Celebrities: Fake and Real

The next day once we were ready to go, we went to check out Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  I had been before, but my husband had not.  We had fun posing with the characters.  I won't bore you will all of the pics, but here are a few fun/funny ones.

When we were finished at the wax museum, we wandered down the strip a bit.  We decided to check out High Roller, which is kind of like a big Ferris wheel.  It wasn't too crowded so we didn't have to wait long and we had great views.  

After that, we went by some bakery to check out the treats.  We got one and right afterwards, we noticed they had a cupcake ATM.  How cool is that???  Then it was time for lunch (because you know it's "normal" to get dessert BEFORE lunch, right?  Um, yeah...) My beer-loving husband actually ordered a fruity drink at lunch.  I tried it and I liked his drink MORE than mine.  That never happens because usually he has beer and I generally don't like beer.  (The food was good too ha ha).  After lunch, we wandered the strip a bit.  We were getting hot so we didn't go as far down as we originally planned.  We decided to head back to our hotel.  We were walking along and then we both got hot again and went into Casear's for what was supposed to be a minute to just cool off, but we ended up walking around quite a bit in there and checking out some of the shops.  Emit (sp?) Smith was at one of the stores autographing things so my husband decided to check that out and I went to H&M and shopped around there for a little bit.  I can't remember what I bought, but I believe I spent $25, which was much less than hubby spent to get his autographed picture.  Anyway, it was pretty cool that he got to meet Mr. Smith, but even though I'm not a football person, I wonder if I should have gone because meeting a celebrity is on my bucket list.  And it still remains on my bucket list.  Anyone know any celebrities they want to introduce me to?  ha ha   

A Tiring First Day in Las Vegas

The flight to Las Vegas wasn't too bad.  It took us a while to get our luggage, but not too long after that we were en route to our hotel.  I have never applied for or paid for early check in before, but I was so tired that my husband said let's just do it so we spent the $30 to check into our room early.  We peeked around the room, read some of the brochures they gave us, and then I took a much needed nap and my husband went off to explore the hotel a bit.  Later on, we had lunch with Hawaiian themed food and drinks then went off to explore the Las Vegas strip for the afternoon.  We had fun checking out some of the hotels and casinos.  After dinner, we visited the casino for just a little while then I went up to bed because I was still so tired from not sleeping the night before (I only napped for an hour earlier in the day).  I read my book for a little while then went to bed.  My husband had a second burst of energy so he asked if I minded if he stayed at the casino for a while.  I was fine with that.  I wanted to be well rested for the next day in Vegas, which was also the last day of our honeymoon before we headed home.  :-(    

Volcanoes, Valleys, Lana'i, and the great bagel search

Our next day in Maui, we went to Haleakala.  Apparently, many people get up early (or don't go to bed???) and leave in the middle of the night to watch the sun rise over Haleakala.  Although, I'm sure that is lovely, I was on vacation and the thought of getting up obnoxiously early did NOT make me happy so we decided to do Haleakala at a more reasonable hour.  If (no,WHEN) we go back to Maui, we may stay for a whole week and do the sunrise tour--have to save something for a future trip, right?  ;-)  Anyway, we did enjoy Haleakala.  Great views and I became rather fascinated by a plant called silversword.

  Turn your head sideways for this one because it won't let me rotate it.  Oops

This was also the only time in Hawaii I wore a sweatshirt as it was a little chilly up top.

After Haleakala and a lunch stop (delicious eggplant panini), we went to the Iao Valley, which also had some nice views and pretty vegetation.

Later that afternoon, we went to happy hour at a place in Lahaina and tried the famous hula pie.  It was delicious, but too big.  I don't think I finished it.

The next day (our last day in Hawaii, waaahhh), we had to check out of our hotel by 11 or 12, but our flight wasn't until around 10 that night so we were on the hunt for a full day trip of sorts.  We decided to do the day trip to Lana'i.  The boat picked us up around 9 or 10, they fed us delicious cinnamon rolls, a light lunch, and then we had several hours to enjoy the island of Lana'i.  My husband went snorkeling, but I just enjoyed the beach instead. Later I did the island tour, then we met up for an early dinner (included with our tour), and soon it was time to get back on the boat for dessert and a drink.  We spotted quite a few dolphins on the ride back to Maui, that was pretty cool.  After that we pretty much just hung out in the hotel lobby area until our shuttle came to take us to the airport. The airport is quite busy at that hour, but the staff there are pretty nice.  The flight itself wasn't bad, but I couldn't sleep well so when we landed in L.A. for our connecting fight, I was exhausted and I really wanted a bagel.  Such a weird thing to crave after flying all night, but that's what I wanted.  You'd think at 6 a.m. it'd be easy to find a bagel, but NO.  I walked and walked and walked and finally found one then tried to stay awake while we waited to board our connecting flight.    And then it was off to  Las Vegas for a couple of days before we headed home.

The Road to Hana

On our second day in Maui, we did The Road to Hana tour.  I, for one, was glad I did NOT have to drive on that road, but rather could just be a passenger and enjoy the many great views.  It's a good thing they don't have crazy winter weather out there because I can't even imagine driving on that road in snowy/icy conditions.  So yea, we were on a small bus tour and we really enjoyed the tour.  It was a long day, but well worth it.  It was probably one of my favorite parts of Maui, just so scenic.  Waterfalls, delicious banana bread, swimming, pretty flowers, nice people, some historical spots, fun facts, horses, tress to play in (yes, really, this banyan tree was so big, you could walk through the middle of it), great views, nice beaches, good food, pineapple wine tasting, and just a nice day.  Can I go back?  :-)    

Aloha Maui

Sadly, on Sunday morning, it was time to leave Oahu, BUT we were heading to Maui so yay, for that.  I really enjoyed Maui and want to go back (for the record I would go back to Oahu too).  Anyway, the flight to Maui was fairly short so we spent more time at the airport than on the plane.  We got to our hotel before check in so we had lunch then walked around Lahaina for a little while.  After check in, we explored Lahaina some more and later had dinner, where I enjoyed more coconut shrimp (yum!) and a Mai Tai.  The restaurant was really crowded, but I enjoyed the atmosphere, good music, nice people, etc.  Plus you're in Hawaii, it's just not right to complain lol

And this is a funny picture choice, but this sign just cracked me up.  How often do you see a sign like this? It was at our hotel.

The Rest of the Week on Oahu

Thursday of our honeymoon, we went to the Iolani Palace and did a tour.  It was pretty cool.  I'm a dork and like certain historical things though.  I really don't know a ton about Hawaii's history so it was a mini lesson for me.  After that, we went to the beach for a little while.  The beach was busy, but nice.  The water was so warm.  We were supposed to go on a boat ride, but due to an impending hurricane, it got canceled and we weren't able to reschedule it.

The next day a hurricane was supposed to hit so everything: beaches, attractions, etc. except for some stores and restaurants were closed.  So we spent most of the day hanging out at the hotel since there really wasn't much else to do.  The hurricane mostly missed us. It did rain, but Oahu didn't get hit too hard. We were supposed to go to Diamond Head that day, but that got canceled as did the luau we were supposed to do; thankfully, we were able to reschedule those.  We were able to go out for dinner that night, but it was BUSY.  We got take out for lunch, which was busy too.  I guess when everything else is closed everyone goes out to eat.  :)

Saturday:  We hiked Diamond Head, it's a fairly easy hike and well worth it for the views, plus it was probably good for us to get some exercise since we were sitting a lot that week.  It was a little steep in a few places, but we did it.  That night we went to the luau, which was a good time.  

Hawaii Days 2 and 3

So Pearl Harbor may not be the most romantic spot to go on your honeymoon, but if you're in Honolulu, you've got to go to Hawaii and despite the sadness that goes with it, we did enjoy it. Again, I would post pictures, but you've all ready heard about my picture drama so I've only got one that I saved elsewhere.  (I saved about 50 pics to my computer in addition to loading them on Shutterfly).  I took approximately 681 pictures during the whole two week honeymoon.

In addition to going to Pearl Harbor on a bus tour, the tour included a brief city tour.

Hawaii Five-0 anyone? Shortly after we booked our honeymoon, we started watching Hawaii Five-0, got hooked on it and then bought/rented previous seasons and got all caught up.  We still enjoy the show now, but it does make us want to go back to Hawaii.  Sadly, we didn't get to meet "Steve" or "Dan O," but apparently we missed them by like a day as they were filming by our hotel the day before we landed and if we'd done one of our tours a day sooner or later (I forget) we would have seen them filming then too.  Aww man.  :-(  But we did get the picture that makes you think of the show.
The tour only took about half a day--we were done in time for lunch--so that afternoon we went back to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to finish looking around--our tour stop there the previous day wasn't too long and there were still things we wanted to see/do.  We did a train ride, shopped, and explored the gardens.  And I tried a delicious pineapple smoothie something or other.  Yum!   I also tried some of Hawaii's famous shave ice that day.  Because you know I was finally happy with my weight so why not stay happy when I could pig out and eat all these sugary things.  OOPS!  I gained four pounds on my honeymoon, but we don't need to discuss that now.  :-)  

The next day we went to this place called Kualoa (sp?) Ranch, where many movies and tv shows have been filmed.  We did the Movie Sites and Ranch tour.  It was okay.  There were some nice views and we got to see a few things from movies and the tv show Lost.  Jurassic Park 4 was filmed there about four months before we were there.

After the tour, we went to the Polynesian Culture Center, which was pretty interesting.  Learned a little bit about a lot of different cultures.

I'm hoping to visit Easter Island some day, but until then what I learned about the island at the PCC will just have to do.  And that night I was very excited to have coconut shrimp for dinner--one of my favorite summer meals.