Hawai'i Day 7

Friday, 19th of August

Today we didn't have to be at our activity until 10am which was great. It gave us the opportunity to sleep in a little bit, have a leisurely breakfast and grab a taxi over to the place. Todays activity was tubing. We each got our own intertube, hardhat complete with flashlight and gloves to protect our hands from sharp edges. We went tubing down an old sugar cane plantation irrigation system consisting of open ditches, tunnels and flumes dating back to 1870. Tubing was a lot of fun, our only complaint was it didn't last long enough. After we finish tubing the adventure company took us over to a watering hole and picnic tables where we had lunch and were aloud to hang out and swim for a bit.

Paul: While going through the caves the inner tubes would speed up, that was my favorite part of the day.

Cyndi: I thought it was cool how many tadpoles and little bitty frogs were all over the swimming hole. I wish I could post the picture of the frog paul caught but it was taken with just a regular camera not digital.

Hawai'i Day 6

Thursday, 18th of August

We decided to book a tour through the cruise line for the day. It is a 7 1/2 hour tour. It takes us all over Kauai through private land owned by the AOL guy. The scenery was so beautiful. We saw many cows, goats, egrits and other birds. We saw the grand canyon of the Pacific as it is called. Paul's bro and sis were at the real grand canyon the same day so we called them when we were there. We also visited the Napali coast, drove through a tunnel that was not made with any type of concrete or metal, it is just dirt.

Paul: I liked the Napali coast. The view was nice. Driving in a 4X4 equiped van was cool too and the cows in the road that would barely move as we came towards them, that was funny.

Cyndi: I loved seeing the Napali Coast Line. There are no roads that go around this part of the island so the only way to get down there is to hike in or by boat. The view was spectatular.

Hawai'i Day 5

Wednesday, 17th of August

Today was a bit of a bust. We were trying to find a 4X4 road trip but everywhere we called said they were booked up. So we rented a convertable and drove around the city. We stopped at a few beaches during our drive and looked around.

We dropped of the rental car and decided to walk around the little beach town near where the boat was docked. We had lunch at a little Italian restaurant and then looked at the shops. After that we had a few hours left so Cyndi rented a boogie board and went to catch some waves. Paul walked up and down the beach, collecting sand and lookint at a sea turtle that was coming up really close to the shore. Cyndi's mom layed on the beach and enjoyed the day.

Paul: When we were driving around there were white rocks that people used to spell different things on the side of the road. The rock graffiti was pretty cool.

Cyndi: Loves the water so she loved going boogie boarding.

Hawai'i Day 4 part 2

We had to be back at the ship fairly early this evening as we are leaving for the next island. Tonight was formal night. Everyone gets all dressed up, takes photos and has a nice dinner. We made this our mulligan anniversary. Cyndi wore a new dress, and Paul put on a jacket and tie. Dinner was delicious. We went to watch a comic in the theatre on the boat after dinner. It was a pretty funny show. Here is us right before we sat down to dinner.

Hawai'i Day 4

Tuesday, 16th of August

Our day started very early. We had to get up around 4:30-5:00am to get ready for the drive back to Lahaina. Our boat left at 6am to head out to Molokini. Paul rented a fishing pole for the drive to and from the two dive spots. The first dive spot was Molokini Crater where once we stepped down into the water the fish were swarming every where. They would swim right up to you. We saw many different types of fish along with eels. The second dive spot was Turtle Bay, the water was a bit choppy and it made Paul feel sick. He did get to follow a couple turtles around before retreating from the waves to the boat. I had a great time diving around getting as close as I could to the turtles. After our dive time was over we hung out on the boat for the ride back to the pier one of the guides showed us some sea creatures he had caught while we were snorkeling. He caught the fish of Hawaii whose name is Humuhumukununukuapua'a, an octopus, and star fish. We had a few hours before the boat was supposed to leave the dock so we went to Maui's Ocean Center to look around for awhile.

Paul: I enjoyed the ocean life, it was cool that the fish would swim up around you on all sides.

Cyndi: I love snorkeling. The water in Hawaii is so warm, I was apprehensive at first but once I got use to being so close to the fish I thought it was awesome.

Hawai'i Day 3

Monday, the 15th of August

We arrived in Maui this morning, and it was a beautiful day. We rented a convertable and drove to the opposite side of the island to Lahaina. We found a booth where we set up reservation for a dinner Luau and snorkling. Lahaina is a small town and we walked around and looked at a few shops and came across a restaurant we were told by one of Paul's co-workers we had to eat at. Cheeseburger in Paradise is the name of the restaurant. Not everyone has a seprate table at this restaurant, they have just little dividers they put up if the table is being split between two families. We had a great view of the ocean and beach from our open window. We sat next to a couple who were there to celebrate their wedding anniversary and the surfer dude even offered us some of his fries before we ordered anything. They were very nice people. Since it was only a few hours before the Luau my mom and I split a burger and fries and paul only had a burger. The burgers were awesome, and yes we ate them in paradise.

We just walked around and looked at more shops after lunch and decided to go on a scenic drive. We drove up and around half the coast of Maui. There were some georgious views. At one point it was a one lane road with two way traffic. Cyndi was not impressed as she was driving a convertable around blind turns. When we got to the top of the mountain part the view was great and there was a little art shop we stopped at. Along the road there were fruit stands and a large number of snow cone stands.

We headed back so we would get to the Luau on time. It was a cool show. There was an all you can eat buffett with 5 different kinds of meat, veggies, side dishes, and desserts. The view was nice too, and the sunset was like none we have ever seen before. After the Luau we headed back to the ship since we had to get up VERY early the next morning.

Paul: Kicking it with an old surfer dude at Cheeseburger in Paradise and driving up the winding road seeing all the little towns and scenery

Cyndi: The Luau was my favorite part of the day. All of the different dances, the sunset, the buffett and the strawberry daquari in a real pineapple.

Hawai'i Day 2

Sunday, the 14th of August

Everyone woke up early today so we could find a tour to go on once the boat docked. We ate at the buffett on the boat for breakfast this morning. Then we found a city tour that took us to most of the places we wanted to visit. The first stop was a statue of King Kamehameha where everyone quickly snapped photos so we could move on with the tour. Next was Rainbow Falls, The view was beautiful, there was a good sized waterfall flowing into a stream.

When everyone had enought time to walk around and look at the waterfall and grab a water or soda the tour went to the Mauna Loa factory where we got samples of Mac. Nuts and looked through the windows of the factory (they were closed it was Sunday).

Next up was the painted church. This church was very quaint. It has been saved from lava numerous times. Lava has come up to the steps of this church I believe 5 times and each time the church has been spared. The Hawaiian people decided to make sure this church was never consumed by lava so they moved it a few miles down the road.

The main attraction of the tour came last, the lava field. The tour group walked almost a mile out on the lava to get to a black sand beach. We planted a coconut tree on the beach. It is a tradition of any one who takes a field trip or tour out to this beach.

Paul: Enjoyed walking on the black sand beach and seeing the waves crashing against the lava rocks after our walk/hike over the lava field.

Cyndi: The Mauna Loa Mac. Nut factory was one of my favorite parts of the day aside from walking on the lava.

Hawai'i Day 1

Saturday, the 13th of August

We left for LAX early this morning hoping to get three in time to have breakfast before we had to hop on the plane. This morning there was some sort of a bomb threat or scare and all of Terminal 6 (the terminal our flight was out of) was shut down for about 2-3 hours. There was a bit of chaos as it re-opened. The airport started to check people in by flight number. Once we checked our baggage and got up to the terminal the flight was preparing to leave, we barely made it. So there was no breakfast. The flight was smooth and lunch on the plane was okay.
Once we reached Honolulu and waited for every bag to be taken off the flight we realized that we were one bag short. Cyndi's bag with all of her clothes never made it on the flight. Cyndi filed a report with the airline and we were ushered to a van that took us to the boat. Since we were delayed so many hours we didn't have an opportunity to look around the island today so instead we hung out on the boat and grabbed a bite to eat until it was time to leave port. After we left port we watched a show in the theatre that was named after the boat and had much singing and dancing showing different eras of music and dance. We were tired from a long day and called it a night after that.

Paul: Sitting out on the front deck of the boat watching as the ship left dock and headed out to open waters.

Cyndi: Watching the massive party that took place before the ship left dock.

Hawai'i

As I have a need for some structure for our blog I will give you the format that will be followed: For each day of the trip there will be an overview of what activities took place and then we will each tell what our favorite part of the day was.

Delay

To all our loyal readers:

Sorry for the delay in posting. We decided to extend
our vacation and took a mini trip after we got home from
Hawai'i. Updates on both trips will be coming soon!

Aloha!

From Paradise

We're back!
There is so much to share with you about our trip.
We flew in on a red eye so we are exhausted.
There has been much sleeping once we got home.
We will update everyone on our adventures over the next day or two with photos and blogging.
Right now it is bed time.

Vacation

Well it is very early on Saturday and we didnt get more than 3-4 hours of sleep last night. We are up, packing the car and getting ready to head to the airport. Today is the start of our vacation... we are cruising hawaii. We are excited. We come back the 20th hopefully with a lot of fun had and a bit darker than when we left. We will see ya'll in a week.

our wedding

I do!

Today is our 4th Wedding Anniv.

We started our day by going to an interview with Boys and Girls Town
Cyndi had to drop Paul off at work as soon as they were finished and then she was off to do errands.
Tonight we will find somewhere nice to have dinner. We are waiting to really celebrate until next week when we are on vacation,
Since this week has been so hectic with getting lose ends taken care of before we leave.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, Today is my B-day


the big 2-5-

Today I am going to Disneyland with my mom-in-law and sis-in-law.
Paul has to work in the morning so he will be joining us later in the afternoon.
It should be a really fun day. I should go get some sleep. =)

Can you see me now?

If you haven't noticed yet, we added a new feature to the side of our blog. We wanted to know who was reading this thing so we now have our very own guestmap. Google has a new map service that lets you look at satellite maps and zoom in on where you live. Now if you click on our link, you can find your house and leave a marker so we know who's reading this thing. If you're using AOL you may have some problems seeing it, but it seems to work fine with Internet Explorer or Mozilla.

Coming Soon...

... to a theatre near you!
Four Brothers

Thanks to a call from Curly, Paul and I were able to meet up with her & her family to go to another preview movie before it hits theatres. I enjoyed this movie more than I ever thought possible. I found myself laughing at times (when it was appropriate) and involved in the characters. I do think there could have been a bit more development of a back story. I generally do not like movies that have a lot of violence in them this movie for some reason didn't affect me much in that regard.

There were quite a few kids in this movies none of which were at an appropriate age to see this movie! It bothers me when kids are in a movie that is rated R! There was violence, sex, profanity, etc. and it was no place for kids under 18 and old enought to know what is going on. Oy.

Anyways - I do not think I would have paid to see this movie before I saw it. It is not your feel good movie of the year, nor an Oscar winner but it was enjoyable on my (Cyndi) end.

After Four Brothers we went to catch a second viewing of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. Other than the weird guy who sat next to us for the first half of the movie I enjoyed it more than the first time. If you haven't seen it yet... go see it.