, so it is very respected. It's very interesting too, becuase you can still see oil coming up out of the water, after all those years! I'm still trying to figure out why they couldn't get the bodies out, I forgot to ask when I was there, and the internet is being dumb! So if any of you know please share!! After we visited Pearl Harbor, (and on memorial weekend!) we finally found our awesome rainforest hike!! It's called Manoa Falls Hike, and it was so pretty and lush!! The trees were just huge a and green, and we so so much bamboo! Casey and I just really enjoyed this hike. It was a little muddy however, and of course I fell, but it wasn't too bad. I only got my hands muddy haha! But it was just an absolutely beautiful hike! I do wish I would have thought of bug spray though. I came home with alot of bites!

On the Boat to the Memorial

Arizona Memorial

Big Tree!

My muddy hands!

Manoa Falls

Last Day: We wanted to end this trip by doing something really cool! So we went..... SKYDIVING!!! I have been before, when I went to San Diego, but Casey has never been and I kept telling him how cool it is! So the morning of the day we left, that what we did! So much fun! They drop you over the ocean and you free fall for about a minute, and then when they pull the shute, you coast around over water and land for about 5 or 6 minutes. It really was such a fun experiance for casey and I, and if you ever get a chance to do this, do it!! Since I had already been before, I volunteered to jump out of the plane first, then Casey went right after me! Casey loved it! It was so fun! After we went skydiving, we decided to spend our last hours in Hawaii on the beach! I'm glad we did too, so I could get my great Hawaiian beach tan! We just relaxed and ate huge snowcones! It was the perfect ending to our fun vacation!

The Plane we jumped out of.

Aloha Hawaii!