This summer I've started to learn what real life is like. Spencer and I have both been busy working about 40 hours a week (including night shifts for me), and planning for London. But, this post isn't to whine about being "grown ups", instead I'll focus on the highlight of our summer....our 9 day trip to Hawaii.
My parents have been saving my dad's frequent flier miles for years, and this year they finally had enough to fly 6 people round trip to the Big Island in Hawaii. That left Spencer and I as the spares, so my parents told us to find the cheapest way to fly and they'd pay for it. It turned out that it was cheaper for us to fly to Oahu first, and leave a day early, and come home a day later. Holly Christiansen, one of my good friend's older sister lives in Honolulu with her husband, and said we could stay with them. Our first day in Oahu, Holly drove us all over the island to visit Pearl Harbor (check that off my bucket list), see the North Shore, and eat some great food. Then, we hopped on another plane over to the Big Island where we met my family.
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| I am a snow cone junkie. I don't know if the Hawaiian snow cones actually taste better, or if it's because you're eating a snowcone in Hawaii, but I loved them. |
The Big Island is BEAUTIFUL! The area that we stayed in was very dry with lots of volcanic rock (it looked like we were driving through Southern Utah), unless we were on the beach. But, within a 40 minute drive, we started to enter a real life rain forest. We had fun just driving around the island and watching the landscapes change. We visited the Volcanoes National Park, although we didn't get to see the lava flow into the ocean. We snorkeled with manta rays at night, which are HUGE, and literally do flips in the water so they're belly to belly with you. Some other highlights were snorkeling, boogie boarding, a spa day for the girls (I'd never had a pedicure before!), visiting the black and white sand beaches, buying fresh fruit from a truly crazy man, hiking to Akaka falls, and just laying on the beach reading a book that was for fun, not for school!
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| Cross that off my bucket list too! |
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| Volcanoes National Park |
This was the first vacation I've been on that I completely, 100% dreaded coming home, in the past I was always looking forward to seeing friends or getting back into my routine. But this time I never wanted to leave. If the whole London thing doesn't work out, I think we'll move to Hawaii.
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| My family |
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| Love this boy! |
