Yeah I'm freeeee, free fallin

Up on North Shore of Oahu we went to Waimea and jumped off the cliff. I did it once, just to say I did it. And Dan did it twice because he's so very brave. haha! We only have a picture of Dan jumping, my swan dive was caught on video.

This was after we jumped, but behind me is the cliff we jumped from

Dan's trick. Cool picture, right?!

A walk down Waikiki

We stayed across the street from Waikiki for our 2 nights on Oahu. We went and walked the beach early one morning. Oahu is interesting. I didn't fall in love with it like I did with the Big Island. It's very touristy, city mania, and there were a fair share of homeless people camping out on the ol beach. It reminded me a lot of Vegas in a way. Don't get me wrong, once you get out of the city the mountains are breathtaking and the beaches are beautiful. I was just surprised by the city-like atmosphere.

 This is King Kamehameha...if I remember correctly. He's a big deal 

Dan borrowed one of his lei's for the photo =)

Hiking the volcano

The day after we hiked to the lava flow, we decided it would be a great idea to go on a 4 mile hike through Volcano National Park! It was fun and neat to see. The beginning and the end of the hike were lush and jungle-y with steep switchbacks. The middle was all lava rock. Some of the rock was flat and smooth, like you see in most of these pictures. Some of it was very jagged and rough.

 This was a plant out in the middle of the lava rock

 Look how cool this plant is! It's purple and twisty and it looks like it's out of a cartoon!

 The jungle-y part

 See the white strip in the middle? That is where we walked. It was all very smooth and easy to walk on there

Just a little sweaty, ha! This is the rough part

Up top before we left...all smiles haha! 

 I found a claw. Or just a weird plant.

 We made it...still fake smiling! 

 We made it! Dan carried all the water the whole way....and I drank most of it

This is a lava tube. It wasn't on the hike, but we stopped there after the hike to take a look. Pretty neat to think about lava flowing through it!

Southern most point in the U.S. and some BLACK sand

If you ever wondered what the southern most tip of the U.S. looks like, here it is. VERY VERY windy. The trees are even bent over from all the wind!

 Really cute hair, right?

We also stopped at black sand beach where we saw our first sea turtles. We also got yelled at by some cray-cray tourists that were bound and determined to save the turtles from anyone coming within 15 feet of them (funny though, they were only about 4 feet from them. hmm.) I'm so glad we have monitors like them in the world.  Not sure we'd survive without them. Anyway....there was one big turtle laying by himself, so Dan decided to join him...

 See all of them? So awes!

Snorkeling with the Mantarays

Our second night in Kona we went out with Sea Paradise to snorkel with the gigantic Manta's. They were phenomenal! Three of them came to visit that night, and they come within inches of your face and body! We have tons of video of them, because pictures did not turn out very well in the dark ocean.

 Here's a picture of the sunset...mixed in with construction....I'm a really good photographer, right?

 Our sun burnt faces from a day of fun! This was the same day that we swam with the dolphins and the turtles. (my posts are out of order) It was a full day with marine life!

 This is the face of the manta. They have no teeth and their throats are only as big around as a quarter. They would flip and swirl and twirl right below us. Amazing!

This is how close they got to us!

Kua Bay aka Manini'owali

We are in love with Kua Bay! This is where we swam with 6 wild dolphins!!!
MY LIFE=COMPLETE! When we arrived at the beach there were some locals pointing out into the ocean, so I asked them what they were pointing at. They told us there was a big pod of dolphins not too far off the beach (ok, they were like 3 football fields away...so kind of far). They pointed them out to us and we were so excited that we actually got to see some dolphins. In the back of my mind I kept wondering if that was too far for us to swim (and if we were even supposed to get by the dolphins). About 20 minutes later we were out snorkeling looking for turtles when a small boat pulled up to the dolphins and two girls jumped in the water with them. I told Dan  "we're doing this, lets go!" We swam our little hearts out and within 5-6 minutes we were swimming with dolphins! Oh my gosh it was the coolest thing that has ever happened! I was really worried that the guys on the boat would be upset with us and tell us to go away, but they were so cool and said, "Right place right time. Awesome!"  If the dolphins ever started to swim away from us, the guys would slowly move their boat around and the dolphins would turn around and come back to us. SOFREAKINGAWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! We swam with them for about 10-15 minutes.

 These are my swim noodles. Dan was embarrassed by them....I told him it is less embarrassing to swim with noodles than it is to drown. He agreed. I'm so glad I had them..I would have never made it to the dolphins!

 We missed our baby, so we sent him a note

 Here they are! Can you stand it?!

 Ahhhhhhhh so amazing!

We love Kua Bay!

Hapuna...goin on a turtle hunt

We found some turtles to swim with at Hapuna. So so so fun! One turtle was gigantic! I even held hands with one of them ahhhhhh!