Hawaii 2012

For our 10 year wedding anniversary Daniel and I wanted to do something big to celebrate. So we went to Hawaii! We stayed on the big island of Hawaii. Here is a picture of us arriving at the Kona airport.

We were lucky enough to rent a condo from some friends of ours who gave us a good deal so we made a lot of our meals. This was Daniel's breakfast every morning.

The big island is very different than the other Hawaiian islands. It is a lot of desert wasteland and vast black lava flow everywhere.

Our first full day there we went to Mauna Kea Beach and had a great time in the water and soaking up the sun. This was the week that it was pouring rain back home. :)

We had fun on the paddle board.

And reading on the beach.

We found a turtle friend there too!

Daniel looks good in snorkel gear! :)

Look at that Hottie!

Aleena frolicking in the warm water and loving that it's not cold like the Northern California coast!

True loves kiss!

The next day we drove to where the active Volcano is on the other side of the island. We took some pictures of the beautiful coast along the way.

Here we were at the Black Sand Beach. The sand is black due to the black lava rock that has been broken down into fine sand by the waves.

Here we are at the summit of the Kilauea volcano. You can see the smoke rising from the hot lava within.

Here are some cool looking patterns in the hardened lava flow.

Here is where the lava went through a road a few years ago.

A cool arch on the coast.

Above is a crater with steam rising out of it in places.

We went inside a huge lava tube that has been lighted for tourists.

It's crazy to think of this much lava flowing through this huge tube!

After dark we returned to the Caldera of the Kilauea Volcano and we could see the red glow of the lava inside.

The star gazing there was amazing too! Here is Venus super clear a bright. We also saw Uranus and Mars!

This is the Captain Cook Memorial. Captain Cook is the Christopher Columbus of Hawaii. He had a good relationship with the natives for many years, but ultimately he was brutally murdered by them.

We went snorkeling near the monument and it was awesome!

Here is Aleena modeling next to a banana tree.

The plant life in Hawaii is so different from the mainland and the colors are so vibrant.

We visited what is called "The Painted Church" and I took pictures of some of the murals painted on the walls. This church was almost destroyed by a huge lava flow but the Hawaiian government paid for this historic site to be moved to another part of the island before that happened.

Here is the pretty yellow flower Dan picked to put in my hair one day.

Sunset on the beach.

A father and son fishing. It was a sweet sight.

Cool coral and lava rock washed up on the shore.

Our last day we went to Hapuna Beach which was beautiful. We went boogie boarding a lot this day and had a blast! Two whales came close to the shore and we got to see them playing and flipping their tales and breaching the water and even jumping a little bit. Daniel tried to chase them on his paddle board to get a closer look, but he just chased them away. It was a very fun day.

Our last night there Daniel went snorkeling at night with gigantic Manta Rays. They were 8 to 15 feet long! This was the highlight of our trip for Daniel.

Daniel had fun driving around the jeep we rented that week.

One last picture with the jeep.

These are some pictures we took as we took off on the plane to go back home. Sigh.

It was a very fun and memorable 10 year anniversary with the love of my life!