Summer 2009

Since I failed to blog anything at all this summer, I'm just going to compile everything into one. We've been dealing with computer and internet problems so it's been difficult to get on. Our computers are really, really old so we've been holding out on getting an iMac. We finally got it last weekend and are in the process of transferring everything over to it...which is not fun! I love our mac so far. It is awesome.

I guess the biggest highlight of our summer was our trip to Hawaii. We had a blast. It was a much needed vacation! We stayed in Maui at the Ritz-Carlton, which was amazing!

This was the view from our balcony

Another view of the hotel...

The private beach at the hotel...the water was crystal clear!

Since we arrived in Maui at 6 pm local time (which is really 11 pm our time) we decided to just go to to bed early and do the Sunrise Bike tour on our first day. It's a tour of Haleakalā which is a 10,000 ft. dormant volcano. They take you up the volcano in a bus and you get to watch the sunrise and then you bike 26 miles back down. I was a little scared at first...the thought of riding on the shoulder of the road down a volcano just didn't seem very fun...but it was! I'm glad we did it, but I can't say that I would do it again. The biking was the fun part. The worst part was freezing to death on top of the volcano when it's 35 degrees outside for 2 hours waiting for the sun to rise! It was seriously the coldest I have ever been in my entire life!! We heard it was going to be cool so we wore pants and the biking company gave us windsuits, a fleece jacket and heavy duty gloves. We thought that was plenty, but boy were we wrong! I really didn't think I was ever going to feel my fingers again! But the pictures were definitely worth it.

Waiting in the dark for the sun to rise...

Almost...

Amazing!!!!!!

We weren't the only crazy ones freezing to death to watch the sunrise...

Yes, we really are in Hawaii!

This is just a picture of the crater of the volcano... I think it looks like Mars!

Then we biked 26 miles back down....shedding layers every couple thousand feet..

I couldn't believe they had windmills in Maui!

This picture made me think of Lubbock...minus the huge volcano in the background!

Jon wearing his Kukui Nut Lei the gave us at the hotel..... I promise it's not one of my necklaces!

Mai Tai's served from fresh picked pineapples from the plantation...yum!

We had a couples massage at the spa...very relaxing!

One day we flew over to Honolulu, Oahu to see Pearl Harbor. It was extremely crowded that day so we had to wait 2 hours before we could catch the ferry to see the USS Arizona. While we were waiting we toured a submarine, the USS Bowfish.

USS Bowfish

The USS Arizona Memorial is on the right and the Ship on the left is the USS Missouri.

The memorial crosses over the sunken ship so you can see both sides.

The names of all the men who died aboard the ship.

Oil still leaking from the hull 68 years later!!

Waikiki Beach... I wasn't very impressed. It was so crowded. Maui's beaches are way better!

At the Luau

The roasted pig.....yuck!

The show was really neat!

The guy with the fire was our favorite part!

On the other side of the island of Maui they have this stretch of highway called "The Road to Hana." It's about 68 miles long but takes the entire day to get there and back because of the winding roads. The scenery along the way is incredible. It is filled with waterfalls, rainforests and hiking trails.

Hana here we come..

The narrow winding road..

The one-lane bridges that go around curves were very scary..

We went hiking through the bamboo

And we learned that its called a RAINforest for a reason....it rains all the time!

Keopuka Rock....its from the opening scenes of Jurassic Park

The coastline

Fields where they grow Taro....

Mongoose......they were everywhere!!!

Me at the black sand beach.

Jon...avoiding warning signs as usual...

Jon swimming in the Seven Sacred Pools..... The very last picture I took before I slipped on a rock and drenched my brand new camera...

I have to include pictures of the sunsets....

Every beach we've ever gone to together, we have gone scuba diving. So we just had to keep the tradition up in Hawaii which is supposed to be one of the best places to scuba dive. I'm just glad I didn't watch shark week before we went.... I might have changed my mind! They talked about a 15 ft. tiger shark that was spotted on Molokini Island where were were scuba diving. Yikes! We did see 1 reef shark....it wasn't very big though.

The harbor where we left to go scuba diving

Jon on the boat with Maui in the background.

Yeah this was caught not far from where we were scuba diving...

Me in my wetsuit

Yes....he wore purple..

Molokini Island.....it's uninhabited, but known for it's great snorkeling and scuba diving.

Me Jumping in.. I got to dive twice. They had an extra spot at the second location so I got to dive with the sea turtles while Jon got to snorkel from above.

And I saved the best for last..... This was by far the best thing we did on the whole trip. I've always wanted to try surfing and at our concierge's desk in the hotel they had surfing lessons as one of the activities. I signed up and figured Jon would just watch from the shore but he wanted to try it too. We had such a good time! The surfing itself wasn't that difficult....it was the swimming back out into the waves that wore you out!!

I got up the second time...

Jon got up the first time!

We definitely want to do it again....I didn't realize how sore I would be afterwards!!! And I regret not wearing a long sleeved rash guard like Jon's..... I found out the hard way why it's called a RASH guard! I had rashes on both my arms from paddling on the surf board back out into the ocean..

One of Jon's main projects this summer is getting our other flowerbed finished. We had a concrete sidewalk put in to lead to the other side gate and it outline a huge space for Jon to fill. It turned out to be a lot more work than he intended. Between transplanting the grass, tilling the entire area (which the dirt here is hard clay), and accidently tilling up a sprinkler head, I don't think I can ask him to do another big project until at least next year...

Let the tilling begin...

Finally...the finished product! I'm so proud..