In Flight by 11:42am on Sunday morning September 7.
Night 1 Big Island
Initial thoughts: Flying into Hawaii is beautiful! This is the first time I had been to any tropical island. Pictures in magazines don't do justice the the crystal clear aqua water hitting the beaches. It was amazing!
By the time we got our rental car and found Jordan's luggage it was about 7pm and DARK already. My pre-conceived thought process was we are going to be on islands where it is warm and sunny most of the day. My awakening was there is max only 13 hours of daylight at the peak of the seasons there. Crazy. Driving to the resort at dusk was still pretty cool. To think that the entire island was formed by lava is unreal. There was hardly any vegetation on the big island to the South of the airport. Everything was lava rock. Once we found the resort (NOTHING is marked in Hawaii...tourist central and signage is almost non-existent) we decided that we had nothing planned for the next day and are afraid of being bored. We booked a helicopter ride immediately. Then we ended up having dinner at a restaurant right next to the ocean which was very relaxing.
Monday Day 1 Big Island
Let the non-stop action begin!
Sunshine Helicoptor Tours on the Black Beauty. You meet some interesting people in life, especially on vacation. 10 minutes into flight and the lady in front was re-visiting breakfast again and again. Jordan then became a little nauseaus for the remainder of the 3 hour flight. What a great way to start the morning! We got to see the 4 rare main animals of the island: wild donkeys, wild pigs, cattle, and cats! Anyway...highlights were the lava tubes (which you obviously can't walk out to due
to volcanic activity) out in the lava fields and also the HUGE waterfalls on the back side of the island.
After returning from the Heli Tour, we attempted to hang out at the pool which lasted about 30 minutes before we both got bored. So off to check out the rest of the resort.
Tuesday Day 2 Big Island AM
7am Captain Zodiac's Adventure
We had barely checked in, when Jordan asked me "what do you want to do this afternoon?" I mean it's already 7:45am, we just signed up for a 4 hour tour, and we already worried about what were doing at 12:30pm? I guess I opted in to this whole thing so here we go. She asked the guides about Deep Sea Fishing. They called the people across the parking lot and we booked a boat immediately (more about this later).
Chad and Leslie were our guides for this excellent adventure. You meet some cool people when you are doing these outfitter tours. Behind Jordan you can see Spinner Dolphins which were so dang fast jumping out of the water we couldn't get a clean shot of them!
We also saw Pilot Whales on the way out to snorkel...they are about 1/10 of the size of Humpback Whales which start to migrate in November.
Here we are messing around snorkeling using the coolest digital camera by Olympus...it is awesome underwater!
Tuesday Day 2 Big Island PM
Bite Me Fishing Charter
Kevin and Chad were our lucky captain/fisherman for the 4 hour trip. The first 90 minutes might have been the most boring of the entire trip. Then we had a this little 4 pound wussy Tuna hit the line and ended up using it as live bait. Little did I know that I was about to experience one of the best adrenaline rushes of my life: 225lb Marlin!
Catching this marlin was one of the HARDEST things I have ever done...the forearm pump was unbelievable from the endurance that it takes to reel!
20 minutes later (after my wife calls me a Sissy)...here it is up close a personal.
Definitely one of THE major highlights of my life thus far!
Wednesday Day 3 Travel to Kauai
Outdoor Airports. Traveling island to island. Super Ferry.
Arrival on Kauai. Chickens and a lot of Roosters EVERYWHERE (more on this later).
Thursday Day 4 Kauai Am
Wailua River Kayak Tours. Had trouble finding this place cuz it had moved and we had an old brochure. Upon arrival we were greeted by Cole (Bob Marley's son for sure). Cole told us there would be "organic" snacks offered at the waterfall. He did come through though with fresh papaya, mango and ginger!
Graham (from Kansas) as our Tour Guide...he told us 'feel free to call me Graham Cracker' I gained a new appreciation of "Rain Forest" where it drizzled A LOT even though the sun was shining. Am I a lucky guy or what?
This is the waterfall. I definitely have a fall back career in modeling :)
Jordan decided that we needed to workout at least one day while we were in Hawaii to we 'raced' back to the boat launch. About 2 miles of kayaking up stream will do a back reeeeaaaal good
Friday Day 5 Kauai AM
Kipu Ranch ATV Tours
Tom and Mark were our guides.
Jordan continually attempted to spin mud all over me but as you can see in the picture only succeeded into mudding herself.
This tour included areas where scenes from Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones were filmed. The rope swing was in the first Indiana Jones.
...of course I had to indulge!
Friday Day 5 Kauai PM
Zipline Tour with Nate (from the great state of Minnesota!) and his hyper-active assistant (whose name I can't remember)
Check out our cool gear!
This me rising to a dare to trust fall backwards...
Of course the guides challenge the newlyweds to a contest (which we couldn't pass up)...who could stay upside down the longest
This zipline tour was the closest real-life thing I have seen to the Swiss Family Robinson house out back in the woods!
The zip tour ended with a stop at this 'secret' waterfalls where the rope got a little larger than the last one. Of course, once again I couldn't resist descending from the largest/highest rock possible and attempting a cannonball proceeded to bruise my entire left ass cheek!
Saturday Day 6 Hanging at the hotel and back to MN
We had a late breakfast, each grabbed a book and sat back and relaxed before the flight home.
We had a blast!
