Oahu

Ok, so we left off on Tuesday May 5th...

May 5th - we flew to Oahu to spend the rest of our time. That day we checked into the Hilton Hawaiian Village (we stayed there lats year) and got settled. Then that evening we did a sunset walk down Waikiki Beach and headed to dinner at Roys. It was a beautiful walk.

May 6th - We drove over to Kailua and then north up to the North Shore. We stopped in the Kahuku area at the shrimp trucks for lunch. These places harvest their own shrimp and then cook them fresh for you that day. It was yummy!! We were hoping to be able to do some snorkeling in the north shore area, but the seas were too rough. May is a transition month for Oahu's north shore. In the Winter it is the big waves, in the summer it is calm and there can be some great snorkeling. We also stopped off at a fresh fruit stand and Michael was very happy. He found some good fruit, but was sad because the one he wanted isn't ready until the summer. He has been looking everywhere for Santol, which he had in the Phillipines, but no has it. But this one stand told him they have it, it just isn't the season. But he got some good fruit from there and they had some Banana Lumpia - Yummy!! From the north shore we drove over the Ko Olina area to try the snorkeling. They are man made lagoons that are nice and calm for swimming, but not good snorkeling. But hey we were in the water, and that is all that matters. We were also able to find some Malasadas which are Portuguese doughnuts. Delicious when hot!

May 7th - We got up early and went to Hanauma Bay for snorkeling for the day. It was a hot day and it felt nice to go in the water. We spent a good portion of the day there swimming, snorkeling, relaxing. It was so nice. I love the ocean and I love being able to swim in it.

May 8th - We got up early and headed to Chinatown to look around. We had some great mauna Pua and some good pancit at the market. We were also able to find some mumus for Michael's mom. After chinatown we went back to Hanauma Bay for the late afternoon. We were really hoping to see some turtles and get some pictures of them. We saw a turtle there last year, and we saw a turtle at Anini Beach in Kauai, but didn't have our camera. We were in luck, we saw 4 turtles and got great pictures. In the evening, we watched fireworks at our resort and had a nice dinner.

May 9th - We relaxed in the morning and then flew back home. We were sad to leave. I love the ocean and it is even better when the water is warm and you can swim in it - unlike here in the Pacific NW. We were able to snorkel almost every day we were in Hawaii. We hope to go back again in the future. Next time we go, we will likely bring Arianna with us.

Here are some pictures - this is just a small fraction of all the pictures we took. I think we are just about ready to put up the link for the other pictures. REmember you can click on the picture to make it bigger!!

Turtle at Hanauma Bay
2 Turtles at Hanauma Bay

Butterfly fish

Pink coral

Parrot Fish

Eel

Groups of fish while we were scuba diving

Turtle at Hanauma Bay

Michael and Kara at Hanauma Bay

Kara at Hanauma Bay

Michael and Kara scuba diving for 1st time

Kara scuba diving

Waikiki Beach - view from our resort

Lizard who decided to join us at our table on our last day

Another lizard that joined us!

People learning to surf at Waikiki

Full Moon over Diamond Head

Sailboats out on the water of Waikiki - view from our room

Plumeria - popular flower in Hawaii - they are my fav

Hanauma Bay

View of Diamond Head from our room.

Kara in front of Chinamans Hat - near Kailua

Kauai pictures

Wailua Falls - the waterfalls from TV Show Fantasy Island
Bird sitting at top of tree

Quenns Bath - when seas are calm you can swim there

This is how it was when we were there - thus no swimming

Part of hike to Queens Bath

Hikers on the Kalalau Trail that goes along Na Pali Coast ( i believe it is 11 miles)

Sea Cave along Na Pali Coast

Dolphin on our snorkel cruise

More dolphins

North Shore of Kauai

From boat on our snorkel cruise

Queens Pond at Polihale State Park on Kauai's west coast

Nihau island in the distance - private island

Looking out at ocean from lookout in Waimea Canyon

Fern in the forest

Waimea Canyon

More Waimean Canyon

Okay, here are a few pictures. We are working on sorting and then will upload them to a site where you can see all of the pictures we took :)

A few things about Kauai that I forgot to mention. The island is made up of red dirt and it is everywhere and it stains. Also, the island is covered and chickens and roosters. They are everywhere and you can hear them all of the time, no matter where you are. Several movies were made on the island as well as TV shows (Jurassic Park, Fantasy Island, Parts of some Indiana Jones, and a bunch of others)

Kauai part of Hawaii Trip

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii. No words can truly express how much fun we had and how relaxing it was. The food is always so good. I ate fresh fish almost every day. They have so many nice white fish there. Here is a little timeline of what we did. We will post some pictures after we have had a chance to sort through them.

April 30 - We flew into Lihue, Kauai in the afternoon. We got ourselves aquanited with the area that evening.

May 1 - We toured Waimea Canyon. it is a beautiful canyon and had some wonderful vistas and great hikes. We drove as far as we could on the road up the canyon, we were hoping to get a view of the Na Pali coast from the top, but the clouds were below us and blocked our view. After the drive back down we stopped in Waimea for Shave Ice. The shave ice in Hawaii is awesome. They put macadamia nut ice cream in the bottom and is delicious! After that treat we drove as far west as your are allowed and went to Polihale Beach State Park. Beautiful beach - very hot sand!!!. There was a nice protected swimming area called Queens Pond. We waded in the water, but didn't go swimming as we needed to start heading back to the room to prepare for the early morning comnig up.

May 2 - We got up very early to drive to Anini Beach where we boarded our boat for our snorkel/boat tour of the Na Pali Coast line. This is an area were some scenes from Jurassic park and lots of over movies were filmed. Kauai had lots of films shot there. The coastline is beautiful. There are several sea caves - unfortunately the swells were too high so we were not able to get inside the caves. On the way to our snorkel spot we saw a pod of dolphins. It was so exciting to see. There was even a little baby that kept bringing his head out of the water and splashing it down. A definite highlight for me! Our snorkel spot was fine. It was a little cloudy, but we still saw several fish. We noticed that here the fish were much bigger than the fish we saw last year on the Big Island. On our way back to dock we saw several sea turtles in the water, michael's cap blew off and the captian turned the boat around and they were actually able to find it - we were very surprised. Ohh, on our cruise the boat had 16 people on it, and 10 of us were from the Pacific NW. You can tell who the people are that need the sun! After the tour was done we had a snack and then went to Tunnels Beach and did more snorkeling. tunnels was a great spot to snorkel. After we were done snorkeling we both got some sunscreen in our eyes and so they were burning. we went and sat on the beach and put a towel over our head to block out the bright sun. While we were like this a bird landed on Michael's back!! Michael moved and the bird flew away, but we were laughing so hard.

May 3 - In the morning we had a hard time deciding what to do. We finally decided to see if we could go scuba diving for the first time. Some companies offer first timer guided scuba tours where they teach you the basics and then take you anywhere from 20-40 feet down. We called a company and were lucky enough to have a guide say that he would take us. Normally they have to have 4 people to go out, but he was willing to take us which was awesome. I was a little nervous - having to rely on the equipment to breathe and worrying about something not working. But I got over my fear and had a wonderful time. it was awesome!! We did 2 dives and on the 2nd dive we got to see something that is extremely rare in the coastal waters. We saw a seahorse. Seahorses in hawaii tend to stay way off coast and not come into the coastal areas. Our guide told us that most people who have lived and dived in Hawaii for most of their life have not seen a sea horse. Michael and I had a great time. Michael's ears had a little problem with the pressure, he just has to go extremely slow going down and up. We both would like to do it again in the future and might even look into getting certified. That evening we had a very yummy dinner at The Beach House Restaurant. A great way to end a great day.

May 4 - We had an adventure in ziplining. We went to Princeville Ranch Adventures and did 9 ziplines and also swam in a waterfall pool and jump off the ledge next to the waterfall. The ziplines were fun, but were not the adrenaline rush i thought it would be. I think it was because the trees were below us and so you could not actually see how far above the ground you were, but it was still a lot of fun and I am glad we did it. After the ziplining we had a snack and then did more snorkeling at Anini Beach. It is a very calm area that is protected by a large reef. It was very clear and we saw lots of fish. There were tons of baby fish that were just a little bigger then my thumbnail. They were sooo cute. We saw an octopus, and right before we were leaving we saw a green sea turtle. It was eating and just swimming around. Very cool.

May 5 - We unfortunately had to leave Kauai and fly to Honolulu for the 2nd part of our trip. We loved Kauai - very relaxed and casual. It was just our style. We look forward to going back there and having more adventures. There is so many activities you can do there - hiking, kayaking, helicpoter tours, etc.

To be continued....