Hawaii (Day 9 & 10)

Day 9 was spent heading back to Honolulu. We left the ship at 9:45 that morning and had the pleasure of hanging out at the airport until our 3:30 flight. Then we had our 9 1/2 hour flight back home. We landed in Atlanta at 5:35 Sunday morning (day 10). Whew. What an exhausting trip. This was a sightseeing trip, not a lazy vacation by any means. We had the honor of seeing some sights that we will probably never see again. We'll leave you with some pictures of our ship and of our plane. Both were impressive.

Hawaii (Day 7 & 8)

Day 7 and 8 were spent in Kauai. We spent much of day 7 visiting Waimea Canyon. This was another scenic drive. The colors of the rock and landscape were amazing. The views from the canyon:

We also went to a landmark called "Spouting Horn". This was a beach area that had some lava rock along the shoreline. There was a hole in the rocks, so when waves would roll in, the water was forced up the hole and it looked like a small geiser. It would blow up 20-30 feet and make a whale sound.

Kilauea Lighthouse was another stop on our journey. This lighthouse is no longer being used, but was still a beautiful landmark.

Hawaii (Day 6)

Day six was spent in the town of Kona. This is a very agricultural area. We went to visit a coffee plantation and learned all about how coffee is grown and harvested. Here's a few pics from our tour.

After the coffee tour, the rest of our day was spent relaxing at the beach (Hapuna Beach Park) - the only time we stepped foot on beach the entire week. This beach was at a resort area, so there was white fluffy sand. If you see any white sand in Hawaii, it is pumped in. The typical sand is dark and textured like coarse sea salt. Check out the farmers tan on Marty!

Hawaii (Day 5)

Day 5 was spent in Hilo. We spent the day visiting Volcano National Park. This place was incredible. Never in our lives would we ever guess that we would get to see a live volcano. Much of the park was closed because the volcanic gasses were at higher than safe levels. These are some pics from the top of the volcano:

We were able to go to the bottom of the volcano, where the lava runs into the ocean. We were able to get about 2 miles from the lava, but were able to get some neat pictures of the lava field at the ocean.
This was a 200-250 foot drop straight drop down to the ocean. No handrails. The view was breathtaking.
That evening, after dark, the ship took us by the lava flow to get a better view. It was really amazing seeing the red glow across the ocean. This picture is exactly what we saw. The pictures aren't blurry. It was the glow of the red lava reflecting up through the steam the heat was creating when it hit water. Wow.

But, before we got back on the boat, we found a neat little street that was right on the water. This street was about 1/2 mile long and was line on both sides with Banyon trees. These trees are way cool. Every tree on this street was planted by someone famous. These three were planted by Amelia Earhart, Franklin Roosevelt and Babe Ruth.

Hawaii (Day 3 & 4)

Our first stop on our cruise was to Maui. We spent two days there. The first day, we spent the entire day driving along the coast on the famous road to Hana. This road has over 600 turns and over 25 one lane bridges. The road is only about 30 miles long, so you can imagine that it would make you very carsick if you drove too fast. We made the round trip drive in about 8 hours. We made lots of stops along the way to admire the incredible scenery. These pictures do not even begin to do it justice. These are a few pics along the drive:

(Don't these cows have it made?)

The next day, we drove up the coast to the nort end of the island. We had to check out the Hard Rock Cafe. Again, no surfing. We did find some people doing some snorkeling in a beautiful cove. Turns out that cove (Kapalua Beach) is the #1 beach in America. This beach lives up to it's reputation. It was beautiful there. We were probably 150 feet above these people in the water. This coral was beautiful. We didn't get a picture of the beach for some reason.
We also went to visit the Iao Needle. Legend states that some Hawaiian gods lived on top of this point and people would come here to worship their gods. This place was very interesting. The drive in and the drive out of the park were dry as can be. While we were there it rained the entire time. This jungle area gets over 400" of rain per year. The plants were beautiful.

We ended our day visiting Haleakala National Park. This place was incredible. We drove to an elevation of 10,023 feet above sea level. We drove through the clouds and came out above them. After seeing the jungle if the Iao Needle, we were suddenly in desolation. At that altitude, nothing could grow. It was 30 degrees cooler than at sea level. In the valley of these mountains, there were 6 small volcanoes we looked out across.

Click on the pictures. The small images don't even begin to serve it justice.

Hawaii

This year is our 10th anniversary, so we decided to celebrate by traveling halfway around the world for a whirlwind tour of Hawaii. We took a 7 day cruise island hopping around the major hotspots of one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

We flew into Honolulu on Friday, May 8. We had Friday afternoon and most of the day Saturday to explore Oahu. Here's a couple pics of Honolulu.

This is a view of the residential area of Honolulu.

ProBowl Stadium.
The view from our hotel room of Diamond Head Crater.

Saturday morning, we began the day running a 5k at an area park. The race was advertised as a Banana Chase, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. What a hoot to find that we were actually chasing Bananas. These two pics were taken after the race:

These are some of the Bananas we chased.The two of us after the race was over.

After going back to the hotel to clean up and check out, we went on a search for North Shore Beach to see some awesome surfing and over to tour the Dole Plantation.

We quickly learned, as you can see in these pictures, that there is no surfing in May. The winter months bring the incredible waves that make the beaches in Hawaii so famous. The summer months bring out the snorkeling. The crystal clear water was beautiful, though.

The Dole Plantation tour was fun. We learned lots about how pineapple is grown and harvested. The pineapple ice cream at the end of the tour was the best part, though.

After touring the plantation, we had to get to the ship. Unfortunately, we didn't get to visit Diamond Head Crater or Pearl Harbour. We simply ran out of time. Our next post will begin our cruise.