Brownie Updates

Brownie Updates
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Day 4

After having our flight delayed we didn't get to bed until 1am. Way too late for this girl. So this day was a slow start in the morning. Once we got moving we had a great time. We started the day grocery shopping. We ate breakfast in the hotel room everyday. One meal a day that was not a million calories. We also booked some excursions before heading out for the day. We headed to Hanalei Bay for surf lessons.

I was set on not surfing for so many reasons. The cost of a lesson, fear of sucking, my lack of flexibility. In the end the instructor was really cute, like really cute, and I knew I would regret it if I let Cyndee and Katie have all the fun. So we hired him but he was kind of in the middle of a lesson so we had a little time to shop and eat lunch. (He was less cute when he was smoking after the lesson)
We did land drills in our lesson first and then we hit the waves. It was super fun. Easily one of my favorite activities of the week. Even after my first in the water attempt, I didn't get up, I knew it was going to be a fun day. I think all of us got up on the 2nd try and then it was just a matter of figuring out how to stay on longer. Cyndee has all those pictures so I will post some later. I was laughing because after the lesson I looked at all the pictures and I was standing straight up. Knees not bent at all and I was like why didn't someone tell me to bend my knees. Cyndee then mentioned that he kept yelling at me to bend my knees. News flash I was concentrating so hard and it was loud, I never heard that feedback. You need to tell me when I am not in motion going away from you. Oh well. Next time I will bend my knees. I only took out one little surfer girl. In my defense she knew what she was doing and I jumped off the board before I ran into her. She was fine but her mom on the beach was less than thrilled. Oops!

After our lesson we got our first taste of Shave Ice. So Yummy.
Then we headed to Secret Beach where there were some Lava Pools right along the beach. Secret Beach was beautiful and it seemed like it really was secret because there were not a lot of people there.
 The beach had awesome sand on the other side of the lava rocks (is that what they are called)

One thing I loved about Hawaii is that a number of tourist spots the locals would put up signs warning you of the danger. On a lot of the signs there were tally marks for the people that had died on that beach. Apparently this beach is crazy in the winter and there were already a number of deaths this year. One problem is people try to get to the Lava Pools in the winter or during high tide.
Cyndee and I made it to the pools but we actually didn't get in because the tide was coming in and the waves were breaking right were we would be sitting. Didn't seem worth it even after we scrambled on rocks for quite a while trying to figure out where they were.
The night wasn't all bad though. There were some locals cliff jumping and so I got to do that. Super fun. Cyndee also has that picture so I may have to post it later.

Oh and I got to watch a sunset.
We always seemed to be in the wrong spot to see the sunset but this night it was perfect. I have to give Jana and Sariah a shout out. They both recommended the books Kauai Revealed and Oahu Revealed. They were awesome. On Kauai everyone kept telling me to download the app for the book when they saw me reading it. The app was $7.99 and I had already bought the book so i didn't buy it. Next time.



Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Not sure how to best do this?????

Trying to decide how to show pictures from my trip is tricky. Not sure the order I should go in. Maybe islands, or days, or activities, I have no idea.

I will start with Oahu, go by days until I get tired.

We started out trip off by missing our flight to Hawaii because our flight out of Salt Lake was delayed. BUMMER!!! Luckily the family in front of us at the desk was super rude about it and so the airline people were really nice and gave us what we wanted. We slept a little at a hotel, flew to Oakland, and then to Oahu. Getting there 8 hours before the rude people. We were pretty excited to finally be in Hawaii.
We stayed in a cute little condo in turtle bay. So once we got settled in we swam. That is all we really had time to do the first day.

The next day was Sunday. I refer to this as day 1. We found a mid morning church time. Before church we walked around on the temple grounds and enjoyed their beauty.
 One of the reasons I posted a collage everyday was so I could remember what we did each day. It is turning out to be quite helpful.
 After church we headed out to explore. We stopped at a beach to swim.
 Then we drove to the Makapu'u Head scenic spot and took some pictures.

 Then we hiked to the lighthouse that is nameless on my map. It was a steep paved trail. A mile and a half long. A good little hike.
 We wanted to try one more hike on the way back to our condo but it was dark and so we didn't make it all the way to the waterfall.

We were so busy each day I had no problem sleeping. I got up early to run everyday and then played hard. It got dark pretty early so I crashed everynight. It was nice to get so much sleep.

Monday was also busy. We started by heading to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

 That was a fun activity. I had no idea there were so many different types of pineapple. I also did not know that after you cut the fruit up you should wash the acid off. Oh and how to plant a pineapple, very informative.

Since we were in the area I really wanted to try snorkeling two spots I heard about. Turtles beach and sharks cove. Turtles beach was a guarantee for turtles and I can report that there were lots and they were awesome to watch. Not so many fish and not clear water.

Sharks cove is a preserve and it was probably the best snorkeling we did. Tons of fish, clear water, turtles, and caves. It was lots of fun but very crowded. I got two turtle pictures I like.

Like I said I kind of fell in love with them.

We ended our day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We got there a little late so sometime I may have to try it out again because we didn't make it to all the villages.

We finished the night watching Chasing Mavericks. It seemed appropriate since we were surrounded by ocean.

Day 3
I really wanted to hike Diamon Head because it gives you a beautiful view of the city. It is also a must do in the book Oahu revealed. Those books were awesome. Diamond head was great too. I ended up soloing the hike and going as fast as I could. I was booking it. My motivation was that we were leaving Oahu in a few hours and I still needed to Para-sail. No para-sailing on Kauai. So I took very few pictures at the top of diamond head. It was a great view though. And I enjoyed the exercise. Did I mention I ate way too much? Vacation is rough like that.
Para sailing has been on my list of things to try for awhile so I was pumped. Cyndee and Katie were nice enough to join me. They had both gone previously. Katie and I were tandem. We did the whole 1200 foot rope. It was really cool. I was very focused on getting the gopro to work. I wish I had tried it out before. The video was awesome and I would have used it a lot more had I known.
After our ride.
We got off the boat and booked it to the airport. We were still went and still in our swimsuits. We ended up having to check are bags. It seemed like no big deal until our flight got delayed by like 5 hours. Horrible!!!! We finally made it to Kauai. I have never been so happy to get out of a still damp swimsuit.


Hawaii

Hawaii was awesome!!! I loved it. There were a lot of firsts for me.
1. Parasailing
2. Riding in a helicopter
3. Spending saved money on a vacation....foreign to us poor folk
4. Surfing
5. Running so many days in a row, not my favorite exercise
6. Wearing my swimsuit all day, like all day. And wearing it everywhere and trying to be ok with it
7. Staying on a resort
8. Full on swimming in the ocean
9. Drinking a coconut. (Is that how you would phrase it)
10. Swimming with turtles, I fell in love with them
11. Using my iphone5 as an under water camera, scary!
12. Hiking the Na Pali coast, it has been on my bucket list ever since I read an articles in Backpacker Magazine about it. It was as amazing as they said! I want to backpack the entire thing one day.

I am sure there were others I will think of as soon as I post this.

Here are the pictures I played with in pixlromatic from my phone. If we are friends on Facebook or Instagram you have probably seen some of these. Sorry:) I just want them on my blog because then they will be in my blog book. Heaven knows they will most likely never get printed unless they are in my blog book.

Cyndee and I rode 10 miles on the bike trail in Coconut Beach on Kauai. I love biking next to the ocean. It's magical. Beach cruiser seats are less than magical.


 We saw lots of water falls. The first is Wailua Falls
 This one is Jurassic Falls. Helicopter is really the only way to get to this one.
 I felt pretty cool in the helicopter. I was hesitant to go but in the end really enjoyed it.
From the helicopter the NaPali coast. Looking amazing me and confirming my desire to hike it.
 Another one
 Oh another one. It was so beautiful
 You can tell I am in a helicopter.
 The Marriot Resort in Lihue on Kauai.Swimming pool, 5 hot tubs, and a beach, no complaints.
 After our Kayaking adventure.
 Our bike ride
 More kayaks
 Sunset at Secret Beach. There were lave pots here and I got to cliff jump.
Looking away from the temple on Oahu. Beautiful!

 Surf boards. Surfing was one of my favorite activities. That surprised me. I was not going to do but am really glad I did. Cy
ndee was the one with that dream.
 The spouting horn
 A cool fish

 Na Pali coast
 We ate lots of Shave Ice
 Hanakapi'ai Falls

 More of the Na Pali coast

 Hanakapi'ai Falls
 A cool road





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