After our fabulous wedding, we spent two weeks in Hawaii. It was the best vacation/honeymoon ever...exactly what we needed after the stress of planning a wedding! We started our trip in Oahu and had a blast exploring Honolulu, along with visiting Pearl Harbor. We really enjoyed checking out the USS Arizona Memorial, along with a submarine, the 
USS Bowfin, and the battle cruiser USS Missouri. Nate loved pressing all the buttons and turning the levers...that is until he released a steam valve on the USS Missouri that made the biggest noise ever! We had everyone's attention then!We also hiked to the top of Diamond Head crater, went snorkeling at Hanama Bay and celebrated Nate's 30th birthday in Honolulu! We were able to also take a catamaran cruise at sunset from Waikiki Beach...we drank tons of mai tai's and watched the beautiful sunset from the ocean!
From Oahu we headed to the Big Island of Hawaii and spent several days sight seeing there. The highlights of our trip to that island included: an awesome helicopter tour over the volcanoes, a trip to the rainy side of the island (Hilo), visiting the macadamia nut factory Mauna Loa, charter fishing and of course our hotel! We stayed at the Waikola Marriott and it was amazing...here's a view from the pools at night.We both loved th
e helicopter ride...we actually got to see active lava flow from Mount Kilauea, it has been flowing since July. Although Nate is all smiles here, he was feeling a little queasy towards the end of the trip!We spent four hours charter deep sea fishing off the coast of Kona on the Big Island as well. We did see our boat bring in a large mahi mahi before
we set sail, but unfortunately we didn't catch anything on our trip. We did, however, see hundreds of dolphins while fishing...they swam alongside our boat for awhile! I had a great time, but this time it was me who was feeling queasy on the boat...yuck!From the Big Island we headed to Maui for the rest of our honeymoon and it was here that we did some major relaxing! We did tour the island and drive the road to Hana around the northern coast of Maui...it was so beautiful, although
the road did get a little treacherous for a while (a winding one lane road up the side of the mountains). Nate loved driving our 4x4 jeep! We did a ton of snorkeling while staying in Maui...in fact the best spot was just off the beach of our hotel around a huge cliff. Every night there is a cliff diving ceremony off this rock, so of course, Nate had to jump as well! Check out the pic of him taking the dive!We celebrated Halloween while in Maui and here it's more like Marti Gras than Halloween. Everyone comes out in outrageous costumes, the main street is closed and there's people everywhere! We were sad we didn't have any great costumes but it was so much fun checking everyone else out!
We were able to attend a luau while in Maui, the Old Lahina Luau, and it was awesome. We had a fabulous dinner and the authentic native Hawaiian dancing was spectacular! We had such a great time in Hawaii and we would recommend the trip to anyone...it truly is the vacation of a life time! If you'd like to see the rest of our Hawaii pics, just let us know and we'll be sure to send them your way.
