How many pictures can one take of the sunset?

...I think about two rolls of film, not kidding! As you all may have guessed, our trip to Hawaii was WONDERFUL! We had such an amazing time - it was the first vacation that I came home kicking and screaming.
It took us a total of 13 hours to get in Honolulu with one layover in Salt Lake City. We had left for the Atlanta airport at 6:00AM and didn't arrive in Honolulu until 4:00PM...needless to say it was a long day so we were both VERY tired. But we made the best of our jetlag and headed straight to the bar for a cocktail! First on the agenda: EAT SUSHI! Check!
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and headed off to Pearl Harbor. What a powerful experience that was! Standing in line by 6:45AM, our digital camera decides to break! Of all vacations, why this one?! Stupid Sony. (Note this is why are pictures are not very good - they don't do Hawaii justice!) We made the best of it and bought a disposable camera in the gift shop. Off to see the Memorial of the USS Arizona...now that was a bit creepy. You can actually see the sunken ship and there are buoys on either side showing the length of the boat. What a day that must have been...
In and out of Pearl Harbor in under two hours I had to laugh. We are such Chevy Chase tourists. Not that we don't take in the whole experience, we just don't stand around reading every plaque and taking a millions pictures :)
We then started our driving tour of O'hau. What a beautiful country side with the Dole pineapple plantations. Once we hit the North Shore we stopped for lunch and to watch the surfers. You have to have guts to participate in that sport! WOW! Making our way back down to Waikiki Beach, we decided to stop at Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. The colors of the fish were amazing! After a little beach time, we headed back to the hotel to watch the sunset and get ready for dinner...sushi again ;)

Tim had to officially work on Monday so I spent the morning laying on the beach reading. Once he got back to the hotel we decided to head off on another adventure...this time we hiked to see a waterfall. I couldn't get over how one minute you could be on the beach then two miles down the road you'll be in a rain forest. The orchids were so colorful. After watching the sunset, we headed off to a cool restaurant where you cook your own food. It was an open air place with a grill line, you order your entree and it comes raw! It made for a really fun night.

Tuesday was all work and no play for Tim. The only downfall of Honolulu is that its crowded!!! Especially Waikiki Beach and the Hilton Hawaiian Village. So I had figured out how to get into the private pool to avoid the large beach crowd :) I spent the day on a chaise that had enough cushioning to pass as a bed! Once Tim got back from work, we had more beach time, watched another amazing sunset and headed out for our last dinner in Honolulu...this time we decided to switch it up a bit and had Japanese hibachi!

We were up bright and early Wednesday morning to head off to the Big Island. When we landed I thought we were on another planet with all the hardened lava. What a change this island was from O'Hau! It was so desolate which was a nice change from being in the middle of all the hustle and bustle in Honolulu. When we arrived at our resort (Mauni Lani Bay Resort & Bungalows...I HIGHLY recommend it for your next vacation!) we were promptly greeted with lei's...FINALLY! I was beginning to think that was a Hawaiian myth! This resort was so cool! It was all open air (love that about Hawaii) and had a Japanese theme going. All the doors in our room were sliding bamboo doors that went from floor to ceiling. It was really neat.

Tim had to work Thursday morning, so I spent the day in a hammock and finished book #2. He got back to the hotel around 2:00 so we decided to go snorkeling again. Another good thing about the resort...free snorkeling equipment. I thought the snorkeling that we did in Honolulu couldn't be beat...I was WRONG! I bought an underwater camera because I didn't think anyone would believe what we saw!! It was like swimming in an aquarium!! I've never seen anything like it! The yellow tangs would come right up to you-it made me scream like a 12 year old! Hopefully the pictures will turn out so you all can see what I'm talking about. Oh and the sea turtles...YIKES!!! We had too much fun!
Thursday night we went to dinner to a place in our resort called The Canoe House. Upon explaining the specials to us, the waitress tells us that the resort has a farming "pond" which is basically a crate roped off in the ocean...this is where they get their fish for their nightly entrees!!! Talk about fresh!! I had the Opah which is the Hawaiian Moonfish (whatever that means). Another great thing about Hawaii is their assortment of fish...things that I had never heard before that are only available there. It was incredible, especially for two seafood lovers!

Friday was our last day in Hawaii. We made the 2 1/2 hour drive to the other side of the island to see the Volcano National Park. We stood in front of steam vents, steps on hardened lava and walked through a lava tube. It was so neat...it felt like 8th grade science all over again! The top of the volcano was especially neat. It looks like a crater in the desert in my pictures, but it is really all old lava. They had signs up throughout the park that marked what year the lava was from. Looked like 1974 was a big year ;) All in all, it was definitely worth the 5 hour round trip drive. The Big Island was definitely my favorite. It was so secluded and there were so many cool things to see (volcanoes, beaches, black sand, sea turtles, fish, rain forest...)

After some final beach time, we packed up our things and headed for the airport. We had an extremely long trip ahead of us: Kona-Honolulu-Los Angeles-Atlanta. We landed in Atlanta very relaxed (and tired) and excited to see little Bella!
It was a fantastic trip and an amazing experience! I can't WAIT to go back!