Hawaiian adventure

Okay - here they are - our stories and pictures from Hawaii. I am adding my disclaimer right here...this will be a long post. We were able to do so many fun things in the 6 days we were there! Here we go...This first picture is from our window on the plane. Jeff snapped this as we were about to land in Oahu.

Then we got to or condo at Turtle Bay - BEAUTIFUL! This was the view from our back deck We were right on the golf course.

That night, we went to the beach closest to our condo. We nicknamed this beach "foot slashers reef" because all of us ended up getting the bottom of our feet torn apart by the rock and coral.

The next morning, we were up and gone by 5:30 am. We had a 1 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the island to swim with the dolphins. If you are planning a trip to Oahu anytime soon, you really need to go do this! It was one of the highlights of the trip! We got there at around 7:00 a.m. and boarded the boat. The boat ride alone was great...but it was even better when they let us out on the north side to do some snorkeling. We saw the most beautiful sea turtles and vibrant yellow fish!

After about 20 minutes of snorkeling, we got back in the boat and headed to the south side to swim with the dolphins. This is us in our gear ready to jump in This is how close we got to the dolphins (we weren't allowed to touch them , but we were close enough to!) This was the view from under the water - there were so many of them...it was AWESOME!

Okay - I guess I'm not going to go day by day- that will take WAY too long. I will just go through some of the highlights! Here are some pictures of us at the Dole pineapple plant. It was fun to see how pineapple's grow and see all of the different varieties. We also enjoyed a pineapple whip float. It's the same yummy pineapple whip you can get outside the Tiki Room at Disneyland, but with fresh pineapple juice and pineapple chunks on top! DELICIOUS!

Here we are at Hukilau beach - we had a great time playing on a sandy beach in stead of "foot slashers" and we also did a little body surfing. Another one of the highlights was the Polynesian Cultural Center. I loved watching the dancers, eating the delicious food at the luau and learning about the different cultures. My mom and dad were called up on stage during the luau to dance and celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The other couples on stage were either celebrating an anniversary or on their honeymoon. A few couples got up early one morning and went to the temple. The grounds were beautiful!
We stopped and got some shave ice at Matsumoto's and on the ride home, we saw a beach with giant sea turtles sunning themselves on the sand. After taking pictures with the sea turtles, we stopped at Waiamea beach to do some cliff diving. It's much higher (27 feet) and scarier than it looks! I was proud of myself for daring to jump!Saturday was spent in Honolulu shopping at the swap meet. It was an awesome sight...one of my favorite places to do some souvenir shopping. You can see a bird's eye photo of the swap meet here
After the shopping, we headed to the harbor and went para sailing. It was such a beautiful day and the view was spectacular! This is Jeff and I on our way back down to the boat and a picture of us with the Waikiki beach in the background.This was the trip of a lifetime - We had such a great time laughing, playing together! The best part is that I was able to enjoy it with my whole family!
I will definitely be going back to Hawaii someday! I would love to be able to take my kids and share these great experiences with them! Anyone want to join us? The more the merrier!