Starting June 20th (Sunday)
Flight from Cinn to L.A., dinner with my cousin and his wife
Monday
Picked up our Jeep and had lunch with my friend James who's quote and photo are featured here. We also started our drive up the coast and arrived in Monterey that evening
Tuesday
Monterey Bay Aquarium (which was AMAZING), lunch at a yummy italian/seafood place, spent time at the Farmer's Market, dinner in San Francisco
Wednesday
Adventures in San Francisco which included a look at The Golden Gate Bridge, a view from Lombard St./ The Crookedest Road, and an Adventure I will tell you about later
Headed back to L.A. - the drive was gorgeous so we really took our time, visited more with James which included an emergency trip to Target and Ross (my suitcase broke!), laundry and a super yummy dinner!
Friday
Arrived at the airport only to find out our flight had been CANCELLED and our faces looked like this, spent the better part of the day in baggage claim and various gates, finally caught a flight that evening, arrived in Hawaii relieved but exhausted, had some delicious "bar" food near our hotel in Waikiki (and yes, I am wearing the SAME dress as I was the night before...ahh...vacation. You will hear more about said dress in the future as I am currently wearing it as we speak. This is love.)
Saturday
Went for a walk and "caught" our cruise around lunchtime, laid out by the pool and just got stettled
Sunday
First day in Maui took a quick shopping trip then back to the boat for lunch and a nap by the pool, had dinner later and took in a show about Polynesian Dancing and Tim had his picture taken with a real, live "hula girl."
Monday
Took the Road to Hana which follows Maui's coastline, swam in a water fall, took some awesome pics and had a grand time
Tuesday
Landed on "The Big Island" and took a tour of Volcanos National Park, an orchid farm, a Hilo Coffee Mill (my fave!), The Steam Vents, Boiling Pots/another Waterfall and SO MUCH MORE. Went back to the ship tired and hungry
Wednesday
Beach Day in Kona (The Big Island of Hawaii) also the day in which I insisted on wearing my Favorite Sun Hat (in cloudy weather) and attempted to eat this entire steak by myself (and failed miserably).
THE BEST DAY EVER...went snorkeling and had a dinner/sunset cruise off the Napali Coast (on the island of Kauai). Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous. Very romantic.
Another good-good-good day spent the morning/afternoon JUST FLOATING on the beach in Lihue (still on the island of Kaui). Did some last minute shopping and enjoyed the rest of our time on the ship
Saturday
Left the ship, took a shore excursion with the ship to see The Arizona Memorial/ Pearl Harbor (which was way cool) and were headed home by 4pm.
The verdict:
California was amazing. Hands down. We want to do "the drive" all over again.
We loved Hawaii and we loved cruising...just not together. At the end of the day, it was a little restricting knowing there were islands/towns we LOVED but knew we had to be "back on the boat" by a certain time. That just wasn't something we had considered during our trip-planning. I try to be easygoing. I do...but there were afternoons where it hit the 1 or 2 hour mark before our "departure time" that it was hard for me to REALLY relax until we were back on the ship. My biggest fear is that we would get left behind...although I imagine Hawaii is an amazing place to find yourself stranded, right?
It was a good first taste of cruising and Hawaii and we plan to do both again in the (maybe near) future...? Now the question is who's going to pay for it? ;)
We learned A LOT in 2 weeks about ourselves, "us" as a couple, God's beauty and grace, the list goes on. More later.
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