Day 7 - Our Final Day

12/08/08 - This day came way too soon. It was a great vacation and none of us were looking forward to heading back to single digit temps in KC. We took one last snorkel trip in the morning before we had to check out. After that we held a short 6 month birthday party for Parker.

We had to check out at 10:30am, but our flight didn't leave until that evening so we had to find something to do all day that didn't involve getting really sweaty. We didn't want to smell like funk on our 10 hour trip home.

We decided to drive to the west side of the island and head up along the edge of Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It was a beautiful drive, and it brought us to the western end of the road on the south side of the island. That meant that we had driven all the way around the island as far as we could go over the course of the week. The canyon views were gorgeous and it was a great way to cap off the trip.
Canyon Photos
Snorkel Photos

Day 6 - Helicopter Ride

12/07/08 - Day 6 was truly memorable. We all took a helicopter ride around the island and it was absolutely amazing. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say it was some of the most breathtaking and beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Luckily Cait was feeling better, so she was able to go with us. Everything was just awesome - Waimea Canyon, the waterfall from Jurassic Park, the Na Pali coast, and Mt. Waialeale, the wettest place on earth. It was hard to get a good picture of the mountain because we couldn't go all the way to the top, and when we were inside the crater the walls were straight up.

Day 5 - North Shore

12/06/08 - Something bad had to happen on the trip. Caitlin got sick over night and decided she wanted to stay home today because she was feeling pretty bad. That meant it was just Erika, Parker and me for the day. We decided the night before to make this our sightseeing day, so we went ahead and stuck with that plan. Kauai has one main road that goes almost all the way around the island. We took that from the south shore where we were staying, up along the east shore, and all the way to the end of the road on the north shore. We saw a lot of beautiful sights. A couple waterfalls, postcard quality views of a light house on the coast, a secret beach, and much more. See for yourself:

Day 4 - Snorkeling and the Luau

12/05/08 - Friday was packed full of adventure. I'll let the pictures in our albums give you the details, but we crammed a lot of stuff into one day. The morning was spent laying on the beach and swimming where we were able to get some great snorkeling pics:

We also got the chance to see 3 Hawaiian Monk seals. They are an endangered species only found in Hawai'i. There are only about 1200 left, and we got to see 3 on the same beach. When we made it back to the condo, to our surprise there were a few sea turtles swimming in the cove just outside our back door. Cait and I of course had to grab the snorkel gear and jump right in with them. The rest of the turtle pics are here.

Swimming with the turtles from Bryan Hunt on Vimeo.

There was still some time to kill so we drove a short way to the lithified sand dune cliffs just west of us. Very interesting terrain and some great views from on top of the cliffs. That night it was off to the luau. The tour of the garden was beautiful, the pig and fresh fruit was delicious, the rest of the food was decent, and the dance/show at the end was very entertaining, but maybe a bit long. The long day and uncomfortable seats probably contributed to that a bit though.


It was quite a day, and the best so far on the trip. Everything was amazing, but I'd have to say swimming with the turtles was the highlight of the day, although Parker crapping on Erika at the luau is probably a close second!

Day 3 - 1st Day in Kauai

12/04/08 - We hopped over to Kauai the night before and got settled into our condo. We were up early again thanks to our little alarm clock, Parker, and Cait got a couple really good shots of the sunrise from our lanai.


After we stocked up on some food in the morning, we hit the beach for a day of snorkeling and relaxing in the sun. There are some better snorkel pics from some of the later days once I got the settings on the camera figured out a little better.

By the way, in case you haven't figured it out, you can click on just about any of the pictures to go to the complete web album.

That evening we went to check out Spouting Horn. It's a hole in the lava rock that shoots water up in the air when the waves crash in. It's also a great place to watch the sunset.

Days 1 and 2 - Honolulu

We had an amazing time on our trip to Hawaii. There are so many pictures to share and so much to tell that I thought I'd break it down into a few posts.

12/02/08 - The first day was spent travelling. It was a long day, but we were all so excited to get there that it didn't matter. Parker did awesome for his first time flying. He was perfect on the 2 plane flights, and didn't cry at all during take off and landing. We were pretty tired when we arrived late in the evening, so we just checked in to the hotel, grabbed some food, and hit the sack.

12/03/08 - Parker didn't adjust to the time change real well, so he had us up well before sunrise. That was ok though because we were only spending 1 day in Honolulu and we had a lot to get done. After breakfast we hit the beach as the sun came up for our first dip in the ocean.

Later in the morning we hiked up Diamond Head - an old volcanic crater. It was only .8 miles up to the top, but it was a pretty steep climb. The hike was well worth it though when we saw the view from the top. After cooling off and eating lunch, we headed over to Pearl Harbor. That was a little disappointing because it seemed like a big money pit for tourists. You had to pay for admission and then pay again for a tour to see anything interesting, and the prices were really high, so we just enjoyed the free stuff. It was nice to see the area in person though, and soak in the magnitude of what happened there.

Off to Hawai'i

We spent Turkey Day at my parent's house, and then Erika's family all came to our house on Saturday to celebrate. We had a great dinner and there were screaming kids running around all day. In another year or two when all the little ones are mobile and talking the holidays are going to get very interesting.

No time to get any pictures up because we're off to Hawai'i! Our flight leaves Tuesday morning and we're all definitely looking forward to some sand and sun, especially after the first snow fall in KC on Saturday.

I'll have a ton to share when we get back in a week I'm sure, and I'll try to sneak in a couple photos from Thanksgiving.