While in Hawaii, we discovered that our names in Hawaiian are Kaka (Chad) and Kine (Jennie). Here are all the details about our trip!
On Friday, June 12th, Kaka and I, along with Kaka’s sister and brother-in-law, Ashley and Brock, left for vacation in Hawaii. (I don’t know anyone else’s Hawaiian names). We flew to Dallas, and after missing our connecting flight, got on standby for the next flight, which we eventually made it on. It was kind of fun running through the airport trying to make our original flight. We finally took the 7 and a half hour flight to Oahu.
We got there and headed for our hotel in Waikiki, where we met up with Kaka’s dad, Jerry, his step mom, Peggy, and her children, Laura and Brad. Jerry and Peggy had already been there a week, and Laura and Brad had only been there for a day. We didn’t do much that first day because we were pretty tired. Hawaii is 5 hours behind our time, so we ended up going to bed at 7:30 that night.
The next day, we headed to our ship, The Pride of America, for our cruise to the Hawaiian islands. On the way to the cruise, our driver let us stop by Da Kine Bail Bonds where Dog the Bounty Hunter works.
Here we are in our cute little cabin.
We spent 1-2 days on each of the islands we went to. It was a lot of fun! I’ll give you a recap of the things we did each day.
Sunday-Maui:
First, we went to the Iao Valley and saw the Iao Needle.
We went to a beach that I can’t remember the name of. It was very pretty, but hot. We didn’t want to get too gross because we were going to a luau that night and wouldn’t have time to go back to the ship.
That night, we went to a luau in Old Lahaina. It was beautiful there, right on the beach. We received leis as we arrived, and we had all the food and drinks we wanted.
We got to see them take the pig out of the ground, and they later served it in the buffet. I had low expectations for the food because I just didn’t know what to expect. I knew they would have pork and spam (yuck!), but I didn’t know if I would like anything else. To my surprise, I really liked a lot of the food. I was glad because it really made the luau one of my favorite things. They also had a show with dancers as they shared the history of Hawaii.
Monday-still in Maui:
Jerry drove us up to a lookout of the Haleakala crater. We went 10,000 feet in elevation on winding roads. It was not a very fun drive, but I think Brad had it worst. He road on a cooler in between 2 seats in the van. These pictures are on the way up to the crater.
When we got to the top, it was pretty cold and windy, so Laura and I covered up with our beach towels. There was a wedding going on while we were there. It was very pretty, but it looked like the bride was going to lose her veil at any moment.
After the crater, we had a picnic at a beach. Jerry, Brock, and Kaka went to walk around a little town while the rest of us tried to lay out. It was very windy and we kept getting pelted with sand. We had to move 3 times before we found a tolerable spot. Peggy’s hat flew off and went pretty far down the beach before Ashley caught up with it. Once we got settled, it was nice and very pretty. If you look close in this first picture, you can see the sand blowing.
Tuesday-Hilo (on the Big Island):
The first place we visited was Punalu’u Beach, a black sand beach-very cool! It was really neat to see all this sand created from volcano lava and some of the rocks that looked like flowing lava. It’s something you don’t see many places in this world. This was also the first place we saw a sea turtle. It looked very ill and almost dead except for when it blinked.
Next, we went to Volcano National Park and saw Kīlauea Volcano from afar. You could see the gases coming up from this active volcano. Naturally, we couldn’t get that close for safety reasons. We also went in a lava tube, through which lava used to flow. It looked a lot like a cave.
Next, we saw Rainbow Falls-pretty.
Wednesday-Kona (on the Big Island):
All Kaka and I did this day was go to Turtle Bay where we went snorkeling. It was very cool… and free. One of the crew told us about this place that you could see lots, and we only had to pay for our snorkel equipment. Turtles would swim right up to the shore. There were lots of pretty fish, even prettier than in Jamaica.
Thursday-Kauai:
Went to Waimea Canyon. It’s not what you would picture when you think of Hawaii. There is a waterfall in the distance that you can see.
Went to Poipu Beach to see Spouting Horn, a lava tube that shoots water into the air whenever a wave comes in. This area of Hawaii was beautiful! I thought this was the most gorgeous area we saw. Spouting Horn was pretty cool too, and we saw more sea turtles swimming near the rocks.
Next, we went to the Kauai Coffee Company. I don’t like coffee, but it was so beautiful there and smelled great. They gave away free samples of the different types of coffee to try.
Friday-still in Kauai:
This was our last full day on the cruise. We were still in Kauai, but we didn’t have a car, so we didn’t get off the ship. There weren’t anymore places that we really wanted to see, so we went to the pool, drank some fruity drinks served in pineapples, ate lunch, played BINGO, went to an art auction (hoping to win a raffle), and played water volleyball. The water volleyball was so much fun! Kaka, Brock, Ashley, Brad, and I all played with others against the crew. We were awesome and won. It was a blast.
That evening, the shipped sailed past the beautiful Napali coastline. It was very pretty at sunset, and there had been a rainbow earlier. It was nice to look at, but also fun because it was very windy on the deck of the ship. I had a hard time keeping my dress down and my hair out of my face.
Saturday-Back to Honolulu:
Disembarked the ship and went back to our hotel in Waikiki. We walked around and checked out the shops and the International Market Place.
Later that night, we took our family picture on the beach and said goodbye to Laura and Brad, who headed home.
Sunday-Waikiki:
We took a bus to Pearl Harbor to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. It was very beautiful there, and it was interesting that the memorial was built right over the ship. Most of the men are still there where they died, and the ship still leaks oil to this day.
When we got back, we had lunch at Duke’s and tried the famous hula pie. It was good, but I’m not a huge fan of Macadamia nuts (which are very high in calories).
Later that afternoon, we went to Waikiki beach, which was only two blocks away, to lay out and swim. You could see Diamond Head from the beach. The ocean was great. You could go out very far and still touch the bottom. The water was super clear and the waves were kind of big. We wished we knew how to surf or at least had a boogie board.
Monday- Waikiki:
Our last day 🙁
We did our last minute shopping and headed to the airport to go home.
After the long flight, we were so glad to be back. It took quite a while to get back on the Bowling Green schedule. Hawaii is 5 hours earlier than us. So, when we got back, we couldn’t fall asleep until 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. I think we are finally getting back on track.
We had such a great time, but it’s good to be home. I really hope to go back again. It sounds like my parents are up for a trip, so maybe there will be another visit in the future.
