We went to Park City for our honeymoon and decided that we would take a better vacation around our one year anniversary. So we saved most of our wedding money and added to it and decided not to do Christmas for each other this year. Instead, we went to Hawaii.
One of Anthony's good friends from high school lives in Honolulu with her husband and they were willing to let us stay with them for the week that we were there. They were excellent hosts and I can't thank them enough for all they did. Huge THANK YOU to Caley and Conrad!
Since Caley was even willing to let us take her car, we were able to go exploring and see quite a bit of the island. We decided to keep the trip cheap and just stay on Oahu.
This was our first full day on the island. We went for a drive and stopped at this place called the Pali lookout. Just a really nice scenic point.
The next day we went up and did a session in the Laie, Hawaii temple and continued up the north shore. It was fun to go back to the places where I spent so much time when I was there 6 years ago. I used to walk past the temple from the BYUH campus to my apartment. The elder there at the temple took this picture for us, he got A's funny shoes in the picture. We tried to pack light.
You can't go to Oahu without heading out to the Pearl Harbor memorial. So that was our outing for the third day (along with the swap meet). You can see the memorial in the background of this picture. It is a very serene place. Before you get on the boat to go out to the memorial, they ask you to only speak in whispers and to treat the memorial as a gravesite, which it is. It is very peaceful.
This was during our walk along Waikiki. It had been rainy and cloudy that day to there weren't to many people out.
The first picture on this post is us right before we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. This place used to be a crater that was then flooded and now has one of the best reefs for snorkeling. It was so over used that they actually closed all access for a few years to let the reef heal. The bay is now open as a nature preserve and they only let a certain number of people in each day. We went snorkeling a couple times.
We were supposed to leave Friday night and get in on Saturday around 1. Well, after waiting in the airport for around 4 hours. They finally informed us that our plane had a fuel leak and that they were putting us up in a hotel for the night. I was thinking some dinky hotel out by the airport, right? Nope. The Waikiki Marriot. I know, rough life! Stranded in paradise and forced to stay in a REALLY nice hotel for free. Well, if that's my only option...
They gave us vouchers to use for meals in the hotel. But total they were enough for one meal. So we got breakfast at Burger King. Ate our snacks for lunch, and went out for a nice dinner. We did absolutely nothing that extra day except lounge in our lovely king sized bed and watch the huge tv in our room and take naps all day. Thus, I have no makeup on in this picture. For dinner we decided to try this grill place on the third floor of the hotel. Our table was right across the street from the beach. The view was absolutely incredible!
Did I mention that Conrad (the guy we were staying with) is a professional photographer? Well, he was kind enough to take some pictures for us while we were there. This is one of my favorites.
It was kind of rainy most of the time we were there. And I did have to get my blood drawn twice during the trip (to make sure that I didn't die due to my blood clotting problem). But all in all, it was wonderful! I got to lay in the sand and the sun in the middle of December. How awesome is that!?!
