VanDyke's do Hawaii {Personal Post}
Aloha! We just got back from Hawaii. It was soo much fun. We did some really fun things, took way too many pictures, and now we are home trying to catch up on sleep. I had no idea the 4 hour time change was such a big deal. We slept till noon today, really. If you plan on going to Hawaii, plan on sleeping for a least a day when you get home. Read about our adventures below...
We Started the trip off by going to the temple, visitor center, and cultural center in Oahu. None of them disappointed. I would share a lot more photos if I could, but honestly, no one is going to like them as much as I do, so I will just show you my favorites.
We stopped here for shaved ice on our way to the cultural center and it was amazing. Too bad it doesn't even have a name for me to share with you. It was good though. Like really good!
Next was Pearl Harbor. This was one of my favorite things during our trip. We went to the Arizona Memorial, and the USS Missouri, but we ran out of time for the other things, so I guess we will be going back another time to finish it off. I learned a ton about what really happened at Pearl Harbor, and... I clearly never paid attention in history, or to any of the Pearl Harbor movie because I had nooo idea that over 900 people are still in the battleship Arizona. Guys!? Thats more people than were in my entire high school.
They said the the oil which seaps from the USS Arizona {which is in the above picture} are the tears from those still in the ship, and it will stop when the last living crew member dies. There are only 5 members still alive today.
This Statue is placed right in front of the USS Missouri. We took a picture right next to it and then when we got back to our VRBO rental, Bill showed me the article saying that Greta Friedman had passed away. She is the nurse who was kissed by a random sailor as he was walking down the street the day the war ended. I just thought it was super ironic we got a photo with her the day she died....
After Oahu, we flew on a tiny plane to Maui. If you were following my snaps and instagram stories, you know how I felt about that. {Little planes scare me!} We survived and even saw some really cool waterfalls from the sky. Our First adventure in Maui was a dinner cruise. We had AMAZING local food, and even seen some dolphins.
The tree behind us is one tree. Yep, all of those trunks are one tree. I dont remember the name of it, but it the oldest one in Hawaii and it was pretty stinking cool.
I have a ton of landscape shots that are amazing, but I am only going to share a few with you on here. My new favorite landscape to shoot is waves. They are actually kind of fun. Oh, we also found quite a few sea turtles while the boys were out spear fishing. The sea turtles dont even care if you touch them!?
I had to buy her a grass skirt. Unfortunately there were no coconut bras in her size or I probably would have bought that too.
We did a few family shots on the beach, and I had to show the one shot when we got SUPER wet!
We went snorkeling and saw lots of coral, fish and turtles, and then it started raining. It actually rained most of the time we were there. We kept getting flash flood warnings on our phones and they actually told us not to drink the water the day before we left because all of the rain could have caused contamination in the drinking water.
Here is a cell phone shot of a mostly sunk car from the rain. The water is way gross when it rains.
