Here is a glimpse into our Hawaii vacation. I am not going to post about the whole trip, just the first day.
**READ TILL THE VERY END**
So, as of May 19th, 2017. Ryan and I have been married for 10 years. That’s kind of a big deal. Well, it is to me. I have been talking about wanting to take a special trip for our 10 year anniversary and started saving up a little over a year ago. I do have to say, downloading the app Qapital is amazing. I had it to put back money every week until I hit my goal. I did that for over a year, and still use it! LOVE IT.
I didn’t know where I wanted to go, but I just wanted it to be special. I looked at everything under the sun. I checked on cruises, all inclusive resorts, different Caribbean Islands. If you name it, I probably looked into it. I knew cheapcaribbean.com like the back of my hand.
Ryan was not very helpful. His response was ” We will go wherever you want to go!” That was very frustrating. My parents tried helping us, friends gave suggestions. and nothing! I couldn’t settle on anything. The day to leave was quickly approaching and I was so tired of looking that it wasn’t fun anymore.
The day before we left, we still had NOTHING BOOKED!! NOTHING!! no flights, hotels, nothing. I had so many people ask what we were doing, and all I could say was “I DON’T KNOW!!” Ryan had to work until 10 pm that night. He comes in and I finally started looking into Hawaii. I wanted to go to Kauai so I found flights, hotels, and rental cars to show him. He sits down and does some research and says “I’d like to go to Disney’s Aluni” I’m like, that’s in Ohau. He then sees something else and I’m like “That’s in Ohau as well” So after, 2 hours of looking we booked our flights, hotel, and rental car to Kauai for 2 days then to Ohau for the rest. It is now midnight with nothing packed, and we leave Knoxville in 9 hours.
Our friend sent is a text and told us to have a great time and to look deeply into each other’s eyes. We sent her this to be funny!
The flight wasn’t too bad. We flew from Knoxville to Atlanta (45 mins) then Atlanta to LAX (4.5 hours) – LAX to LIH (5.5 Hours)
We stayed at Kauai Shores. It was really cute! The beach was walking distance and they had an awesome restaurant right on the beach with fun outdoor games to enjoy.
That flower in my hair is real. Those flowers were growing on trees out and around the hotel. I just picked one off the ground.
We drove to the Spouting Horn. It was very cool to watch. When it would spout you could hear a really cool sound. It almost sounded like a vacuum turn on.
We then stopped at Poipu Beach to look around and check out the area. I loved this palm tree and had to try to take a picture with it. There were lots of rentals close by for bikes, snorkel, surfing. People were relaxing on the beach and watching the surfers.
From there we saw our first Shaved Ice stand and had to stop. This place was right next to a Warehouse 3540. They had a huge warehouse full of different vendors and some food trucks outside.
Fresh Shave was by far THE BEST SHAVED ICE we had during our whole trip! We got the Fu Manchu. It was strawberry with banana cream topped with fresh strawberries puree + apple banana cream
We then drove for almost an hour to Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.
After you go to the main lookout, they had a few other roads to drive down and see other things. The Kalalua Lookout was the best lookout to see the Nā Pali Coast. It was so foggy being up so high, no such luck.
Wailua Falls was our last stop before getting ready for dinner. It was a very east drive to get to and beautiful to look at.
You could only view this waterfall from the road, they have every where blocked so you can’t climb down.
I would like to point out that I didn’t bring my nice camera. I only brought my iPhone 7 plus. We used “Portrait Mode” a lot on it. It would blur the background for you!! It also kept the original, but I loved the effect it gave me.
We had a fantastic dinner at The Beach House. It was sitting right on the ocean with a great yard out front as well. You could sit and watch the surfers and look over the ocean. We went right before sunset and it was soo PRETTY!
So I always make a big deal about cards. Ryan is not the best at giving them either. I really just like a sweet note in the card, that’s all I really want. Ryan has missed giving me a few for birthdays and I always give him a hard time until I get one. He once gave me my birthday card 9 weeks after my birthday. I was pretty happy he gave me one for our 10 year anniversary. ( I actually didn’t get him one..oops)
20 mins before sunset, like clockwork, dozens of small green parakeets fly to the trees on their property and nest for the night. Then at sunrise, they go back to wherever they came from and then do it all over again.
A Photographer walked around to all the tables and said at sunset, he would be taking photos if interested. I looked at Ryan with big eyes and said: “We are doing that!” The photos were $20 each, he took maybe 6 different poses. I went with the classic. He emailed it to us before we left.
As our night was winding down, we were getting tired. This 6 hour time difference made us super tired. It was 8 pm there and 2 am back at home. As we were walking back to our car, Ryan said “Let’s just sit down here on this bench for a min” I did think that was strange but I was like “Ok?” We sat there for a min and then He said: “Do you want your other surprise?” I was like “YEAH!?” He then opens up the ring box and says “Will you stay my wife?” and gives me a BEAUTIFUL new ring. I was beside myself. I said 5x or more. “IT’S HUGE!!” I love it so much.
I totally felt like we just got engaged! I was so giddy. Now, my other ring was beautiful and nice, I still love it. I loved it so much because he picked it out. but it was small and it actually gave me some problems on my finger. I made comments I wanted another ring but didn’t actually think he would get me one.
I love that he picked out my new ring!! It is so pretty. I just thought I would share this story with you. We had a great time in Hawaii. We went to Kauai and Ohau. I would love to share more but maybe another day when I have more time.
-Sarah-