Enjoying A Little Sun

Unlike most people in the world, we do not have summer weather around here..... at all. So, when we do get a day with a little sun, we can't help but drop everything and head out in it. Today was no exception. It was just the three of us at home, Jess was home for the Memorial Day weekend, so we took off to Lake Washington. The park has really been cleaned up and it's a great place for a casual walk. We love to just sit on the dock, dangle our feet in the water, and watch the boats: one of them even got pulled over by the water police - entertaining ;o)

Nose Ring... Yup, I Did It!

It's something I have been thinking about for a long time. I have been walking around with nose stickers for about 2 months now, testing the waters to be 100% sure it's what I wanted to do before I punched a hole in my nose. Finally, I just decided to take the plunge and get it done.

Ya, it hurt, but I can tell I'm gonna love it. Don't worry, I'm not going to turn into one of those inked up pierced freaks!! I was a little nervous about getting the nose ring, truthfully, because I didn't want to associated with that in any way. However, I feel it's so small and understated that I won't. No more holes for me ;o)

 

Dinner Cruise

  

After taking a wash on the luau the night before, mom was trying to make up for it. Even though it wasn't her fault she felt bad about it and booked a dinner cruise for Saturday night, our last night in Hawaii. It was a good choice, and we had a great time! The food was amazing and the talent was great. It was smaller scale of course, but that made it better in my book because we got to socialize with the performers.

Aaron and I got to know the musicians a bit from visiting with them, and ended up getting a song dedicated to us, we were teased a little in front of everyone, and were even pulled up to hula dance with the dancer.... guess that's what we get for being social! It actually made the night for us and we had a ton of fun!

We also got to enjoy an amazingly beautiful sunset on the water. It was a great way to spend our last night on the Big Island. We had a great trip!

 

Helicopters and Volcanos!

One of Aaron's life goals has been to "See red hot lava". If that was going to happen any time in our life, visiting the Big Island was the best chance we were going to have. You can't just get into your car and drive to where the lava flows are however - that just wouldn't be safe, practical or legal ;o). How to make it happen? Fly there of course. Mom decided to surprise us and spring for a volcanic helicopter tour. It was amazing! And, yes, we did get to see red hot lava!!

 If you enlarge this picture, and look just to the right of the pilots console, you will see our first sighting of the amazing red hot lava. It was the only shot I could get from the moving helicopter.

 

 This little village here has been rebuilt THREE times due to lava flow! At what point to you just say.... I gotta move?!

The rest of the pictures are just taken as we were flying over the rest of the island. Lots and lots of waterfalls on the East side of the island.

The two pictures above here are of Waipi'o Valley from the air. If you enlarge the bottom one you can see the road we drove down to get in there... it shows just how steep it really is!

Muana Kea Beach

After our amazing helicopter ride we wanted to just relax on one of the very few sandy beaches that are on the Big Island. We picked Muana Kea Beach, since it was close to where our helicopter took off from. It was very beautiful, and Aaron got to cross off a second life goal here..... swim with a sea turtle. Three of them happened to come up while we were there, and though 20 feet away, we did swim with them ;o)

A very peaceful afternoon.

Our Rained Out Luau

Since we were in Hawaii during Mother's Day, I decided to treat my mom to a Luau. We had it booked and planned several months in advanced: I even researched the best luau to do while on the island. After a fun filled day of volcanoes and beaches it was going to be a great way to end our Friday. We went home, showered and got all gussied up to party Hawaiian style.

Things were looking a little dark in the sky, and the temperature was starting to drop fast, but hey - we are from Seattle, so this was nothing new to us. Compared to home it was still warm outside, so we were good to go.

As we entered the luau they were handing out emergency ponchos "In case of rain" - I even got a yellow one to match my dress ;o).... how cute. Things were being prepped, and the food was smelling good. The pig was being unearthed after cooking in the pit all day long, preparatory to the big feast. At this point things started to get a little wet, but again... Seattelites here: if you don't do something in the rain, you don't do anything at all. We weren't too bothered. 

Just as the pig was unearthed, food was just about ready to be served and the show was about to start - the heavens were opened and the rain came a tumbling down. It was pouring! We got so soaked that the ponchos didn't do anything to protect us any more and they called the show.

The mad dash to the food table was insane with people trying to fill up their plates before leaving, trying to get any part of their moneys worth out of the event. We took one look at the lines and soggy food and decided it just wasn't worth our time and we left. We waded through the 4" flash floods in the parking lot to our car and drove back to the condo. There, we put on our jammies, cooked some chicken nuggets and french fries, snuggled in for a movie and called it a loss. After all of the good things that happened that day, I guess you can't win them all.

A Day Of Rest

At this point in the vacation Aaron and I had pretty much driven mom into the ground. She is not used to so much activity ever single day, and though good for her, it was a bit much out of the gate. We decided to take a nice break and have a quiet day.

Aaron and I got up and went out snorkeling for a couple of hours while she rested and read her book on our beach front patio (which is why a beach front was important to me when booking). No big deal for us because we could have spent many hours in the water! The rest of the afternoon was spent souvenir shopping and going out to dinner. It was kind of nice to just slow down and enjoy relaxing!

 The official start of the Hawaii Iron Man

Don't think I have it in me for that race!

 

 The trees here certainly have character!

 Aaron can't resist the strings ;o) 

He spent quite a lot of time in the Uke store.