Hi All -
Well, 3 months later I am finally putting up our trip to Hawaii. I was waiting for my sister's pictures (because they are much better) but I have given up. I will replace them later.
We had a wonderful 10 days with my sister and her husband, Paul. It was so good to see her, as always. I can’t wait for her to move back, so we can still not see each other - but at least we'll be closer.
We flew into Honolulu, relaxed on a beach for the rest of the day, and got up the next morning to fly out to Kauai. Courtney found us a great little condo that backed up to a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was great to open our doors at night and hear the crashing waves.
While we were there, we mainly hung out at beaches, but we also had fun exploring some shallow caves, hiking a little, scuba diving, and of course, horseback riding. I had a good time, just glad to be riding again - and my horse was definitely a challenge! He was a bit nuts. Everyone fudged about their riding skills a bit so we could canter, which was great. Everyone did real well - no one tried to back off a cliff, which is more than we can say for the other couple who was with us on the trip. Eventually this girl had to switch horses with Courtney, because they weren't getting along. For the record, the horse was fine with Courtney. I am hoping that riding skills are genetic now, to pass on to my kids. (yay! haha) 5 hours later we dismounted, and even I was a little sore in the behind. I don't think Courtney could sit properly the rest of the time we were there.
Which turned out to be good, as poor Courtney got sick. She was a trooper, and hung with us well folks most of the time.
In the picture below, you can see me making a face and holding some weird red things - Paul had decided to make us eat random indigenous foods that happened to be disgusting. We were all gathered round to play Settlers of Catan, which became a nightly thing. This game turned out to be particularly long, and culminated with my poor sick sister buckling under the late hour and going to bed before we finished. (I ended up winning. In your face, Paul! :)
We had a wonderful time laying out on the beach - where I could not get any sun for the life of me - and trying to find good snorkel spots. We then decided to go on a night dive with a scuba charter - it consisted of a twilight dive (probably to make sure you weren't going to freak out) and then a pitch-black dive. It was ill-fated from the beginning. Unbeknownst to us, Court and Paul get violently seasick. They both made it on the first dive, but poor Court was done when we got to the second dive site. Paul gamely got in the water, and he became the new best friend of all the shrimp within a mile radius. It was pitch black at this point, and since Paul's diving buddy didn't actually dive, I felt responsible to keep an eye out for my sister's husband. So, imagine my horror when while counting lights, I realized that PAUL'S WAS MISSING. I had a nice little 5 minute freak out that I had lost my siser's husband while Paul made friends with the surrounding shrimp yet again. After that, all was well and good until I realized that my light was dimmer than everyone else's. It wasn't long before I realized that my light was rapidly going out. 60 ft under in the pitch black was NOT something I wanted to experience. Luckily, the dive master had brought an extra one down. Other than that, it was fairly uneventful. We got to see a lot of things that aren't out and about during the day, so that was great. We ended up seeing the biggest turtle I've ever laid eyes on - I thought it was a boulder at first. And culminating the experience, we left behind a memento - David’s wedding ring is somewhere on the bottom. May it rest in peace.
After recovering, we flew back to Oahu and hung out at Court's house. Now being BROKE, we became beach bums - there was actually a chance to get a tan on Oahu, so I tried to make up for lost time. David and I spent a day by ourselves, exploring up the West Coast, which we have renamed Squatter's Coast due to the many beach shacks, and spent a day enjoying some great snorkeling at Makaha beach. Later, David, Court and I went on a long walk around the tip of the island, to this area where monk seals are known to congregate. There were a couple playing around, and the guy below was kind enough to stay still for a pic. He actually let me get really close - it was fun.
We visited all sides of the island, saw some big waves, ate some island pie with Court's home cooking, had some amazing shave ice - once we got them to leave out the beans - played board games and were somehow beaten by the guys - I don't know how they pulled that one off. Sheer Luck! Our final day we went to the beach where we were engaged - the island in the distance below is where it happened. We indulged our inner child and built a great sandcastle - complete with barracks, stables, a moat and bridges. There were a bunch of kids who wanted it after we were done - but the honor went to Pirate the Puppy. It was just too great to pass up. Pirate stormed the castle and destroyed it, which prompted the kids to dub him "Evil!!". It was totally worth it. Unfortunately I managed to leave something behind as well - my driver's license. Which I discovered was missing about 2 hours before our plane departed that evening. It is a good thing my brother-in-law is a cop!
It was a nice relaxing time, and I was sad to go. Thanks to Court and Paul for being such wonderful hosts, as usual.
I'll leave you with some random pictures of us having fun.
I feel the need to explain this picture - we had built a bif sandcastle and there was a puppy named 'Pirate' nearby - we decided he should sack it. He had a great time.
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