Hawaii 2008!!

November 1st we left the colder (but unseasonably warm) Colorado Mountains for the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. We had so much fun and have been excited to show you some of our pictures. If anyone is going to Hawaii soon we’d love to give you any suggestions.

So, how we got to Hawaii...we actually won a cruise through Matt’s work. Classy Closets had a franchise competition last year (2007) and Matt worked amazingly hard and won a 7 day cruise to Hawaii. It was a tough decision but I’m so glad he chose me to go with him.

Here’s a picture of our ship, Pride of America.

Matt and I both fell in love with snorkeling. We snorkeled on every island. Our first port was on Maui. On one of our days there we took a catamaran to “snorkeler’s paradise” AKA Molokini Crater. It’s a crescent moon shaped island not too far from Maui. The water was amazingly clear and it was like swimming in an aquarium. The coral was just as cool as all the exotic fish.

We saw tons of turtles throughout our snorkeling adventures and for some reason we took a ton of pictures of them. Luckily for you I’m only putting one of the many pictures here. For those of you turtle lovers like us I couldn’t help but upload a few more pictures further down. So stay tuned.

Our next port was in Hilo on the Big Island (Hawaii). We rented a car and our first stop was Volcano National Park. We were amazed by the size of this crater we walked around and through. This one was a quarter of the size of the main one. There’s an active volcano in the far distance called Kilauea.

As always Matt had lots of fun posing for pictures.

And we’re back to the turtles…..this was so cool. It’s a black sand beach called Punalu'u. We were pumped to see quite a few turtles sleeping on the beach. There were also some hanging out eating in the rocks. I so wanted to touch them but it’s against the law, they’re endangered.

This is Akaka Falls. As you can see, it’s incredible. We saw so many really cool waterfalls. We never got tired of searching them out.



Each night on the cruise you could either eat in the nicer restaurants (formal attire) or the buffet (casual). We had fun dressing up. It felt like we were on a real date.

We left the port at Hilo and traveled to the other side of the Big Island, Kona. On our way we sailed passed the lava flow of Kilauea. Very cool. We didn’t take any pictures of Kona but it was still a really cool place. We mostly snorkeled.

Our favorite island was Kauai. It’s a beautiful island. In fact, it’s nickname is the garden isle. We were sad to sail away from here. We were here for two days and packed as much in as possible. We first drove to Hawaii’s grand canyon. It’s a quarter of the size of Arizona’s but still very astonishing. While viewing the canyon, we noticed some far away waterfalls and asked a man standing near us (local) how to get there. He gave us directions which we were thankful for because we wouldn’t have found them on our own. He also told us some other very cool places where the locals go. We felt lucky for running into him.

The waterfall....

This is a lamo picture of me but I've put it here so you can see that it's a shear drop off right over my shoulder. It was so worth the hike. Just incredible. Also whenever we come accross a new stream we have to put in our feet to honor Matt's mom who loves to do the same.

This is Kipu Falls (in Hawaiian it means keep out). That same man told us how to get here. His directions were “stop at the garbage cans before you hit a bridge. You’ll know you’re there because there will be a few cars parked on the side of the road. Look for a trail." You couldn’t see five feet in front of you from all of the sugar cane. Luckily the trail is so walked on that you can see where you’re going. This was the highlight of our trip. We had a ton of fun here. My favorite was the rope swing, but there’s cliff jumping too that Matt really liked. It’s a fresh water waterfall that has created an ideal place for jumping. The bottom is who knows how deep.

The next day on Kauai we surfed most of the day. Matt surfed growing up in California but this was my first time and I loved it. I can see how easily you could become addicted to this sport. It was awesome. I can’t wait to do it again.

Na Pali Coast is amazing. We sailed by it on the ship. To get there on foot it’s a 14 mile hike. You can’t drive there.

Our last day was spent on Oahu. We headed up to the North Shore to get some world famous Motsimoto shaved ice. It was delicious. We got it with ice cream. Definitely recommend trying it!!! We checked out Waimea Beach but it was packed so we went to Sunset Beach. Both beaches are beautiful. We stopped by the Hawaiian temple and walked around. Then waved as we passed the Cultural Center. We didn't have time to visit which we were sad about because everyone told us how amazing it is. Maybe next time.

This is Hanauma Bay. This was our second favorite snorkeling place. We saw the coolest fish, huge ones that we hadn't seen on any other island. It was a nice way to end our vacation.

We loved our trip and am glad to be home. The kids stayed with my parents on the farm and loved it. In fact whenever I called no one wanted to talk to me. Casey would get on and say in an annoyed voice "mom, I don't want to talk to you right now." I was happy they had so much fun and was very thankful for my parents taking such great care of our kids.