the first day we spent in honolulu, and climbed diamond head crater, which (ironically enough) was named so because the early explorers mistook the calcite crystals for diamonds. haha.
[diamond head crater]
then it was off to maui, where brad and i went to haleakala crater. at every port, you had the option of going on various excursions, which were nice because it brought you to places otherwise hard to get to (but bad because you spent a lot of time on tour buses). this was a great excursion though; the crater was really, really cool. it's seven miles across!
[haleakala crater]
and since you're on top of the island (at 10,000-something feet!) the wind was blasting like crazy! and it kicked up all the dirt, causing us to be constantly pelted with little stones and made holding binoculars and cameras rather difficult.
next, we cruised on over to hawai'i and, again, went on an excursion, this time to hawaii volcanoes national park. on the way there, we had some stops - first at some rather disappointing falls, then a macademia nut factory (who knew macademias could be so tasty! especially when covered with onion and garlic powder), and then at an orchid greenhouse. orchids are by far my favorite flower, and there were so, so many varietals - all gorgeous and different.
but finally we arrived at the national park. sadly, we were just dropped off at each tourist stop, given a few minutes to take a picture, then shuttled off to the next picture op. i would have loved to do some hiking and spend the whole day wandering around, but i suppose this was the best way to get an intro to the area. plus, as we entered the park there was a warning out front that the kilauea volcano was "emitting high levels of dangerous gas" and "this gas is dangerous to everyone" (i thought they should add "and you will die if you get to close" to that sign) so most of the trails were closed anyways.
how freakin' cool though:
[smoking crater]
i really wanted to see it erupt, personally, or see lava boiling (from a safe and distant location of course). we did cruise by the lava flows that night, but all you could see were little red squiggles.
we headed over to the kona region, also on hawai'i, where brad, my parents, and i rented a car to go visit the coffee plantations. delicious coffee (and amazingly expensive), and really cool to see all the steps of the coffee growing process.
[coffee beans dryin' in the sun]
the next day we were in kauai, which was by far my favorite island. it's the oldest and stunningly beautiful. that first day my whole family plus brad rented a car [sidenote: we had a blue pt cruiser and i swear, so did everyone else on the island. we must have passed 25 blue ones and at least 50 different colored ones] and drove along the northwestern coast, stopping off at various falls and sites.
[opeaka'a falls]
[taro fields]
the next day, brad and i finally got to go diving! and i got to see my first sea turtles under water! (there was the one in uruguay, but that was on land) oh my gosh so cool!
[juvenile]
[cleaning station with a really big girl]
there were also lots of cool fish and various inverts. i especially liked this nudi:
that last day, back on board, they sold drinks in carved out pineapples, so of course, my sister and i had to get them. it just seems obligatory to drink a tropical drink out of a pineapple in the tropics. and we spent the afternoon with cousin blake and the parentals sun bathing on the upper deck on the way to the na pali coastline.
the na pali coast is only accessed via foot or boat - there are no roads. we cruised past it the last afternoon, and my goodness, i need to go back and go backpacking through here. it is absolutely stunning:
when we returned back to honolulu, we had a whole day before our flight back to the mainland and we all headed over to pearl harbor to see the uss arizona memorial. it's really, really well done. the memorial is built over the arizona, and oil still leaks from the wreck.
so, it was a good time! saw a ton and got a good taste for everything that i want to do when i come back someday. more pictures are on facebook:here
and, just because it was a family trip, here's a picture of my immediate family ...
[erica, brad, me, parents]