Hawaii - Oahu, Laurelle's Graduation

We finally made it to Oahu and I was excited to see my family! We stayed in the house my sister rented for the week and had a lot of fun. One of the first things we did was check out the North Shore. We found this great Farmer's Market with lots of exotic fruits. The fresh cut coconuts to drink were a family favorite.

Jacob and Dave

Pipeline on the North Shore

Shawnie and Dave

Attempting to Boogie Board on the North Shore with those huge waves was an experience!

It was really cool to watch the professionals ride the waves for so long!

Sunset on the North Shore

A few days later we all went to Laurelle's Graduation from BYU - Hawaii. She graduated with Honors and Magna Cum Laude in International Communications. We are so proud of her! On top of doing so well in school she did it in just three years. Luckily her husband has another year or so left so they get to stay in paradise a little bit longer. Here's a couple of shots of campus:

Elder L. Tom Perry spoke at Graduation. We found out he has an iPod, an iPad, an iPhone, and a MacBook! He was talking about remembering the people around us - even though all the advances in technology make it easy to forget sometimes.

The Graduate and her Fiance

Laurelle and her proud family

Laurelle with Tom and I

Tom got all gussied up for the event=)

Besides Laurelle's Graduation we spent some time exploring the island. Here are some of our favorite parts of Oahu:

Laie - the town BYU Hawaii is located in

The Picturesque Ocean and Beaches

The Sorting Hat Island (not it's real name) - this was one of Tom and I's favorite areas in Oahu. Turns out Lost was filmed around here. It was lush, green, not very populated, and just beautiful. Can't wait to live with a view out my kitchen window that looks like that!

The view from the parking lot at the mall. Even the mall had amazing views!

Dave rented a scooter for the week and had a lot of fun exploring on it -

and running away from us=)

Jeff ready to scoot after lunch at the Shrimp Shack!

Shannon at Hanauma Bay

Danger Dave at Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay

Sunset at Hanauma Bay

Danger Dave Scooting on the way home from Hanauma Bay. He was having a lot of fun and it was fun to watch him enjoy his freedom so much!

After graduation and exploring Oahu we got to go to Laurelle and Danny's Wedding at the Laie Temple. I'm still working on a post of the wedding so I'll add a link here when I'm done!

After all the excitement of the wedding we took it easy on our last day in Hawaii and did a little more exploring. We loved the Shrimp Shacks in Oahu, so this was a great place for our last lunch in Hawaii. This was our favorite Shrimp Shack - plus the beach and views across the street were beautiful.

We drove all along the North Shore and back down into Honolulu. But one of the prettiest stops along the way was Haleiwa Ali'i Beach at Waialua Bay. There were lots of Paddle Surfers. It looked like fun maybe we'll try this next time!

One of our last stops was at Diamond Head, unfortunately the trail was closed, so no hike to the top for us. But at least there was a pretty view...

We ended the day by wandering around Waikiki and having some great Korean BBQ for dinner. Thanks to Joel for the suggestion!

Wow! Hawaii was a great trip! We got to see and do some really cool things, tried lots of great new foods, and got to celebrate with my niece for her college graduation AND wedding. We're so glad we got to go! It was a lot of fun to see my family, and hard to say good bye again. Thanks for letting us tag along!

Hawaii - Kauai

On the Island Hopper Flight to Kauai we got one last look at Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa peaking above the clouds.

We didn't spend a lot of time on the beach on the Big Island, so the first thing we headed to on Kauai was one of the beautiful beaches. We had a couple of hours to blow before our helicopter tour of the island. So Maha'ulepu Beach was the first stop followed by Lappert's Ice Cream. I got Passion Fruit and Tom got Hawaiian Rocky Road with Macadamia Nuts. I loved all the opportunities we had to have Guava and Passion Fruit. They were some of my favorite things on my mission and I rarely get a chance to have them in Baltimore. But back to Maha'uleu Beach - it didn't disappoint:

The mountains in Kauai were breathtaking. I couldn't get enough of them!

After exploring a little of the island and getting good treats we took an Open Door Helicopter Tour of the island. It was exhilarating! Tom's new dream is to be a helicopter pilot.

Being in an open door helicopter was awesome! It felt like we could just reach out and touch the mountains. Here's a video to get a taste of the experience:

And a few pictures to boot...

The helicopter tour was unforgettable and one of our favorite things we've ever done! I don't know that we would have liked Kauai that much if it wasn't for the helicopter tour - it was that good! It was a great way to see so much of what the island had to offer in a short period of time - which was good since we only had a couple of days on the island. It gave us a lot more time to relax and enjoy the island since we saw most of the island's highlights in just a couple of hours.

After the helicopter tour we drove around to the western side of the island to check out a couple of things and watch the sunset. There aren't too many pretty sunsets or sunrises in Baltimore. So we loved the picturesque sunrises and sunsets everyday in Hawaii. We really enjoyed this sunset at Kekaha Beach:

The next morning we got to see one of our favorite sunrises at our hotel in Kapa'a. With the five hour time difference it was easy to see the sunrises most mornings and get an early start to the day - but at the same time we were sleeping in! It was the best of two worlds!=)

After the sunrise we headed to the northern part of the island to go Zip Lining at Princeville Ranch. It was a lot of fun and great way to see the island up close and personal. This place had 9 Zip Lines and a Swing Bridge - so much fun! Here's the bathroom at the Ranch - I loved the flowers! So many things in Hawaii were laid back and welcoming - even the bathroom sinks!

Tom in his gear

Here's a video of me Zipping...

Tom the professional zipper

Us before the last line - a double line you could race each other on! Here are some of the great views we had while Zip Lining:

The last line - King Kong - 1200 foot double lines to race on! With gorgeous views to add to the fun. Here's Tom and I racing...

After Zip Lining we were hot and wanted a treat so we went to Princeville and got Shave Ice - Guava and Passion Fruit with Custard. It was so good! We love Hawaiian Shave Ice, we wish we could get it around here - but it's just not the same. Perfect treat after a hot morning. Since we were on the Northern Shore we decided to check out a couple of beaches that looked so inviting from the helicoptor tour.

Hanalei Bay

Tunnels Beach

Last but not least we explored Princeville and Hanalei by shopping for matching Hawaiian outfits for my niece's wedding. We're not much of shoppers and it wasn't that easy finding outfits that matched - but we finally found an awesome place not to far from our hotel that had outfits we both really liked. I wish we all wore Hawaiian outfits all the time - it's another thing that's so laid back about Hawaii. After all that shopping we were exhausted and didn't feel like being adventourous so we got an exotic Taco Bell Dinner and headed back to the hotel to pack for our flight to Oahu.

For some reason I love taking pictures of palm trees. Here's a few pics of my tropical obsession ...