Hawaii - Day 5

Hey, remember when we went to Hawaii 100 years ago?  Well - here is Day 5 in case anyone out there is interested!

On Day 5 we of course got up and went to the beach but after that headed to Laie to visit the Temple, BYU Hawaii and the Polynesion Cultural Center. 

The Temple was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  It was just so breath taking and amazing.  We enjoyed walking around and taking it all in for a few minutes!

 We saw tons of these amazing trees when we were in Hawaii.

 We did a little walking around BYU Hawaii and then it was off the PCC.  We had such a blast there - although I am pretty sure it was approximately 250 degrees that day. 

 Tree climbing!

 Getting ready for our canoe ride.

 On our canoe ride.  This was fun but also kind of a life saver since it took us back up to the front of park for dinner. I don't think I could have done much more walking!

 Luau!

 Dinner - Yum!

 We had some time to spare before the show so we did a little more walking around and enjoying the scenery once our tummies were full! (p.s. - it's totally true that you don't know what you look like for sure until you see a picture and let's be honest, this dress is the most unflattering thing in the entire world.  What on earth was I thinking?  Ah well...)

The show was amazing but we weren't able to take pictures.  Another amazing day in Hawaii  down.  Man - I wish I was there right now!  OK, so let's see if I can squeeze day 6 out before January.  Ha!

Hawaii - Day 4

Day 4 in Hawaii was another great day.  We decided to head up to Hanauma Bay which is a FANTASTIC spot for snorkeling and so so beautiful.  The day we were there it was pretty overcast and a little windy but it was still such a great time!  When I went there as a teenager I just remember going straight down to the beach but they have changed it to where you have to watch a little video before heading down...which was interesting.  It had a little song on it that Scot and I couldn't get out of our heads and that we sang the rest of the trip!  It was really close to the tune of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid.  Ha!

 (Hanauma Bay from the trail above)

 (Our snorkel stuff - we brought our own!  Not too keen on using a mouth piece four billion other people have used!)

 (Just relaxing on the beach before heading out again)

 (Looking hot with our snorkel gear on)

 (Heading out, back to the car)

After Hanauma Bay we went back to our hotel and got changed and then decided to go to Valley of the Temples to check out the Byodo-In Temple.  It was very peaceful and quiet and zen there - I probably could have just laid down in the grass and taken a nap there pretty easily.  They had these beautiful koi ponds and gardens which were really neat.

 (standing in front of the temple)

If you ring the bell you will have good luck but I didn't do it for some reason.  I should have!  Dang - guess I better go back.

Once we got back to Honolulu we walked around some of the shops and then headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner where we had a 2 hour wait, but that's the beauty of Hawaii - when you are there you don't care about waiting (plus - there was some GREAT people watching for sure)!  After dinner we ordered some cheesecake to go because we were too stuffed to eat it right then! So we did some strolling along the shops and the beach and that was the end of day 4!!

p.s. if you are ever in the business of people watching, the family next to us who was also waiting to go in to The Cheesecake Factory were playing this game where they would guess what state the people walking by were from.  It was actually pretty entertaining. Just a thought.

Hawaii - Day 3

On day 3 we got up and headed over to the International Marketplace to check it out.  It's basically just a bunch of little kiosks and stores that sell the same jewelry, shirts, wraps, etc. but still fun to walk through.

(I totally don't know how to pose for pictures when I am alone so I know I look stupid and awkward ok?)

After the Marketplace we went over to Cheese Burger Waikiki for some lunch.

The Market didn't take as long as I had thought so after that and lunch we decided to hike Diamond Head.  I am a lazy sack of potatoes and especially so on vacation and this hike was a little more vigorous than I had heard but we had a great time and the views were well worth the effort so I will let it slide.  Ha ha!

 (They are big time recyclers on the island.  Love that!)

 (Creepy stair case and bad camera angle)

 (Tons of stairs!!)

(I got my shave ice!  YUM)

After this little adventure we decided we needed a little beach time in our life so we headed back to our hotel and went to Waikiki Beach.

We were pretty much DONE by this point in the day so we just picked up Panda Express and took it back to our room.  We are such adventurous party animals!!

Hawaii - Day 2

Day two in Hawaii was a pretty laid back and more of an exploration day.  I woke up at the CRACKER of dawn because my internal time clock was all messed up.  There is a 4 hour time difference between Colorado and Hawaii so I was up and wide awake around 4:30am because for me that was technically 8:30am which is sleeping in in my world.  Scot on the other hand had no problems with this.  He just snoozed away - luckily this was the only day that I had problems with it as well. 

Once we were up and at 'em we walked down to the main drag for some breakfast and then headed off to Waikiki Beach for a little swimming and sun bathing.  It was WONDERFUL!!  Waikiki Beach is insanely busy but we loved it.  The atmosphere was fun and laid back - the sun was shining, the water was warm, how could you not be having a good time?

(chillaxin' on the beach)

(see what I mean?  TONS of people. This was still fairly early in the day so it would only get busier. Oh and P.S. this guy with the white sweatshirt to the right of the picture totally went swimming in the ocean in his hoodie and sweat pants.)

(Scot is out there somewhere...can you find him?)

(Scot's sand creation)

Once we had had enough sun we went back to the hotel to get ready and go for a little drive around the island.  Some of the reasoning behind that was that Scot had torn up his foot on some rocks when he was out swimming.  In all honesty we probably should have taken him to the EmergiCare for stitches but he was not having that so we stopped at a nearby Wal Mart.  HOLY CRAP BALLS BATMAN.  I will NEVER complain about our Wal Marts ever again!  I could not believe the amount of people at this Wal Mart.  It was INSANITY!  They had a parking garage that was a total mad house which should have been our first clue to not go in and to go find another one.  The parking garage was for Wal Mart and Sams Club so you can imagine how crazy it was plus it was Saturday afternoon.  Anyway so we got some waterproof bandaids and some of that paint on skin stuff and dealt with it that way all week. 

Our drive was beautiful.  I don't really have any pictures from it because we didn't want to get out and walk a lot since Scot's foot was so messed up but we had a great time exploring and seeing the island.  Oahu is a beautiful place!

That night we walked along Kalakaua Ave. and got some dinner at Wolfgang Puck and just walked through the shops.  Kalakaua Ave. has anything from high end retail store like Prada, Coach, Tiffany's to surf shops and hundreds of ABC stores.  We spent a lot of time here. 

(In our hotel room just before heading out for dinner)

(gorgeous sunset along the beach)

(beach front hotels all lit up)

Only 6 more days to go!!

Hawaii - Day 1

Hello blogging world!  I finally have something worthy of blogging!   Horray!  Scot and I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Hawaii so here is our trip day by day.  Get ready for picture overload!!

(I will be posting all of our pictures on Facebook if anyone is interested because a lot of them won't make the blog cut...it's too much of a pain to upload pictures on here...)

On the first day of our vacation we flew from Denver to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Honolulu - arriving in Honolulu around 1:30 in the afternoon for a total of around 8 hours of flight time.  When we were planning this trip I was thinking that would be an unbearable amount of time to be on a plane but it ended up not being too bad.  I just read magazines, watched the movies they had playing on the plane and got through it. 

(I had my Tom's on and I was ready to go!  On Thursday night we stayed in Denver at a hotel near the airport so that we could just go straight over in the morning and catch our flight.  When we got to Denver Scot realized that in all the excitement he had left his shoes at home so he got a new pair of kicks!)

Once we landed in Honolulu we were shuttled over to pick up our rental car and then we headed over to check in to our hotel.

 

(Hotel Entrance)

By the time we got done with check in we were starving so we walked over to some of the shops near our hotel and started exploring places to eat dinner.  We found a little food court area with a whole bunch of different restaurants and got us some Hawaiian Barbeque!  Yummo!!  After dinner we walked down to Waikiki Beach and walked along the water and watched the sun go down with a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds.  So classy, I know!  On our way back to our hotel we were stopped by some kids raising money for their basketball team and ended up buying leis from them. 

 (Posing with our new leis on our balcony)

(awwww - so precious...)

And that, my friends, was day one in Hawaii - already having a great time and super excited for the week ahead!!  Come back for day 2!!

Manitou Incline

Scot and I have been talking about hiking the Incline for a long time but I've always been too chicken to do it!...See THIS post from a while back.  FINALLY a few Saturdays ago we bucked up and did it and I'm so glad we did!  It felt like such an accomplishment when we got to the top which I wasn't expecting for some reason, but, we felt great and we finally fulfilled one of our long time goals!

It definitely wasn't easy getting to the top and there may or may not have been a moment where I had to pull off the trail and lay down on a rock but WE DID IT!  Yay!!

The views of Colorado Springs once we got to the top alone was worth it!  We feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place!