Hawai'i: Part 1

I was hoping to have the post from our Hawai'i trip up by now, but my last minute trip to Kansas this week sort of took priority. I'm back now though and now my goal is to have these posts done before heading back to Kansas next weekend (a planned trip).

We left early Thursday morning from San Francisco and arrived in Honolulu around lunchtime. Most of the flight Kevin and I spent pouring over our guidebook trying to pinpoint the stuff that we really wanted to do. As if we weren't excited enough about our trip already the book got us really pumped up. The book "O'ahu Revealed" became very valuable to us and we were very glad that we purchased it.

After picking up our rental car and stopping at WalMart (we picked up a few useful items for our week there including bamboo mats for the beach and water shoes which definitely came in handy) we were finally able to head over to our hotel and check-in. A little while later we got a call from the front desk that we had a delivery.

Brian, Moria, Sarah, and Jonathan had sent us some wine, champagne, and snacks. We were incredibly surprised and delighted with the gift.
After grabbing some dinner we walked a few blocks to the beach in Waikiki where we were staying. We made it just in time for sunset.

This picture reminds me of a post card.
Kevin on Waikiki beach with Diamond Head Crater in the background.
Only in O'ahu for a few hours and already have the most wonderful time.
We took our time walking back to our hotel so we could explore the Waikiki area. This is a statue of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku. The Duke was a 5 time Olympic medalist for swimming and also played a crucial role in the popularization of surfing which at the time was really only known in Hawai'i.
The next day, our anniversary, we decided to get up early to try and catch the sunrise at Makapu'u Point located on the southeastern part of the island. We missed the sun coming up over the horizon but that didn't take away from how beautiful the morning turned out to be.
From Makapu'u Point we spent time whale watching. We saw a ton of whale spouts and even a tail at one point. This is the time of year when the humpback whales are migrating back to Alaska for feeding and over that weekend there were apparently 1600 whale sightings. I wished I would have seen one breach or poke his head out of the water but hopefully I'll have other opportunities for that.

We hiked a little further up to Makapu'u Head where we caught some more amazing views. This is a view of Kaohikaipu Island and Manana (Rabbit) Island.

The same islets from a different view. I just loved the stunning colors and wanted to put in another picture. Rabbit island did have introduced rabbits at one time but were eradicated because they were destroying the ecosystem. Both of the islands are now bird sanctuaries for many different types of birds and access to the islands is restricted.
A view of Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. The point above it is where we were when we were whale watching.
Our guidebook told us about something really cool that was not advertised on the Makapu'u trail. It was a somewhat steep but short hike down to a lava bed. We were searching for 'Dragon's Nostril's' which are two blowholes formed from tubes in the lava itself. After only a little ways down the "trail" we were already able to see them going off.

This is the lava bed. I took the picture as soon as it came into view while we headed down.
Here is Kevin standing next to the Nostril's. They were so loud and it was a little nerve racking getting close to them (I went over a little later). It was really cool to see though.
The lava bed also has a bunch of tide pools that we were able to swim in since the water was calm. We spent quite a bit of time hanging out in the water and watching the fish and other marine life.
The water felt so good and we were grateful for our water shoes!
We spent a solid hour and a half down by the pools before deciding to head back up. During that entire time there was nobody else there which was really cool. It wasn't until our hike back up that we saw a couple of people making the trek down.
Since we were close to the Windward or East side of the island we thought we would head to the beach for awhile. We did a little swimming in the water and relaxed for a bit in the sun.
View from Kailua Beach.
After our fill of the beach for the day we headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up. We had another surprise there for us. This one was from Kevin's Mom and Dad. It was so pretty I didn't want to take fruit off of it but I did and it was delicious!
The Hilton Waikiki Village has a Polynesian show followed by a fireworks display over the ocean every Friday night so we wanted to head over to check it out.

Happy 5th Anniversary!
We opted out of paying for poolside seating and found seating a ways back closer to the hotel. We could still catch enough of the show from where we were and there was a pond full of flamingo's right in front of us! Since the show was mediocre at best we were happy to be where we were.
After the show there was an incredible fireworks display that we really enjoyed.

Afterward we headed to a restaurant and grabbed a table with a view of the beach and a band was playing. We had such a fantastic day and it was only the first full day of our trip.