After we left the reception, we stopped and cleaned off the car and then headed to an unknown location (at least to me). We ended up downtown at the Anniversary Inn. It was very nice and we even ate cheesecake as part of our breakfast the next morning (they really brought us rolls and yogurt and juice, but they had left cheesecake the night before.)
After that we returned Mark's tux and headed to Mom's to open presents before catching our flight. There were lots of presents and it took us about an 
Following the guidelines of 'warm and with a beach', we had decided to go to Hawaii. First we went to Oahu. We spent two nights there.
Saturday: The first day basically consisted of getting there, getting to the hotel and finding dinner.
Sunday: The next day was Sunday, so we walked to church. The building was a really neat, it had been built in the 1940's. While we were waiting for church to start people would come say hi to us, they said that they could tell that we were honeymooners. I thought it was kinda funny. After church and breakfast at IHOP we took the bus to Pearl Harbor. We went out to the Arizona Memorial and then we went on a tour of the USS Missouri. That night we walked a long the beach for a little and called it a day. The majority of our honeymoon we had trouble adjusting to the time change. We would go to bed super early and then wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning.
Monday: The next day, we headed back to the airport to fly to Kauai. We got there, had a little bit of a hard time getting rental car, but finally did, and then started our sight seeing (with the aid of our new GPS courtesy of Krik and Ty.) First we drove to Wailua Falls. It was a pretty water fall that you could just drive to an overlook and see. After that we went on a boat ride up the river to what is called the Fern Grotto. It is a partial cave that has lots of greenery growing in and in front of it. During the boat ride and while we were there we were entertained with singing and dancing. While we were at the grotto, they sang the Hawaiian Wedding song. On the way back they had everyone dance. It was fun to watch Mark hula. Then we went and found where the condo we would be staying at in PoiPu was and got situated. We went and ate dinner nearby.
Tuesday: In the morning we went to the grocery store to find some food for breakfast. On the way there we heard about the earthquake that had happened in American Samoa and the tsunami warning. When we asked the cashier they hadn't heard anything and didn't seem too worried. We were scheduled to go out diving that afternoon so we stopped and chatted with the guy at the dive shop, he hadn't heard anything either. We went back to the condo and ate our muffins and watched the news. They said that if anything would happen, it would be about noon. After that, we went on a hike on the NouNou trail. It was very tropical and had some nice overlooks along the way. While we were hiking, we got pretty warm and maybe a little sweaty. There were also lots of little yellow fruits along the trail. With the heat, it made them pretty stinky. We decided that as an alternative name, the trail could be called the “stinking fruit” trail. At the top of the trail/mountain, there was a very pretty view of the ocean. Scuba diving ended up being cancelled for the day because of the tsunami advisory. We decided to go up to the north shore for the rest of the day. On our way up, we stopped by L&L for lunch (we got kalua pork.) When we got to the end of the road, we went on a mini hike on the beginning of the Napali Coast trail. The cliffs were very pretty and it was a little windy. We didn't want to do a lot of hiking since we had already had a big hike that day. There was a beach at the end of the road called Ke’e beach. We went snorkeling and saw lots of fish. After that we headed back along the coastline. We stopped at Hanalei Bay and took pictures and built a sand castle. Then we had dinner at Bubba's Burgers and headed back to the condo.
Wednesday: Down by our condo, there was a blow hole named Spouting Horn. When the waves would come in, the water would blow out the top of it. It was fun to watch and listen. Then we went to Poipu beach. Since it was only 9am, we were among the first there. We snorkled and we dug a very large hole in the sand (big enough for both of us to sit in). We called it our hot tub. When the waves would come up, it would fill with water, which also often knocked down the walls. Mark made sure that we always fixed them though. After that we buried each other in the sand. We went diving with Fathom Five that afternoon (since it was cancelled the day before). They took us to two locations, Turtle Bluffs and Sheridan Caverns. On the boat ride out, things were a little choppy and I got a little sea sick. They threw me in the water as fast as they could, but I was a little panicky at first at went through my air kinda fast. Once we got down, I was ok. We saw some little sharks, eels, lots of fish and some sea turtles. When I came back up from the first dive, I started feeling sick again. That is when I fed the fish. (Apparently it is tradition to do so on your honeymoon in my family.) The second dive went better for me. There were a lot more turtles and cool caverns that we went through. All in all a good experience. After that, we hurried and cleaned up and then went to a Luau at the "Smith Family Tropical Paradise." They showed us how they take out the pig from the roasting pit, then there was a lot of good food and dessert. After dinner they had a show. They had all sorts of singing and dancing from the various Polynesian cultures.
Thursday: In the morning we went Scuba diving again with Sacred Seas. This was just a shore dive, no boat. That made me feel a little better. We saw some different fish than the day before and a school of fish that went darting (it entertained me). There were also so purple polka dotted shrimp that are apparently pretty rare. For lunch we found a Chinese place in Lihue using our GPS. Yay for GPS. Then we rented a tandem bike and road it along a trail that they have along the Coconut coast (8.5 miles round trip). We just got to enjoy the coast and the sights along the way. At the end of the trail there was a little bay that we sat in and enjoyed and took some pictures. After that we went back to the condo, did some laundry and took pictures of the sunset. Then we went to dinner at The Beach House restaurant (we had been told that it was excellent.) We got fancy drinks and Mark had coconut-crusted Mahi and I had pork chops. Everything was soooo good. We even found room for some carrot cake (with pineapple in it) for dessert.
Friday: We packed all of our things up, got L&L for lunch and then headed for Waimea canyon. We took pictures all the way up. We stopped at the visitor's center near the top and got some ideas on some shorter hikes. We finished driving up the road. The view was amazing. After that we decided to try a short hike because we only had a few hours before catching our plane. We hiked to Waipo'o waterfall. There was a little waterfall along the way. We think that we made it to the top of the big waterfall, but we weren't completely sure and didn't have time to find out. We grabbed a bite to eat and then went to the airport. We flew back to Honolulu and then on the red eye back to Salt Lake. 
Another interesting tidbit about Kauai is that there are wild chickens everywhere. We thought that something was wrong if we didn't see any for awhile. Also, the car that we rented was a blue PT Cruiser. There happened to be a lot of these. Whenever we would pass one we would say "there's our twin." There was also a road that we went down quite a few times that had a lot of big trees planted on both sides of it. It was like going through a tunnel. Kinda cool.
When we got back to SLC on Saturday Mom and Maddie picked us up. We slept for a little bit (sleeping on a plane is not that great) and then we headed back to Boise so that we could be back in time for Mark to go to Priesthood. That was the end of our most wonderful honeymoon. Neither one of us would mind going back again some day.
No comments:
Post a Comment