Honeymoon (Final Post!)

So, I don't have too many worthwhile pics from this day. Just a couple. Thursday was our last day on the honeymoon. In the morning we headed back up to the North West coast to Hanalei Bay. It's, once again, breathtakingly beautiful, with sparkling blue water, green mountains and swaying palm trees. There's also a nice reef, so we went snorkeling there. By far, the best part was when we found a sea turtle! We were so captivated we must have watched it for at least a half hour. What was great was that it didn't fight the current at all. It would just kind of sway with it and go up and down and find fish as it went. It didn't mind that we were there either and I got close enough so that several times we were staring into each other's eyes. Don't think Tom's eyes were the only ones I stared into on the honeymoon. It totally reminded me of "Finding Nemo." Any second I expected him to turn to me and say, "wooooah dude."

After the Bay we had just enough time to have dinner at a restaurant called the Blue Dolphin. It was a really nice restaurant with a great atmosphere and great food and was a great way to end the honeymoon. Then we drove straight to the airport for our 10 pm flight. And it was off to get ready for Tom to take the BAR and for the both of us to move out of the country!

1: Hanalei Bay

2: View across the street from the Blue Dolphin

Honeymoon! (Part 3)

On Wednesday, we had our only actually scheduled activity. Ziplining! While it, honestly, wasn't quite as scary as I'd hoped it would be, it was nevertheless a very enjoyable activity. Our group actually consisted mostly of middle aged people who were all very friendly and endearing. The location was also really nice. And thrilling or not, soaring through the air is still fun. The good thing about the tour we did, I think, was that we got to go on something between 7 and 9 ziplines whereas most only go on 3 - 5. We also got to go on a suspension bridge. All the photos are of Tom, of course.

1: The suspension bridge.

2: I love how Tom is taking a very hardcore headfirst jump here.

3: Ziplining in action.

And, just kidding, there's one more honeymoon post!

Honeymoon (Day 2)

On Tuesday, we headed around to the north west part of the island. Kauai has only one main road, by the way, and it goes all the way around the island except it doesn't connect on the west part of the island because the canyon is too big. In other words, if you were in the south west, you'd have to head east and go all the way around the island to get to the north west. Luckily, it's a very pretty road. We drove it each day in this really ghetto car that we rented for $27/day while we listened to reggae on the radio. If I had to give these posts a soundtrack, this song would be on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZw5AC_re6I&feature=related .

Anyway, so we headed to the north west part of the island where we ended up taking another hike. Once again, a completely unforgettable experience. For this hike, we walked two miles on a trail that looked out on the ocean. Then, we reached a small beach that was just beautiful. We took a little break there and then hiked inland for two more miles through what looked, pretty much, like a jungle. This part was especially fun because it wasn't just leisurely walking, it was climbing over boulders and, well, trying to follow that path, which wasn't always easy. Basically, we felt like Indiana Jones much of the time. The trail ends at this really high waterfall with a pool underneath that you can just swim in. It was great. After that, of course, we had to hike all the way back. 8 miles total. We were SO tired by the end, especially since the trail was so strenuous and also because, well, we didn't bring much food or water. We tend to do that. Anyway, here are the pictures from Tuesday!

1: Just a place we stopped at along the way. Tom's looking at the ocean and, of course, I'm looking at Tom :) .

2: I know it doesn't look that amazing in the picture, but this was a big wall of rock with, literally, trees growing out of the side of it in all directions. It was...well...wicked.

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4: This was at a garden we stopped at along our drive.

5: On the trail by the ocean.

6: Tom buried in the sand at the little beach half way through the hike.

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8: The waterfall at the end.

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One more honeymoon post to come!

Honeymoon! (Part 1)

So, I'm getting closer and closer to being up to date here. That's exciting! This post is all about the honeymoon. Tom planned the whole thing and kept it a surprise until we got to the airport. I wouldn't have had it any other way! While I LOVE planning trips, if he hadn't done it that way I would have spent TONS of time agonizing over all the little details to make sure it was THE BEST and I just didn't have that kind of time. It made it that much more of a relaxing vacation. Anyway, I suppose I should say, we went to Kauai! It was the perfect place to go. Amazingly beautiful, with just enough to do so that we didn't get bored and not enough things so that we felt like we were missing out if we took the week really slow. We did so many amazing things, but at just the right pace.

We arrived on Saturday evening and all we did that night was take a walk down the road to get some food. Our hotel was right on the beach and we could see and hear it from our room. One nice thing about Kauai, though, is that there's some building ordinance that makes it so buildings can't be very high. As a result, you don't have those big ritzy resorts like other places. Our hotel was nice, but felt much more down to earth and we loved it.

Anyway, second day was Sunday. We didn't have a car still, but we wanted to go to church (you know, start off the marriage right), so we looked up where it was and just started walking. Took a little longer than we thought it would and we got lost along the way, but we found it and were about to attend for a couple hours. It was such a nice, slow, laid back day. Perfect way to start it off.

Monday morning we took it slow and then rented a car around noon. First we checked out this waterfall the guy who rented the car to us had recommended. Then we headed out to the south western end of the island. There was this fabulous gorge that we walked around by. Then, we ended up going on this AMAZING hike. It was probably the best hike I've ever been on. First of all, the views were beyond description and I was not able to do them justice or any semblance of it, in these photos. Second of all, the trail was a red dirt trail and it was raining, so it ended up being really muddy, which we just embraced and had so much fun with. We got it all over ourselves. It was much more of an adventurous hands on hike, which made it great. All the following photos are from Monday.

1: The waterfall.

2: My handsome husband.

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4: Another waterfall right next to the first.

5: The canyon. It was really really big. Reminded me of the Grand Canyon actually.

6: It doesn't look that big in these photos, but in some other spots it was even bigger. I think it was called Waimea Canyon. He's a stud.

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8: Random little stream, running through the red rock, that was neat.

9: This was taken on the hike. This was the trail and if you look to the left, there was a huge canyon that led out to the sea. I wish I could explain it. This is where Jurassic Park was filmed.

10: One was of the aforementioned canyon.

11: The canyon. It was this crazy bright color of green. It was also all misty, which was just beautiful.

12: So many ferns.

13: Covered in mud. Doesn't look as impressive as it was in person.

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15: Our shoes. Those were the only shoes Tom brought...

More in the next post!