Hilo,

BIG ISLAND

The Great Wolf Lodge in KC is great, but we were beyond excited about their first "real" vacation since our St. Lucia honeymoon in August of 2000. It was the first time the girls to be away from both of us, but they had a blast with thier cousins. Thanks so much to Aunt Brenda and Uncle Jeremy for believing we needed a break and kindly offering to watch the girls!

Our favorite part of the Hilo excursion was the Lagoon trek, on the safe side of one of Hawaii's most dangerous shores. On the other side of those rocks they say you have next to no chance of surviving the beating by the surf. We also went by a couple of water falls, a local surf spot, in a lava tube cave, and by the "Boiling Pots" near Pe'e'e'e Falls (pronounced "pee-pee"), which means "cows fall" because the King's cows used to fall off the edge while grazing.

We sailed around the back side of Molokini Crater which the captain was very excited about because he said it is usually too rough and it was a rare treat. We enjoyed it, and the crater was very cool. Touted as one of the top ten snorkel sites in the world....it was very disappointing. There were very few fish and the coral was not colorful, everything was gray. We later heard it was because the fish were fed so often they have bigger appetites and have eaten off the smaller fish.  

Kahului,

MAUI

"Maui beach day" at Wailea beach. Neal had fun playing in the surf and testing his snorkel and mask especially after it rained a little and the waves got bigger. Holly had fun walking the beach and taking pictures.

We later found out that this plant is a natural defogger for your masks. It is easily confused with another poisonous plant but the safe one has "half flowers" and white fruit.

That evening we split taxi fare with some people and went shopping in Lahaina. There is a single banyan tree which literally fills the town square.

Kona is a tendering port, and our favorite port on the cruise. Such a neat town. We unknowingly signed up for one of the most popular excursions on the cruise, and we were not one bit disappointed with the Captain Zodiac Raft & Snorkel. Our ride was a $100K military raft which seated 16 plus 2 crew and went 44-46 MPH max. We saw pilot whales (above) on the trip out and spinner dolphins (right) on the trip back.

Kona,

BIG ISLAND

The sea caves were cool, "Dragon's Breath" is pictured to the left and above you can see the diversity of color from the various types of lava.

The snorkelling at Captain Cook's monument was relaxing and full of fish with much better coral and visibility compared to Molokini.

The dark old "road" in the picture above is an ancient "Slip-n-Slide" of sorts. The world's first extreme sport involved greasing the road for the Royals to slide down. King Kamehameha the Great was said to have ridden the course from the top, into the ocean below standing the entire way.

Nawiliwili, KAUI

If anyone ever has the opportunity, we cannot more highly recommend the helicopter ride! Spectacular! We only wish the pictures better depicted the view. It was a little difficult to force the camera to focus in the right place, especially with the rain drops in the way. But, here are a few pictures, including one of the "Fantasy Island" intro waterfall.

Kaui was our favorite island. The "SeaFun" staff played no small part in our feeling of hospitality on the island. This is where we'll come back...hopefully with the kids in a few years.

The first dive was from a sandy beach with the biggest variety of fish we saw on all the dives. Holly held a slimy sea cucumber. And, Neal beat her hands down on the second dive from the rocky beach when he held an octopus (above left).

During one of our "catty" dialogues with our least favorite people on the ship (shore excursion desk) they corrected us, saying, the guides were *not* marine biologists. Well, lets not mince words shall we, they *were* marine experts, and they brought us sea urchins, starfish, octopus, and more.

We ended the snorkel with a huge sea turtle resting on bottom, and surfaced to a beautiful rainbow. We fould that we really, really enjoyed snorkelling in the ebb and flow of the surge.

Pearl Harbor, OAHU

The Arizona Memorial was a beautiful solemn tribute, especially the wall of names....but the Mighty Mo was mighty indeed! Don't miss it if you ever have the chance to climb aboard.

Waikiki Beach, OAHU

Our tour guide "Bud" dropped us off at Wakiki beach after driving through Punch Bowl Cemetary, the Royal palace, capital building, etc. This picture is not a scanned post card! I took it, the beach is stunning, and immensly crowded. I didn't have my camera ready but just before I took this picture we saw a surfer with another surfer doing a handstand on his hands. Unbelievable! If I stayed there I'd have to bring a couple of thousand dollars just for shopping and could blow it in about thirty minutes, it is like Madison Avenue on the beach! Every high-end store you could hope for from Prada, to Tiffany's, to a multi-story Nike store.

After an exhausting search we finally found the Precious Moments Hawaiian dolls we wanted for the girls then we took a cab to the airport.

About 15 hours later we finally got to see our beautiful girls, don't they look adorable in their Hawaiian outfits? Wish I could post the video of Danielle doing the Hula dance here! We are still dreaming of the surge and colorful fish...

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