Hawaii: Part 3

(Day 7) On Thursday we were on the island Kauai. We started out the day by going on an amazing helicopter ride. It was kind of scary, but it was cool. I felt sick but I don't really think it had as much to do with the ride itself because it was smoother than our cruise ship by far. I had my worst night sleep the night before and I had a tired headache and felt pretty nauseous all day. I'm just really glad I didn't lose my breakfast in the helicopter because that was especially not sitting well with me. The tour took an hour and we went all around the island, which is mostly uninhabited. It was so beautiful. This is the island where a lot of movies are filmed like 6 Days 7 Nights, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, the list goes on. He had great music going on in the background and that really made the ride that much better I thought.

After lunch one group went and played at a beach and the rest of us went to Aina Kai Gardens. This is a garden made by a wealthy older couple. It was 200 acres and it was pretty amazing. I thought the best part was that they pretty much did it all themselves. I can't even imagine the hours of work that have gone into that place. The tour guide said over and over "Joyce wanted... so Ed built it." All I know is that Joyce knew what she wanted. She would design and Ed would build. They are a very talented, hard working, wealthy couple. Their home is on the property but when they turned it over to the public they had to move, so now it's used as a reception hall or other events. The tour took about 3 1/2 hours, which is way too long but really there was so much ground to cover I can see why it took that long. After that a group went to a rope swing and a few of us went and checked out the North end of the island. I was in some serious need of some food so we found a local taco place and had some yummy fish tacos. I was happy I got the chance to stop by a place like that and get some fish tacos, they were good. That night Scott and I went to bed early.

(Day8) The next day everyone but Bob and Anita went on a kayak tour. We kayaked on the river that Indiana Jones used to escape the natives. We even went past the rope swing he used. After we kayaked a couple of miles we then went on a little hike to a water fall. We then had lunch and had to head back to the cruise ship. Later on that night we went to a variety show that had various acts from the week. After that we went to a karaoke competition. Scott and Clark entered and thank goodness they did because talk about entertainment. They blew the competition out of the water. Scott sang "Bye, Bye, Bye" while he danced, and then "I'm all shook up" from Elvis. Very impressive. Clark sang a song I don't even know and "What's up Pussy Cat". It was hilarious and Clark won. The Cannon sisters and I took on a couple songs of our own and we didn't sound too shabby either. Later on however Scott somehow convinced me to sing "Islands in the Stream" with him and it was terrible! I do not know that song well enough and I was awful. Luckily almost everyone had cleared out by that point.

(Day 9-10) On Saturday morning we had arrived back at Oahu and it was time to get off the ship. We had the whole day to kill. One group went to Hanama Bay to snorkel and another group went to Pearl Harbor. I was pretty burned out by this point and was wishing that we could just fly home but I managed to handle the day pretty well. Pearl Harbor took all morning. There were conflicting reports on iphone navigations and we ended up driving for an hour to find it. After that it was super crowded and we had to wait 2 hours until we could get on the Arizona memorial. We spent the time looking at a submarine and museums. The worst part was that the pamphlet said no open toe sandals so I put on my stupid wet water socks and wore those for 3 hours. Blarg. Every other person had on flip flops and I would have changed but I thought they maybe wouldn't have let me on the ferry. Apparently they don't enforce that rule anymore. I got blisters from wearing the shoes but at least I looked good. Ha. After that we spent the rest of our time at Waikiki. We played at the beach and went to dinner at Hulu Grill which was fantastic. We then headed to the airport and took the red eye home. (They had overbooked the flight and Scott and I were trying to decide if we should stay an extra night and get the plane vouchers but we decided to let Nicole and Rustin do it instead. Unfortunately for them on the way home one of the engines died 40 minutes into the flight over the Pacific ocean and they had to turn around and make an emergency landing in Oahu. Scary!). Anyway it was a long night and morning but we eventually made it back to Boise around 11:30 am. We went to Hart and Jory's and they had lunch ready for us and we took our kids home. I unpacked forever and then everyone but Scott crashed for a long nap.

So going back on few other details. The cruise ship was of ginormous of course. It had 11 restaurants, 2 pools, basketball, golf, a game room, Internet cafe. Anyway it had everything. They usually had some form of entertainment every night. They would have trivia games everyday. One of the best parts is that when you go to dinner you can order multiple appetizers, 2 main courses, and multiple desserts. Awesome. I felt like we couldn't really partake of the food as much as I would have wanted to because we spent so much time away from the ship exploring the islands. Our ship was super rocky almost the whole time we were traveling. The waters were just rough and white capped and it made for some rocky riding. The rooms are very small but the beds were really comfortable. Unfortunately I am a crazy person and can sleep under very specific conditions. Every night Scott and I go to bed together and sometime in the middle of the night I end up moving to the couch because listening to his breathing bothers me. Unfortunately there is no escape when we are on vacation. I worried about this a little bit from the very beginning but it's a Hawaiian cruise so you suck it up. That was definitely the worst part for me. Some nights were worse than others and one night Scott went and slept in Carole and Amanda's room. A few times Scott would leave at 5:00 in the morning and hang out so I could sleep for a few hours. He's a good man! This is a huge problem. I think we will just have to be really wealthy so we can book 2 bedrooms so I can escape in the night. Or I need to seek some form of therapy!
Scott did not want to spend 1 extra dollar than we needed to. Almost every morning we would make peanut butter sandwiches and take fruit from the ship and eat them while we were out exploring the islands. He is hard core! Last thoughts about the cruise. I would say this is not exactly my kind of vacation although it was a wonderful experience and we saw so many spectacular things. For me I just thought it was somewhat exhausting to have such big full days. If I am fortunate enough to go back to Hawaii I just want to go to one island and kick back and enjoy myself for at least a week. I think a Hawaiian cruise is a fantastic way to see a lot of what Hawaii has to offer, but as far as being relaxing in any way I would say no. It was a trip of a lifetime and I'm so glad I got to go but those were just my thoughts about that.

As far as I've heard my kids did great while we were gone. I guess Gabby was silent for 3 days and would hardly move and then she got over it. That made me sad to hear, I'm sure she was in some form of shock thrown into a new environment with strangers to care for her. I think by day 3 she had replaced Jory as her new mommy and she was not excited to see me at all. She was sad to leave her new mommy and I had to make her love me again. So that was a little sad and hopefully there won't be any long term damage. Corbin had a timeout after stealing all of Brynn's suckers, but other than that I haven't heard much. I'm thankful to Hart and Jory for taking on such a big job. Okay this is the longest post ever and I obviously either should have done part 4 or stopped typing!

Oh but before that a huge shout out to Janet for all of the hours she spent planning and executing this trip for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We will never know how much time it actually took but I know it was a lot. We love you!

Oh and lastly I forgot to mention my favorite part: hanging out with Scott. It was so much to spend so much quality time together. I loved it. We haven't been on hardly any real dates since Gabby was born and Scott has been super busy the past few months with work. So it was so great to have a week together, plus is was in Hawaii, it doesn't get better than that!

All of the above pictures were taken by Scott on the helicopter ride.

Joyce wanted a kids park in the gardens. Here is the tree house.

There were acre upon acre of trees like this in the garden.

Joyce wanted a tribute to the native ancestral lifestyle so this was created.

Joyce wanted a natural looking swimming pool. Trust me the tour guide said "Joyce wanted" a lot!

Kayaking the river.

The waterfall we hiked to.

A picture of the Napali coast from the cruise ship. Amazing!

Scott wanted to be like Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation, only instead of taking a picture of every steak he'd eaten at a particular restaurant Scott wanted to document his cheeseburger consumption on the ship.

The girls rocking out.

Clark doing his thing. (Sorry Scott no picture of you!)

Us in the submarine at Pearl Harbor.