Hawaii Trip

Well, Dave and I just got back from our trip to Hawaii, and had a great time. We took tons of pictures, that's what Dave likes to do, and so I posted a bunch here and I'll let you know what we did. We were lucky enough that we got to spend the week in Hawaii during it's biggest storm in the last 50 years!! The weather was crazy, but we made the most of it! (We're just thankful my sister survived the week at home with all the kids! Thanks again, Denise and Mom :) We boarded the Pride of Hawaii cruise ship on Monday evening, and it was really nice. It was a newer ship, so everything was in great shape, and nicely done. Here is the pool deck, where there were 4 jacuzzis and a water slide.

Tuesday morning we stopped at our first island, the Big Island of Hawaii. We were in Hilo and the weather looked ok, a little cloudy, but still sunny. We rented a car and drove up the island to Volcano National Park. It poured rain the whole time!! They usually get some rain up there, but not as much as we saw. We kept wanting to get out to look at all the volcano stuff, so we got some cheap ponchos to wear to keep us a little drier. Dave and I hiked out to this one spot to see the big crater, and it was so foggy and rainy, you walked up to the edge and all you could see was mist. You couldn't see any part of the crater below. Bummer. Oh well. So, we kept driving through the rain, and went down the road to the southern coast of the island to where there was finally no rain.

We got to hike out this road where it was covered in 2003 by lava from the volcano eruption. This is the end of the road, and behind us you can see the black lava that came across the road, and then hardened with time. It was pretty crazy to see. Pretty cool.

Then we drove back through the rain in the park again, and came back down to the Hilo side of the island again. The weather was cloudy, but not as rainy as it was up in the mountain. We really wanted to see a black sand beach, as we heard there were lots of them on this island, and luckily we found a small one (really small) that we could walk out on. I'd never been to a black sand beach, and it was fun to see. It was a good day, a little wet, but we figured that would be the end to the rain we'd have on our trip. Little did we know...........

Wednesday and Thursday the ship was in Maui. These 2 days happened to be the worst of the storm. It was crazy how much rain and wind the island got. We rented a car, and drove around. We felt like we were in a hurricane! Lightening hit once so close, I thought it was going to strike me!! The power went out on a lot of the island, and police were at every corner directing the traffic. Roads were flooded, and the water was all brown and yucky from all the churning it was doing!! Maui did not have the pretty blue water we were hoping to see. It stopped raining enough for us to hop out and get a picture on the beach. See how cloudy the sky is, and how brown the water is?! Bummer! We were supposed to do a sunrise bike ride down the volcano on Thursday morning there, but of course it was canceled. We made the most of it, and rented a car again, and drove down the Road to Hana. We stopped at some pretty sites, and drove through more rain. It was really green, though!!

Friday we were supposed to go into port in Kona, Hawaii. (The other side of the Big Island) The port there is too shallow to pull the ship into, so they bring you onto shore in tender boats. Well, the water was too choppy from the storm, so the Captain said we couldn't go into shore, and we'd have to spend the day at sea. We were disappointed because we were supposed to do this really cool snorkel excursion there, and couldn't do it. Oh well, what do you do? We spent the day hanging out on the deck, and I even got a massage at the spa on the ship. (That felt good.) The sun poked out every now and then, and I got this cool shot in front of one of the many rainbows we saw. (Too bad here it is Friday and I still hadn't gotten in the ocean yet!!!)

Saturday and Sunday was our last stop in Kauai. I was very excited about this stop as I'd never been there, and had heard lots of good things about this island. We had a Zip Line tour scheduled for Saturday, and were glad that they run this tour, rain or shine!! Well, that was good cuz we had lots of rain!! We had never done this before and it was awesome!! We really enjoyed it! You had 8 different zip lines you went across, and it was over these big green valleys! The longest zip was 2 and a half football fields long!! It was beautiful, and we got soaked and muddy!!

Here's Dave enjoying one of the zip lines. We definitely want to do this again!! (see bottom of post for a fun video I took during my last zip line.)

The next day we walked over to the Marriott Hotel that is right by the port and saw this weather report. You have to read it, it's so funny. (there is a coconut hanging from the rope next to the sign.) Needless to say, the coconut was wet, swaying, cool, blue, but thankfully not shaking or gone :)

Well, day 6 of our trip and FINALLY the sun decided to poke out, but the waves weren't real big where we were, so we rented this paddle board and tried paddle surfing. I'd heard about it before but we'd never done it. It was so fun!! It's a good core workout. Dave loved it so much he wants to buy one for himself. (I reminded him we live in Arizona. Not very good waves, here.) I was just happy to be on the beach with no rain drops falling on me.

Then Sunday we had to be back on the boat early so the ship could drive by the Napali coast. If you've never heard of it, it's a part of the island that you can't get to except by helicopter or boat. It's famous for it's beautiful scenery, and has been filmed in many movies. It's supposedly the prettiest part in all of Hawaii. Dave took this panoramic picture, but you can see one spot he didn't paste it very well together. But it does give you a good idea of what it looks like. It was beautiful!! I loved all the jagged cliffs! (We were worried because at first it was so foggy and overcast you could barely see it, but then it cleared up enough you could see. The fog still hung out on the tops of the mountains, but at least we got to see it.)

And that evening, right as we got to the end of the Napali coast, we were able to witness one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd ever seen! It was incredible being out there on the ship with this in front of you!!!!!

Well, Monday morning we got off the ship as the cruise was over. We were in Oahu, and we rented a car since our plane didn't leave till 11:00 pm, so we had the whole day. Well, we drove up to Hanauma Bay and were FINALLY able to do some snorkeling!! It was so fun, and I wish we could have done more of it. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and I'm grateful we at least got to finish the trip off with some sun.

My sister has the coolest underwater digital camera we borrowed and we got to get some cool pictures of the fish.

We then drove to Waikiki beach where Dave rented a surf board for a couple of hours, and I laid on the sand and read and slept. It was so nice! Then we watched the sunset, and headed over to Cheeseburger in Paradise for some dinner. After dinner we shopped for souvenirs, and then headed to the airport. It was a great day, and we wished we could have had more sunny days like that.

Despite the weather, we made the most of it and had a great time. We love Hawaii and can't wait to go back. (Only next time we're not going in December. We saw enough rain to last us a lifetime!!! :)

Here's that fun video I took ziplining. Take a look......