Hawaiian Cruise! 1/16-1/26

Ed and I planned a Hawaiian Cruise this year for a couple of reasons:

-Pre-5 year anniversary trip (May 21st)

-Pre-trip for before we plan to have another baby this year. 

-We haven't been on a long, relaxing, warm vacation together since our honeymoon.

Since my flight had a layover in SLC, we dropped off Sarah to be taken care of by both of our parents. It was sad to leave her, but she did great! 

Day 1: traveling to Honolulu starting at 6am!!! Note: Do not take a shuttle to your hotel if you go to Hawaii after traveling all day! Take a taxi! We were the last of about 15 stops and didn't get to our hotel until 11pm! Exhausting!!

Note: Pictures are kind of backwards (nights then days). Also, I only posted pics of Ed and I. To see Ed's wonderful scenic pics from Hawaii click here.

ALOHA!!

Day 2: Honolulu and leave for cruise. 

^Our first night on the cruise ship

^Getting on the cruise ship after a day on the beach

^Beautiful view of Waikiki beach (besides all the hotels in the way. :) )

Day 3: Maui- Road to Hana

^On our way back from the Road to Hana we hiked in an old Lava tube. Yes that is a creepy bone. Come to find out an old slaughter house used to wash bones down the tube. Pitch Black with bones everywhere... very creepy.  At least they're not human bones!

^ In the pitch black hole

^Good thing we had flashlights!!

^When we got to Hana we stopped for lunch

^Ed of course opted to rent a jeep for the Road to Hana. It was fun to have the top down.

^The road scenery was beautiful and jungle-like. Lots of windy turns!

^ Welcome to our cabin on the ship. Do you love our ocean view with the life boat in the way? 

Day 4: Maui- Snorkeling Molokini, whale watching, and swimming with sea turtles.

^At night we tried one of the Asian Cuisine restaurants. The food was okay.

^Breaching whales! Very cool to see!

^Snorkel gear. Hot!

^ More whales dive.

Day 5: Big Island- Hilo- Tour of Hilo and volcano.

^Leaving Hilo getting ready to view Lava flow into the ocean

^Lava flow view from the ship

^Dinner

^Our tour stopped at all sorts of pointless shops :), but it was still fun. A flower in your left ear symbolizes that you are married.

^ Another stop on the Hilo tour took us to another lava tube and jungle land.

^In another dark hole.

^ This part of the tour took us above the volcano where it smelled like sulfur gas. Smelly!

^We also saw this sign

^The beginning of the tour took us to a black sand beach caused by all the lava.

Day 6: Kona- Beach & Kayaking and cruise ship

^Dinner while leaving Kona. No beach or kayaking pics sorry. 

Later tonight Ed gets the cruise virus and ends up spending the night with the toilet from 11:30pm- 5:30am every half hour! Poor guy!

Day 7: Kauai- Ed is quarantined to our cabin for 24 hours from the time he felt symptoms. There goes Kauai day #1. Lindsey brings Ed meals and spends the day at the pool, taking naps and watching movies with Ed. 

^This is what Kauai looked like day #1.

Day 8: Kauai- Scooters and waterfalls 

^For dinner we went to a steakhouse. Our favorite! The cruise ship was really nice.

^Viewing the Ka'anapali coastline while leaving Kauai. Gorgeous!

^Renting scooters was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

^We rode the scooters to 3 different waterfalls.

^We look hot! It rained off and on during our scooter trips. We were soaked!

^If we had more time we may have jumped in the water. There was a rope swing and all sorts of fun stuff.

Day 9: Honolulu- North Shore and the Polynesian Cultural Center Luau

^ Canoe ride through the PCC

During the Tonga show Ed got called up to participate and play the drums.

^Wish I had the video camera. It was hilarious!!

^Unfortunately for us/fortunately the HI temple is being remodeled so we at least went to the grounds. We try to make it to a new temple every anniversary.

Day 10: Honolulu- Pearl Harbor, beach time, bye bye Hawaii.

We spent our last day in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor Memorial and our last sunset on the beach. Hawaii was good to us. After dinner we headed to the airport to fly through the night.

All in all the cruise was good! Food was okay, location was great, a little longer than we're used to, and although we had a great time together... a cruise of this duration would have been fun with some friends/family.

Day 11: My birthday- I met up with my family at the airport for breakfast and picked up Sarah after 10 days! She warmed up quick. We missed her lots even though we talked to her almost every day. :) Then we headed back to Cali for a relaxing day/night. Ed cooked me dinner and the Katz brought us some yummy pie! Thanks!

Thanks to our friends for rides/kitty watching. ;) Special thanks to our parents for taking Sarah and making this trip possible! We love you! Mahalo!