Aloha in Oahu

The final few days of our trip were spent in Oahu. We stayed in Kailua which is near one of the top rated beaches in the US. or was it the world? Unfortunately, I can't remember right now. Anyhow, there was a small beach near our rental that was the home to several turtles which was pretty neat. Yes, I did go swimming even though the ER doctor advised me not to after I was bit by a dog. We also went kayaking out to the twin islands but that disposable camera is MIA which is sad because there were some great pictures :(.

We went to the beach, really relaxed and went to Pearl Harbor while in Oahu.

Pearl Harbor survivor

With a sweet photo of his wife on the end of his cane

The exhausting thing we did was hike the Koko Crater Trail. This is vertical up the side of a mountain and you hike along old railroad ties from when it used to be a work area. It was ridiculous and I did not think I could make it up. This hike was the first time I really felt pregnant and like I shouldn't be doing it. But, with several stops of nearly 10 minutes each, and Brad's encouragement, I made it! We rewarded ourselves with a trip to Sandy Beach where some of the biggest waves come ashore. Brad did some boogey boarding, but I stayed ashore.

The last day we drove around 3/4 of the island, through and around mountains, and then took another highway south to get back to the airport. Here are a few pics, but check out Picasa for more.

Secret Finds

One afternoon we headed to the Kilauea Lighthouse which is the northernmost point of the main Hawaiian islands. The lighthouse area is a nature preserve so we had to pay a small admission fee which was the first "touristy" thing we really did. During winter, humpback whales mate off the coast near the lighthouse and it is visible from where we were standing.

We went a little bit further south and attempted to find Secret Beach. Once again, vertical hike down to come out on a beach backed by trees. We did see some nudists, although that is illegal in Hawaii, but it shows you how few people were there. About one-quarter of a mile away is a ledge of black lava where we waded in the Secret Lava Pools. (Now you can tell I'm pregnant, right?)

I think we were both expecting there to be larger pools or more fish in them, but it was a neat experience nonetheless.

Dinner that night was at the Hanalei Dolphin where Brad went into the adjoining seafood market and bought a huge tuna sushi roll for $4.50 - it was delicious!! before dinner we stopped at the Hanalei Valley Lookout and asked someone to take some pictures of us together since we weren't sweaty from hiking.

Napali from the Sea

The Napali Coast is an area of Kauai accessible only by helicopter or by sea - we chose the sea route. We took a five hour boat trip on the Napali Sea Breeze with a dozen other people to see the beauty of the garden isle from a different perspective and get some snorkling in.

Beautiful, isn't it?!

There were dozens of caves, two of which we went in, and even more waterfalls - it was awesome! You might recognize some of these defined peaks from the movie Jurassic Park. There are more pictures of the coastline in my Picasa album.

Start off small? No way!

Our first Hawaiian hike was no easy feat, but looking back at the ones we did near the end of our trip, this one was pretty mellow. We drove only about two miles north of Princeville, crossed the Hanalei Bridge and some tarot fields and then started the Okolehao Trail Hike.

It was a steep uphill hike through the woods and then through red dirt ravines and hills. The goal was to see Hanalei Bay from the air. Well, we did it!! It took more than an hour to go up (I'll blame that on my constant pregnant need for water and shutterbug tendencies), but we got to relax for a bit at the summit.

It is funny looking at the pictures of me then, near the end of my 11th week of pregnancy, because I thought I was getting a belly. Well, it doesn't look like it there!

After recovering and eating lunch at the condo we drove eight miles to Tunnels Beach which is known for its snorkeling. Of course we onyl had one mask and snorkel since I didn't think of renting one in advance, but we made do with what we had. Tunnels is basically "tunnels" of coral so there isn't much sandy area in the water, whcih makes simple swimming difficult. Brad did see our first turtle though! I visited with the little guy for a bit. The Hawaiian beaches we went to were surrounded by mountains. You had to hike down to them or through areas to get to them so you didn't see any buildings from the beach which was beautiful.

On the way home we stopped in Hanalei so I could quench my craving for shave ice with macadamia nut ice cream...mmmmm!

Welcome to Kauai

The flight from Honolulu to Lihue (lee-hoo-ee) is very short, but they still manage to serve a small juice cup. Funny, I was only served one round of drinks on the 7.5 hour flight from Dallas to Honolulu on American Airlines...We picked up our rental car at the airport and started driving with no destination in mind since we still had several hours until check-in time. I had The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook out, but it wasn't really necessary since there is one main road that goes around the island: 50/56/560 (it depends where you are).

Heading north from the airport, I saw a sign for Wailua Falls which I knew from all of my reading that it is a double waterfall about 175 feet high, which is taller than Niagara Falls. The falls go into a freshwater pool that is supposed to be illegal to hike down to, but people still do it - so we did. Those pictures are on a disposable waterproof camera that hasn't been developed yet, but here are some shots from the top, which is the way 95% of people see it.

The hike to the bottom was slippery and muddy, but we used the ropes left by other hikers to help us get up and down the steep inclines. Luckily there was another couple at the bottom to take a picture of us to prove that we hiked down (on the aforementioned camera).

We kept going north to Princeville which is where our studio rental was. I used http://www.homeaway.com/ to book both of our rentals. We were on the ground level of a small complex next to the St. Regis. The cliff was beautiful and we could hear the ocean crashing into the lava rock at night and in the morning while it was quiet outside. The mountains were visible from the front door of our rental (you can see those once I post more photos online). We had a delightful experience staying where we did, especially because we could cook our own food.

Hawaiian Paradise

Back in February, right around the time Maryland was hit with the second +15 inch blizzard of the year (the one that shut my office down for one week), we booked a trip to Hawaii. We knew we wanted to take a trip this year since last year we were tied up building the house and missed a year of "real" travel. Brad left our destination up to me and since the Euro wasn't favorable to the dollar, I chose Hawaii. Now, we are already back from our vacation with lots of stories, scenery, and memories to share.

If you have read my blog lately, you also know that this really was our last "big hurrah" before a baby comes into the picture and I am grateful I have been feeling so well besides fatigue. Vacation is a time to take naps anyway, right? My upcoming posts will go through our vacation a few days at a time to show some photos and explain what they are of and where they were taken. You'll notice I have alot more to say about Kauai than Oahu. Not only did we spend more time there, but overall we enjoyed Kauai more - the scenery, the traveling, the people, etc. Also, by the time we got to Oahu on day 6, I think we were tired and really wanted to relax and veg out even more.

We spent one night in Waikiki to kickoff our trip. Actually, we spent one night in Waikiki because we found such a better deal on plane tickets that we decided to leave one day earlier than planned after our rental was already booked. So, we used some of my Hilton points, thanks to my regular NYC trips, and stayed for free in Waikiki. Our room had a wraparound balcony so we had views of Diamondhead and the ocean.

While Brad went for his run (cheer for him on 10/31 if you live in DC!) I walked along the street that runs along the beach and took pictures. Waikiki beach was not as pretty as I expected. The strip of sand was pretty narrow and it was very crowded. I guess that's what happens when you are a city on the beach where most tourists stay. There is a barrier that prevents waves from coming ashore which makes it a safer place for keiki (children) to swim.



We had a wonderful dinner at Duke's Canoe Club after getting wet trying to take pictures on the beach. Their salad bar was delicious, but their seafood luau was divine! Scallops, shrimp, fresh island fish and vegetables in coconut cream sauce, with steamed rice...mmmmm!

We were quite tired since HST is 6 hours behind EST, so after dinner we went right to bed. In the monring, we loaded into a 15 passenger van and headed back to the airport for our flight to Kauai.