Day 7

Our last day on the island of Kauai was spent at a zipline with back country adventure. It was so much fun and the perfect way to end the trip.

Hawaii day 6

This was the first day on Kauai, we had planned to go to the botanical gardens that day but showed up to find out we missed the tour by a half hour.

So we went to see this water fall then headed over to the fern gratto.

Meanwhile the guys went golfing for the 1 and only time on the island. I know, shocking isn't it. When they saw what we had done they wished they had gone with us.

This is where you canoe out to go to the fern grotto, it was beautiful.

Fern grotto walk way.This is the Fern grotto, the ferns grow out of the rock sideways.

Later we decided to go to poi pu beach.
It was a fun surprise to walk up and find this on the beach.There were 5 more in the water so we had to check them out. What a fun experience.

Hawaii Day 5

We docked at Kona on the big island of Hawaii. This was the morning I dreaded the whole trip. Scuba diving! If you know me you know I'm scared to death of water. Lakes, ocean whatever it scares me. So this was the longest breakfast ever. We booked a snorkeling excursion before coming on the cruise for half the day.We got off the boat early that morning to meet the the captain of the boat. It took a long time to get to the first location (the longest boat ride of my life)

On the way we saw some playful dolphins swimming along the boat. I was at the tip of the boat and could get close enough to touch one. We swam at our first location for a half hour or so. It took me a minute to get out of the boat and concentrate on not having a heart attack. But once i got in the water and held hands with Ken, i calmed down. When we were heading towards our second location, a dolphin followed us all the way and immediately everyone jumped in to snorkel with a dolphin.

At one point it went to the bottom of the ocean floor and was rubbing it's back on the sand. We could hear it talking and it was so playful coming within a foot of us. The workers on the boat said it had never happened on any of her boat rides. People sometimes pay hundreds of dollars to swim with dolphins and they may not even see any.

The fish were so beautiful and you could get close enough to touch them.

Dinner at the captains table that night.

Hawaii day 4

The big island of Hawaii

We got off the boat, rented Jeeps and headed to Volcano National Park.

Right behind us in this picture is an active volcano called Kilauea volcano crater.

In this picture it looks like Ken has taken up smoking.

This is the entrance to a lava tube. It was really surreal to walk on a path that was created by lava many years ago.

Walking through the tube

The exit goes up but you can continue going straight through if you have proper equipment such as flashlight.

This is a huge area of land that had once been a city in Hilo destroyed by lava. Their were some homes out in the field but most don't have running water to them. People still live in them today.This was private property we decided to go on. The yellow markers are where you are suppose to go with a guide starting at 5:00. Well that didn' t work for us because we had to be on the boat by then and it was around 3:00. Some of us were nervous to go but it was "Daves Day" so out we went.
Then we heared sirens, turned around and saw this read car with lights on. Over a speaker we hear "please return to your vehicle." Turns out it was a rent a cop but we had our tails between our legs on the walk back.

So when we went to our Jeeps, their was a hippie guy hanging out telling us for $5 a head he would take us on a trail the back way to look at the volcano we wanted to originally see. The trail was off rode and a tight fit leading toward the coast.
It was a beautiful view and worth it.
He also showed us a blowhole

This was at dinner later that night.After 9:00 the boat was heading up the island to see the volcano we had been to earlier that day. It was so amazing to see lava in person instead of on t.v. or in pictures.