hawaii day 3

monday, may 21. air tour, waterfalls, and dinner cruise, oh my!

 loni and i took an air tour in this cute little 7 seater plane on monday morning! i was a little nervous, but really excited! we saw tons of awesome sights. it was so cool seeing some things by air, then traveling there as well during our trip!

 waimea canyon (more on this later, we visited there tuesday)

loni... preflight. during flight she felt a little quesey. :/

the napali coast... breathtaking!

way up in the air... pretty cool!

 

so amazing!!

you see the red roofed circular looking house? that's pierce brosnan's house! how cool is that?!?

wailua falls... we went to visit this after the air tour! super cool!!

look at all the blueness!!

i asked the pilot if i could sit in his seat when the tour was over. and whaddya know? he let me! :) 

 we had lunch at 2798 sushi, or something like that! :) i opted out of sushi and tried some korean fried chicken... shocker, i didn't love it. :/ so when all else fails, order dessert! :) this was a smores dessert that was ohhh so good!!! 

after lunch we drove up to wailua falls... pretty cool to be so close to it, after we had just seen it from 3000 ft in the air! 

the falls were amazing... so beautiful!

and oh, the rainbow!! it was so big and bright. i feel like i'm out of words to describe how awesome everything was... but i'm telling you, it was the prettiest place i've ever been!!

me and nate... in front of the falls... 

oh, and this is where they taped fantasy island! 

late monday afternoon nate and i went on a 4 hr sunset dinner cruise! it was one of our fav things we did on the trip!! the boat was pretty cool... we sat in the back most of the time and enjoyed the sights and the cool mist of the ocean!

more waterfalls on our tour

awww... us, in front of the cave

the smog on the mountains was crazy looking...

so as the sun started setting, and we went super fast, we were all wet from the water... and it was FREEZING! 

one of the crew members, josh, let me wear his hoodie! 

not the cutest outfit for such a pretty pic, but i was warmer than before! :)

 sunset at sea... spectacular!

nothing better than seeing the awesomeness of our creator all around us! we really enjoyed holo holo charters... they did a fabulous job on the cruise. we will do it again when we visit hawaii next time!

so we started the day out by air and ended the day seeing hawaii by sea. 

awesome experience all around!

hawaii day 2

saturday, may 20... this was one of my most fav days! poipu and polihale beaches...

welcome to poipu beach! 

i love this pic of nate (and his sweet tat!)

 

this beach was beautiful... there's just something about palm trees/coconut trees that really make the beach that much prettier! total paradise! :)

why yes, this is a hawaiian monk seal. 

it is endangered... (and it's alive here... just being lazy!)

GASP- a hawaiian monkseal. hahaha. this pic cracks me up!!!

the snorkeling side of poipu... we couldn't hang with loni and jake, but we did go out a little ways and snorkel. tons of pretty fish... 

 the chics and their snorkeling gear!

pretttttty!

i have to be honest and say loni took these underwater pics... she and jake went out further than nate and i, and they got to swim with this awesome sea turtle. at least she shared the pic with me! ;)

after working up an appetite at poipu, we went to tropical burgers to eat... 

and oh my, it was delish!!!

i ordered the kalbi pineapple bacon burger... yum! wish i had one for lunch right now! :)

and what's a trip to the mall without crazy sun visors... with HAIR!?! i LOVE this pic and think it's hilarious! jake's hair was actually kinda long and messy, so this could have passed for his real deal. nate, on the other hand, has shaved his head for the past 12 years! i've never known him with hair, so this really made me laugh! (for the record, during the trip he decided he would grow his hair out. ummm it lasted 2.5 weeks and he could no longer stand the fuzzy stage. he said he's not meant to have hair, and shaved it again last nite!) :)

i think it's so cute when old guys with gray hair or NO HAIR wear these visors with spikey gray hair!! i will so be buying my dad one soon! ;)) b/c you are the cooooolest poppi!

after shopping, we ran home and packed up the truck... cooler, tent, surfboard, boogie boards... then picked up subway, and headed to the coolest beach ever... polihale beach! you gotta follow a little dirt road, let some air out of your tires, and then you are good to go. you can drive your truck up on the beach!!! omg it was so cool! we took "junk truck" and had a blast! in fact, i think she earned a new name that trip. she got us there and back safely! ;)

 

jake surfed... we watched! :)

bff''s... 

mountains on one side, ocean on the other. i mean, how much better could it get?!?

awwww... J <3 N 2012 ;))

 coolest part of this beach... we went at sunset. and oh my word. probably the absolute most gorgeous sunset i've ever witnessed!!!

nate and i holding the sun in our hands!

loni and jake givin the shocka! :)

who are these CRAZYYY ninja's? oh yeah, loni and me!! this pic is CLASSIC!!!!

this is real ya'll... no photoshopping at all!! no edits. just breathtaking!!

awwww <3

 i'm not the best photographer ever, but i do try sometimes! i kinda love this shot below, right up on the sand, then the waves, then the sun setting. i think it's pretty cool!

aloha polihale! i will DEF be visiting this beach again, you can count on that!

see why it was my fav? everything about it was awesome. and did i mention, we pretty much had the whole beach to OURSELVES!?!?! ahhhhh... love love love it!

hawaii day 1

saturday, may 19... first full day in hawaii!

wasted no time! woke up and visited the local farmers market... where i (GASP!) tried several new things... one being this AMAZING crepe nate and i are sharing! 

apple banana macnut butter and local honey... YUMM!

we had to hike a little ways to the first beach. but oh my word, was it ever worth it!!!

this was on our way down to lumahai beach on the north shore

the view half way down... see what i mean? breathtaking!!!

i still can't believe that i was really there... i mean, it doesn't look real. but oh it is!! :)

i was pretty adventurous... there was a huge rock that ppl were jumping off. so hey, what the heck! we decided to jump too! this was pre-jump... i gotta admit, i was SKEERED! 

nate said we needed to kiss in case we didn't make it down alive. scary thought... but we made it... HOORAY! :))

 mr and mrs hawaii...

snorkeling for the first time at lumahai... as you can see, the water was crazy beautiful and oh so clear! 

and the sand... everyone said hawaii sand is awful. well not to me. to me, there is no such thing as an awful beach or sand! the sand reminded me of birdseed, it was a very odd consistency. and at this beach, the sand was SOOO hot. it literally burnt our feet as we ran to the ocean!!! crazy!!

the rocks behind loni, on the right, are the ones we jumped off! i don't know how high it was, but it was high enough! :) loni called it cliff diving, and i totally agree! (secret, she was too SKEERED to jump! haha!) but if she would have jumped, who would have taken the pics? ;))

after the beach, we grabbed a late lunch at kalypso's and then went shopping! after that, we went to the sight of the 2nd most photographed sight on kauai, the kilauea lighthouse! (sporting our new hawaii hats!) :)

it was so cool... the view there was a.maaaaazing!

well that about wraps up our fun first day!!