Dane spoiled me and took me to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I had never been there before. He went last summer with his grandma. So this was a new experience for both of us! Having a whole week to ourselves in the beautiful state of Hawaii!
We flew out the day after our wedding and flew straight to O'ahu. It was a long flight, but luckily they had movies and games right in front of our faces to keep us entertained!
After we got our rental car, we drove the "scenic route" up the coast to our resort on the North Shore. We stopped for dinner and I let Dane talk to the birds for a few minutes. He loved it and they loved him!
The view from our balcony at Turtle Bay was absolutely gorgeous. We could see the resort pools and the ocean. We were 6 floors up, on the top floor, so it was the best view ever!
While in Hawaii, we did lots of fun things!! One of our favorites was snorkeling! We snorkled at 4 different beaches and liked some better than others, although all of it was fun! My fabulous cousins gave us an underwater digital camera which made it 100 times more exciting! I'm not the best at taking underwater pictures, but I sure tried!
We also hung out at the beach some too, although we preferred being in the water rather than on the sand. :)
One night we found a pretty spot by the resort to watch the sunset. We took dinner with us and got there quite early so we could get a good spot. We had fun playing with our new camera. When it was finally time for the sunset, the sun was hidden behind the clouds. We were kind of sad...
One day we went to the Lai'e Temple. It was beautiful!! We were able to do a session and sealings and then of course, take pictures on the Temple grounds!
After the Temple, we drove/walked around BYU-Hawaii. Then we headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center for some fun! I think this was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip.
We loved watching the dancers on the canoes during the canoe parade.
We ate dinner at the Luau which was yummy and fun! Then we watched their show that night. It was an amazing show...and it didn't hurt that we were on the 2nd row!
One day we went and found a really cool tree (that is apparently in Pirates of the Carribean). The branches grow down and then root into the ground. Super cool!
One day we went to Pearl Harbor. Actually, we went two different days. The first day we learned that if you don't get there before 10 am, you won't get a parking spot and it is so crazy busy it's not worth the fight. So the second day we went we got there before 10 am (8:30 to be exact) and got tickets to go to the Arizona Memorial at noon (the earliest they had). That gave us lots of time to wander around and learn about Pearl Harbor, which I thought was really neat!
While waiting for our 12:00 departure to the Arizona Memorial, we were able to listen to a survivor share his story on film. He was a cute old man and it was neat to hear the detailed descriptions.
We finally made it to 12:00 and went to the memorial. It was a really neat experience. I learned a lot and gained even more respect for those who have fought and who are still fighting for our country!
The names on the smaller wall are the names of the soldiers who have chosen to be buried with their shipmates. There are 35 so far with another one coming up in September. I thought that was really cool. Such a special feeling!
Our new camera has a panoramic setting so we tried that out a bunch wherever we went...we're such nerds...here's some of what we got!
Our last night there, we went out to dinner at a restaurant at our resort. We treated ourselves to yummy smoothies and of course had to document that! Pardon my horrific appearance...poor Dane had to put up with that pretty much the whole week! :)
After a week of fun, it was time to come home. We did some shopping at the swap meet on the way to the airport to pick up some souvenirs and then took the red eye home. Needless to say, we were exhausted...and very sad to come home!!
