Hawaii, Pictures 2

Hawaii, Day 6 & 7

Well tomorrow we are homeward bound. It's pretty sad, but in a way I am ready to get back. I have a lot to do! Anyways, so yesterday we drove to the north part of the island & went on an ATV tour. It was a ton of fun! The place was called ATV Outfitters, & they have a ton of trails leading along the coastline & through orchards. It was beautiful. Plus I was on a four-wheeler. Can't get much better than that! We did a 15 mile ride & stopped off at two different waterfalls. The first one we drove right to, but the second one you had to go on a little hike to get to it. They were both amazing! Our tour guide was named Fado, & he was pretty hilarious. I drove behind him & he kept grabbing fruit off trees while we road. So after our tour was over, we headed back south. By the time we got back it was already pretty late. We hung out for a bit & then went to dinner at the Big Island Grill. It was pretty good.

Today we got up, grabbed breakfast, & headed toward Hilo. It is a pretty big town to the east. On the way there we saw turkeys, nene birds, & a pheasant. Crazy! We did some shopping when we got there & then went to the Hilo Airport. We were there to go on a helicopter tour. It was so much fun! We checked in & then went over some safety stuff. After a little while we headed outside to get loaded up. It was us three & a German guy named Rudolph. He was so adorable. Anyways, we got into the helicopter (I was in the back with Rudolph), talked to the pilot for a bit (his name was Marco & he was pretty cute), & then we took off. It was crazy! I have been in a ton of planes, but never a helicopter. I was pretty nervous for the first little bit but got used to it pretty quickly. We were in the helicopter for about an hour & saw some amazing stuff. At first we flew over a harbor, saw a couple of waterfalls, but then we headed to the volcano. It was so amazing to see from above & there was even some lava flow! It was awesome! He said that the lava had just started flowing again last night so we were lucky to see it. Anyways, we flew back to the airport, got unloaded, & hit the road again.

When we got back to our place it was nearly time to set off on our next adventure. This time Ang & I were going to go night snorkeling. We got ready, & drove down to the dock to meet our guides. We ended up using the same company as we used the other time we went snorkeling, & our guides were the same. It was pretty funny. Anyways, we got the kayaks in the water, & headed out. We didn't kayak very far & then it was time to anchor & get in the water. It was a little cold at first but we got used to it fast. We swam around for a minute, & then a manta ray appeared! It was so amazing! He circled around below us the entire time we were in the water. He was beautiful! I was so happy we were able to experience that. Apparently, sometimes they take people out & they don't see any manta rays. So once again, we were lucky! We snorkeled for a while, loaded back into the kayaks (not very gracefully, I might add), & then headed back to the harbor. We said farewell to John & Booboo (the other guide), & went back home.

Well now it is time to pack. Sigh. I hate packing! Plus I am tired so I just want to go to sleep! Anyways, I have had a great time here but am getting ready to head home. I have a ton of work to catch up on at school & need to hop to it. Also, my new phone is waiting for me! I ordered an iPhone 4s & it arrived the same day I left. Gives me something to look forward too! And, I miss my kitties! I'm ready to visit them. Anyways, I best be off. Night!

Hawaii, Pictures 1

Hawaii, Day 4 & 5

I have been having a hard time getting the internet to work here. If you sit in a certain location, you usually have one bar but it doesn’t always work. I even had to spend $30 to get the internet. Nice. Anyways, Monday was a great day. We left at about 8:30, grabbed breakfast, & drove about 100 miles to Volcano National Park. We went & saw the steam vents & then headed to a glass blowing studio that was nearby. We were able to watch the artist working on some glass, which was great. He had two big dogs & they were adorable! They were massive, but so sweet. We bought some stuff, & then headed back to the park.

We parked, & then set off on the Kilauea Iki Trail. It was a four mile hike that went along the side of the crater, dropped down into it, went across, & on the other end zigzagged back out of the crater. It was beautiful. On the rim of the crater there were tons of trees & plants, but as soon as you got to the bottom, it was like a barren wasteland. It was the site of the 1959 eruption & was a lake of lava. One interesting thing is that the crater is still sinking. Apparently it sinks about an inch a year, which is pretty crazy! The hike took us about two hours & then we headed back to our resort. We were all pretty wiped out! We got back pretty late, grabbed some dinner, & then watched True Grit. It was really good, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending. It was a bit depressing.

Yesterday, we go up, ate breakfast, & headed to “Aloha Kayak”. We got outfitted with snorkel gear, met our two tour guides, & then followed them down to Honaunau Bay. I never did catch the name of one of the tour guides, but the other guy was named John. They were both super nice, funny guys. Anyways, they unloaded three kayaks & got everything ready to go. Ang & I were in one kayak, John was alone, and then my mom & the other guy were in the last one. We took off into the open ocean & traveled about two miles down the coast. Ang & I sort of sucked at first, but we got better after a while. We couldn’t go in a straight line for very long. Anyways, we were going along & all of the sudden there were a ton of dolphins in front of us! It was so amazing! There was even a little baby one! Adorable!

After the dolphins left, we continued on until we arrived at some cliffs. John hopped out of his kayak, climbed up the cliff, and jumped into the water. Ang went next. She didn’t quite go all the way to the top, but she did great. I really wanted to go, but wasn’t sure I could make it up the cliff! Plus I was a bit worried about getting back into the kayak. Anyways, next we headed to a lava cave. We backed our kayaks into it & floated in the cave for a little bit. It was really cool. Then we took off back along our route to the bay. We were about halfway there when John pointed out a turtle. It was so adorable! He was just hanging out in the middle of the ocean. At first you could only see his shell (which was massive) but then his little head popped up! It was so awesome! John said it was pretty rare to see a turtle in open waters, normally you see them closer to the shore. After the turtle disappeared, we continued on our way.

Once we got back to the bay, we ate lunch, & then got ready to do some snorkeling. It was so much fun! It took a while to get used to breathing through the tube thing, but it was definitely worth it! I saw so many fish! My favorite fish was this long, thin, silver one. It was so strange looking! I’m honestly not sure how long we snorkeled for, but we got out of the water, chatted with the tour guides for a bit, & then hit the road. It was a ton of fun. Unfortunately, I got sunburned! Apparently I didn’t do the greatest job putting on my sunscreen. I can’t remember the last time I was burned like this. It totally sucks! Anyways, we headed back to our resort, showered, grabbed dinner, & a couple of movies. We watched Your Highness (worst movie ever) & Bridesmaids (hilarious). Well, we are about to set off on our adventure today! I’ll try & update later… If the internet works! So far I have been unable to get any pictures up.

Hawaii, Day 3

Hawaii, Day 2

I’m about to go to bed, but figured I’d write a quick summary of our day. I don’t think many people actually read this, but it is more for my benefit anyways. It’s like a journal & it helps me remember things! Take Ireland for example. Sometimes I’ll go back & ready my posts about it & it helps me recall all sorts of things from that journey. I didn’t always want to stay up & write about my day, but now I am grateful that I did. Anyways, we didn’t do a lot today. Angie got a cold before we left & was feeling pretty sick. Plus, we are all a bit jet lagged & trying to adjust to the time change.

So we went to breakfast at a country club nearby (I’m not sure how we ended up there… It just happened) and it was pretty good. We didn’t really fit in, but that’s alright. Afterwards we decided to just explore part of the island & just drove down the coast for a few hours. We stopped at a few places along the way & looked around. We stopped at a bay & walked around for a bit & saw some little crabs. They were adorable but kind of creepy!

It was kind of nice not having a plan. I tend to be the type of person that wants to know where we are going, when, & what we’ll be doing once we get there. So we returned back to our place, took a nap, & then headed into town. We stopped at a store, rented Thor, & grabbed some drinks & snacks. Then we picked up dinner at a little Mexican place called Los Habaneros. It was pretty good! Went back, ate dinner, made some plans for the rest of our time here, & watched the movie. It was alright. It had some funny parts but was pretty cheesy. Anyways, I’m off to bed. Night!

PS: I can't get my pictures to load, but hopefully will be able to tomorrow.

Hawaii, Day 1

Well, I am in Hawaii. Hooray! It has been a very long day. I went to bed last night around 1am, woke up at 4am, and left for the airport at 5am. Our plane left at 7am & we had a relatively short flight to Denver. After a three hour layover, we boarded a plane to Honolulu. That flight was over 7 hours, but felt more like 20. I dozed a bit, but it hurt my neck. Anyways, we landed in Honolulu (which, by the way, was a very strange airport), and an hour later boarded a plan for Kona. That last flight was nice because it was only about thirty minutes. We got off the plane (at an even stranger airport), boarded a shuttle to the car rental place, got our car, and hit the road.

It was a short drive to our resort and there were some spectacular views along the way. The sun was just setting and the sky was gorgeous. We got our keys, and then grabbed dinner at a little pizza dinner called Bianelli’s. It was really good, and it was nice to finally eat a meal. All we had eaten thus far was a bagel in Salt Lake and some chips on the plane to Honolulu. The dinner salad was just romaine with a big pile of local olives and was delicious. After dinner we stopped at a grocery store to grab a few essentials and then went back to the resort. Now here we are and while it is only 9pm here, back in Utah it is 1am. Which means I have been going for 21 hours. And now that I can finally go to bed, I’m restless. Sigh. Tomorrow we plan on being pretty low key. Perhaps we’ll just spend the day on the beach. I’m totally prepared with some SPF 110 sunscreen.

Swimming Lucy

Over the weekend we got a little pool for Miss Lucy & she sure did love it. We had a hard time getting her out of it!

St. Louis, Day 4

It is nearly midnight & I leave for the airport in four hours. I have yet to decide whether or not I am going to go to bed at all... Anyways... We went to the Golden Pancake for breakfast again & then we headed to the City Museum. It was a pretty strange place... The building it is located in was supposed to be demolished & in order to save it, it was turned into the museum. It is very interactive & full of things to climb on, both inside & out. We were there for a couple of hours & then headed to the Laumeier Sculpture Park. It is a 105 acre park that is full of statues & sculptures. We walked around for an hour or so & it was pretty cool. It had rained the day before so there was a lot of mud in the area. We were nearly out when I slid in the mud & landed on my hands & knees. It was pretty talented. The worst part about it was that I was holding my camera at the time & dropped it when I fell. Luckily it was okay... Just a bit muddy.

After my amazing fall, we headed to a laundromat because Ang needed to get all of her laundry done. We spent an hour or so there & then headed to Kampsville to drop Ang off. We stopped to eat dinner & then got to Kampsville at like 8pm. We said farewell to Ang & headed back to St. Louis. I'm sad to leave Miss Ang, but I am ready to get back to my own bed. I am also ready to get away from this weather! Anyways, that's about it...