Hawaii!!!

It finally happened, we actually went to Hawaii. We started with the idea last summer with our California pals, Julieanne and Tyrus, who we've known for probably 10 years. We finally booked it in January, and then had to wait what seemed like a jillion years for last week when we finally went. My mom and dad made the whole thing possible by staying with our kids for the whole week. We did so much while we were there, and I don't want to leave anything out, so this post is going to be a record breaker. Here we are on the plane. When we landed Julianne and Tyrus came to pick us up at the airport since they got there a few hours earlier and surprised us with a flower lei, which is so fun for the first time to Hawaii (although I had been when I was about 11).

We had an amazing view and a great room. The first day we had a great relaxing day at a couple beaches. First was Hapuna Beach, the classic post card white-sands beach. It had a great waves to play in and though crowded, wonderful sand for laying in. After that we tried another beach down the road, called Kiholo bay. It took awhile to walk to, but we were lucky to find an amazing black sand beach with only a couple people and a bunch of sea turtles. The bay was completely calm like a swimming pool and it was a really fun place to float around.

The beach was amazing because it's so black and there are a few specks of white coral, it's so much cooler in person then I imagined.

At the end of our walk back, there is a place called Queen's Bath, which is a lava tube full of cold but very clean freshwater. It was full of locals, but they had an underwater flashlight so we swam about 150 feet to the back of the cave, it was really cool. The next day, Monday, was volcano day! We drove around the island which took about 2 hours. First we stopped at the bottom of the island and went on the "Road to the Sea" which is a 7ish mile road across a lava field, so it was very bumpy. It ended at a green sand beach, which is very fine black sand mixed with a green mineral. I thought it looked almost gold and black. It was cool and very windy, so we just looked at it for awhile. Tyrus decided to take full advantage of our 4 Wheel Drive Jeep Rubicon (my wish car at the moment) and drive it to the top of this sand hill. The sand was looser than he thought and got it stuck at the top. It was hilarious and we spent about 10 minutes getting it out. It was a great addition to our adventure.

Next on the way to the volcano we stopped at Punalu'u black sand beach. This sand was courser but amazingly shiny. It looks like you were walking in little gems. There were also a lot of turtles here. I was very excited. When we finally got to Volcano National park we first went to the steam vents. Which is where freshwater gets down into the heated volcanic rocks and puts out steam. It really makes you realize that we're standing not that far from lava.

We went on a 6 mile hike past the active crater (we didn't see any actual lava), down through the jungle and across the Kiluea'iki Caldera (less than 100 years ago it was a big lava lake) and back up through the jungle with a stop at Thurston Lava tube (a lava tube is where the lava flows and the surface hardens, making a tube). It was a great hike since we got to see so many different things in a pretty short area. These pictures don't do a volcano justice, keep in mind that it's all much bigger than it looks. Part of the hike was a two lane road destroyed by the volcano which is being taken over by jungle. This is what everything will look like after the zombie apocalypse. It makes me think of Ents. I think we took a picture of every piece of lava on the island.This picture cracks me up.

This is a new fern leaf unrolling. Beginning of the lava tube.

End of the lava tube. (Here is a insider secret: we left so much gas at the end of this cave that people will probably be breathing for the next 100 years. Too much junk food) After our hike we went to dinner at the nearby Volcano town. We went to one of the only restaurants and were told it was a 15-20 minute wait. 2 hours later we were seated and 45 minutes later we ate (it was incredibly delicious). This is Jared and Tyrus after our meal waiting yet again, this time for our bill. This is the same volcano vent shown above, this time at night. Tuesday was another lazy beach day, this time we went to Kahalu'u Beach Park for some awesome, easy snorkeling. The fish were so cool. Here are they guys and the girls before our beach activities of snorkeling and laying.

That night we went on a Manta Ray night dive. There are a couple places where there are lights in the water to attract plankton, then huge Manta Rays (no stingers) come and eat the plankton. I was so excited to do this and talked everybody else into it. The issue of sea-sickness never even crossed my mind. Here we are before the nightmare voyage.

Jared got sick pretty much immediately and then Julieanne. I managed to hold off until I got in the water. Here is me making fun of Jared, because I thought it was funny until I got sick myself. It was a total nightmare and we couldn't wait to get back to dry land. Barfing all over yourself in the ocean is no fun for anyone but the fish waiting for dinner. Wednesday was our day in Hilo. The Big Island is so big it has amazingly diverse climates. We spent most of our time in Kona, where it's dry, but we want ed to go over to the other side to see all of the jungle and waterfalls, it took about 2 hours to get there. Unfortunately in the morning I was still feeling a little woozy from the boat the night before. We stopped and got Bonine, which is for motion sickness and supposed to not make you drowsy. Unfortunately we were all super drowsy. I felt so tired I could barely focus my eyes. One of my favorite things about going anywhere is seeing the different kinds of plants and trees that grow. We came up on these enormous Banyan trees which are easily the biggest trees I've ever seen in my life. They're so cool. A local guy said you can see them from space. We rock hopped to this somewhat remote waterfall and frolicked in it.Next up was Akaka falls. We didn't frolick in this one but did climb up and peeked over the top.

We went to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. We have about a 200 pictures, I'll pick my favorites. After that we needed another easy day, so Thursday we went back to Hapuna to try and boogie board in the awesome waves that we swam in earlier. Unfortunately, the waves weren't there this time. We went to Kiholo bay again, and this time had it all to ourselves except for a ton of turtles. We brought our snorkel masks and swam with them and watched them eat. Once I was following behind one, I left it and turned to go back when I saw another one looking at me about two feet away from my face. Friday we went kayaking in Kealakekua Bay (Captain Cook monument). We went snorkeling there, which is supposed to be one of the best spots in Hawaii. Tons of fish, eel, coral, it was great. There is a pod of spinner dolphins in the bay and they came over while Jared and Tyrus snorkeling and they listened to them and saw them about 10 feet away. On the kayak back we got right in the middle of about 30 dolphins who were swimming and jumping all around us. It was incredible to hear them breath 6 feet away. After that we went to "Place of Refuge" to see some historical stuff. For dinner we went to a Luau. Kalua Pork, fish, poi, jello, cakes, delightful. It was followed by Polynesian dancing. It was a lot cooler than it sounds. Our last day was Saturday, we went to Waipi'o valley. The road into the valley has a 25% grade and requires 4 wheel drive. There is even a station at the top to make sure you have it and coach you how to get down. There is a black sand beach at the bottom and loads of waterfall and gorgeous scenery. We hobbled along the very rock shore to get to a waterfall, chilled on the beach for awhile, and drove as close as we could get to this 1450 foot waterfall at the end of the valley. After the valley we went to another beach park through a lava flow, it's cool to see the way the lava flowed down the mountain. We also made a final stop at our favorite burger restaurant called Ultimate burger, and it was seriously, the ULTIMATE BURGER. The whole time we ate like pigs, which was so awesome. Overall we had a great trip. These explainations and pictures, though very lengthy, can only express 1% of the awesomeness. It was our first REAL vacation, we didn't even have a honeymoon. We plan to save our pennies so that we can do it again in a couple years.