So we went to Hawaii. I got waaaaaaaay carried away with pictures. That is the long story short. Martin was lucky enough to have as a part of his career many conferences to attend that are part of work, so he is sponsored to go. The most important conference of the year was AAI, which unfortunately was in Honolulu so we were forced to make the decision to splurge on a plane ticket for me, let Min ride on our laps and head to Hawaii in May. Normally, spring in MN is sad to miss, but the day we left, just 30 miles to our east, 15 inches of snow fell. I was glad to get the heck away.
Martin really didn't have any free time while he was at the conference so we took full advantage the first day and toured around as a family. We visited the USS Arizona memorial and I enjoyed that more than I could have imagined.
Then work kicked in and Mino and I were free to explore. We took a catamaran cruise out into the bay to see Diamond Head from the water.
Mino followed me unwillingly on the local busses to the zoo and aquarium and an accidental tour of Honolulu due to me not exactly ready bus numbers and routes properly.
We spent a lot of time visiting the penguins at our hotel. Obviously. Penguins at a hotel in Honolulu. Duh.
After the conference was done we jetted over to Maui to revisit our honeymoon, with Mino in tow. The best part of every day was waking up and eating breakfast on our Lanai. Ben got in the habit, he would yell cereal and crawl up onto a chair. It was really nice to not be frantic and trying to rush to work, or lazy on a Saturday and have one of us sleeping.
We learned pretty quickly that Mino is scared of waves. He liked the sand and running away, but not the water so much. That kind of limited our beach time as it was hot, and without wanting to go into the water, there wasn't a good way to keep cool, and the sand is flipping hot.
So that led us to tour Eastern Maui. We did the road to Hana on our honeymoon, so didn't feel the need to go that way again. Instead we noted a little path around the eastern round part of the island that our previous dated guide book said was not for rentals (this one did not carry that warning.)
All was fun and games until the one lane road traffic jam. The main way from the airport and Kihei over to Lahaina was blocked with a pretty bad accident. The locals knew this one way road, thinking that most tourists wouldn't be so dumb as to take it. Wrong they were. Let me tell you there are no photos because I was too busy sweating for my life. Backing up on a literal one way road with douchey frat boys on mopeds and cliffs and no pull outs was a bit traumatic. Just ask Martin.
We survived and went to a nice dinner in Lahaina. With all the seafood options and varieties Martin chose Bubba Gump Shrimp. The view was nice.
We decided to venture up Haleakala as well. We got a beautiful day. I got car sick.
Mino was bored so he decided to impersonate Fear and Loathing.
That got irritating so we considered chucking him into the clouds.
But decided he was just a dude, so we kept him.
But he made us question that decision.
We also wanted to visit Kauai. The best part of Kauai is Mino finally learned to enjoy the water so we could have beach time. However, Kauai isn't known for calm waters. There is a constant repeating television at the baggage claim explaining how to escape from rip tides.
We saw a big tree.
And vines.
But most importantly we discovered Kauai Cookies, Minos favorite.
Martin was yelling at me for standing in a precarious position to take this picture. Little did he know what he was standing on. . . .
We enjoyed the sea breeze.
We had a very short Japanese couple take our picture visiting a waterfall. . ..
This waterfall.
And we ventured out to see Waimea Canyon. It really was a spectacular site.
The little mang even stopped to take a peek.
But decided chasing chickens was waaaaaaay more fun. There are so many chickens on that island that you'd think every meal would have some form of poultry. But I don't believe I had any chicken whilst in Kauai. I should have.
So about 6 miles after the canyon there was another pull out, I thought it was just farther up the canyon, nope, the next look out was this.
The quintessential Hawaiian view. I was slightly disappointed because the rugged Napali Coast was off limits to 18 month olds, so I thought, oh shucks, I guess I will have to come back and see it some other time.
Mino enoyed terrifying us by wanting to walk independently on the shear cliffs.
The drive up from Kapaa as far as the roads go the other way was pretty darn cool too. There were large caves along side the road.
And lei stands.
A fern grotto to visit.
And trails to explore.
It was a great trip all in all, no one got sunburned!!! My office manager commented on how pale I was when I returned. Flying was surprisingly ok, Mino slept most of the way home. I learned Hawaii has a lot of BBQ, chicken, Honolulu is very Japanese and you should know some if you are trying to ride the busses, that you can manage to rent a black car with black leather interior in Hawaii, and that Bubba Gump Shrimp isn't half bad.
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