Honeymoon Part I

Slacker Alert: Our Honeymoon was 4 months ago. Better late then never.
Wedding Post Soon, I was waiting for the Photographer to send my print release. 

So immediately after our wedding we hit the road to Atlanta, GA. We stayed at the Hilton Doubletree, I was so excited to see that milk and cookies had been delivered to our room.

We packed up and headed to the airport the next morning for our day long trek to Hawaii.

ATL=>LAX was our only flight the entire time that went off without a hitch. We love flying and I am like a little kid on a plane, well we lucked up and scored seats with a plane-wide trivia...Needless to say I was entertained for the rest of the flight.

When we boarded our flight in LA, it was delayed, not a big deal at the time, BUT
It was a smaller plane.
There was no A/C.
It was a packed flight.
There were MANY crying babies.
So after about an hour of waiting the captain announced that there was an issue with the landing gear that needed to be checked again.  Fast forward 45 minutes we get another announcement that they are almost certain we will all deboard the plane and rebaord a different plane, but they have one more solution they don't think will work, but want to try just in case.  Then we hear the doors shut and announcement to prepare for takeoff.  HELLO they just said it probably wouldn't work! So almost 3 hours late we take off into some seriously powerful headwinds that cost us another hour in the air.

Finally We made it Hawaii! I think it was 11 pm local time, so I can't even fathom how long we had been traveling. But we were in paradise, and I was in a horrible, awful, terrible, WONDERFUL mood. Our luggage took its time finding its way to baggage claim, but I will say that if you are going to be stuck in an airport, might as well be an open air airport, surrounded by Don Ho music and leis.

I was ready to collapse and sleep for days by this point, but we still had to go pick up the rental car. Thankfully it was quick and painless, and soon we were driving off with this little guy. If you are even in Hawaii in December definitely spring for a convertible, but be certain you can put the top on QUICKLY. There are sudden rain showers very often.   

When we made it to our room I broke into our welcome basket and gobbled it up like a starving dog. Hello, pina coloda balls? I beg to have some shipped here all the time. 

Our first day we didn't have any plans other to just explore and get settled in. We had a pretty plan packed week, after all how many times in your life do you get to spend a week in Hawaii?

We headed out to get some scuba gear and met a very interesting employee at the Scuba shop.Breakfast at McDonalds was an adventure in itself. No Spam and Rice for this girl.  Especially not at 9:00 am. 

Afterward we headed off to the famous North Shore, they are not kidding about the rough surf there. 

It looks peaceful and serene, and it certainly fooled me. 

We live at the beach and love to boogie board. 

Heads up Wide open Pacific Ocean, is not the Gulf of Mexico, or Myrlte Beach. 

 

I hoped in thinking easy-peasy, first wave comes, I am being drug along the bottom, hitting coral and tumbling like crazy.

 

We played around and fought the waves for a while longer then walked across the street to explore one of the many caves along side the road. 

 

That afternoon we drove around soaking up every moment of paradise that we possibly could.  We stopped at a few canyons and lookout points along the way.  We also made a stop to the neighborhood Walmart, of course because no trip of ours is complete until we've been to Walmart.

 

That was the end of the first leg of our Hawaiian Honeymoon.

More to come from Honolulu, Snorkeling, Luau, and the Polynesian Center.

Aloha!