Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hawaii. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Trip of a Lifetime- Day 9

Do you know what this is!?
We didn't. 

It is a Rambutan- a fruit native to Indonesia, that one way or another made its way here to Hawaii...just like pretty much everything else here.


Chris, Megan and I all tried it. It was....interesting. It tasted a lot like a plum, with a small seed in the middle.

After our breakfast of Rambutan, we headed to catch our boat tour of the Fern Grotto. We were actually scheduled to go the day before, but totally missed our boat. We were sure to be early this time! 



The kiddos loved looking out while we drifted down the river.

Gramps was VERY concerned about Ileigh being that close to the edge, so he decided that he was going to sit beside her.

We took a short walk to the Grotto. It was HOT.



The kids could care less about the beauty surrounding them. Instead they were enamored by this cat. After ten minutes of trying to get the kids to leave the cat alone, we gave up and just let them play with the cat...I mean, it's harmless, right?

About five minutes after this photo the cat hissed and clawed Ileigh, scaring her. She started screaming and crying and I had to carry her off for the rest of the presentation. 
Kids, listen to your parents.

Chris took the camera while Ileigh and mommy went exploring (read: ran far enough away so that the other passengers could hear over her screaming).



Eventually, she calmed down. :)


Ileigh loved waving to the kyakers as we passed.

Who needs a luau? We had hula girls on the boat! And they taught us all how to dance!

After our tour was over, we grabbed lunch in Kapa'a. 
Ileigh was out! I felt sooo smart because about halfway through the meal trying to eat one-handed, I had this BRILLIANT idea to put half of her body of a chair- freeing up both hands. 
Why in the world had this not come to me before?!
I was pretty stoked about the discovery.

Eli's fruit appetizer.

Eli tried his hand at photography- not too bad, Bubba.



Oh, those eyes!

Make shift bed. Whatever works, people. It was sooo hot and she was sooo tired.

Before we headed to the airport, the 'big kids' (Chris, Megan and I) decided to we had to check out the Queen's Bath before we left. 
It was gorgeous, but a little more of a 'hike' than we bargained for.

Not worrisome at all....

Megan at what we thought was the Queen's Bath; it wasn't. We decided to go look for some sea turtles we overheard some people talking about...

Along the way, my cute, little, non-hike appropriate sandle broke jumping from lava rock to lava rock. Thankfully I didn't fall- I was holding the 'nice' (read:expensive) camera. 
I did land on my toe and rip off my toenail and I was now barefoot.

I made Chris and Megan go ahead and I hobbled barefoot back up the trail back to the car.

They found it! Gorgeous!

And those HUGE turtles!

Excuse my gross feet! Keep in mind I had to hike barefoot back up the steep trail. I did lose the nail and found out it was actually broken. Better shoes are a must if you ever go to see the Queen's Bath.

It was worth it just to see the amazing waterfalls.

By the time we got back to the car, ran by Kaci's condo and bandaged my toe, we had to rush across the island to return the car and run on the plane back to Honolulu for our over-night flight back to the mainland.









Monday, June 17, 2013

Trip of a Lifetime- Day 8

We started off our last full day with a photo shoot of just the kiddos and Chris. I knew that I wanted him to have a photo shoot with them like mine earlier in May and of course the beaches of Kauai would be a perfect venue! ;)
You can see the Father's Day post previously for those pictures, but here are a couple more that I loved:


Ohmygoodness.
I love them.

After we wrapped up the photo shoot and spent a little time on the beach, Chris and I headed out to our dinner cruise....alone.
Heaven.

We waited till the day-of to book, so we got the dinner cruise with the vegetarian lasagna. -Blah- So, of you want to go, book early. 
Really, in the end, Chris ate my dinner and it was so beautiful that I was fine not eating just to enjoy the ride.




Yay! We saw dolphins!
Hawaii bucket list complete!





What a perfect way to spend our last full day on the islands. Everything was breathtaking. I've never in my life seen such beauty.








I truly love his love of photography...
And I love watching him do what he loves.


Oh. My. Amazing.


Since the water was so calm we got to travel all the way around to Ki'Ki beach, where we took the kiddos a couple of times! Apparently that is really rare because the waters are usually so turbulent. We were told the winter months the water is very turbulent and they were just getting out of that at the end of May.

People. If you ever have the opportunity to do this, DO IT. Even of they are serving vegitarian lasagna. 




What?!? What?!? I know, that sunset.
And, can I just add that I took these shots?
Bama-lama.

After the cruise the sun was setting fast, but I really wanted to walk over to the Glass Sand Beach. Since it was on the opposite side of the island, I knew we wouldn't be able to see it again.

Chris got these photos and it was pitch black outside. I'm so happy I got to see it!