Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Devin, Julie, Liz, Justin and I all went into Orlando to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra holiday concert. The trip didn't go quite and smoothly as planned because Devin got stuck at work with a couple in finance. We ended up dropping off his ticket for him at the dealership and the rest of us drove together and he joined us later. We made it just in time for the concert and were seated just as it was getting dark after kicking other people out of our seats. The music was fantastic and what surprised me was the amazing laser light show and pyrotechnics. I didn't realize there was going to be so much fire...I like fire. My favorite songs were the Nutcracker medley and Into the Hall of the Mountain King.

"Friends"giving

As if I haven't been stuffed enough with Thanksgiving and all of the leftovers, we had a "friends"giving at Julie's house with more delicious food and good company. Devin, Julie, Liz, Justin, Will, Svea, and I all gathered at Julie's house for some macaroni and cheese, meatloaf (obviously I didn't eat it), drunken berry pie, and lots of other yummies. While everything was getting ready we had a Friends's thanksgiving episode playing in the background. I don't think anyone was really watching it but it helped make it a "friends"giving. I am very thankful to have a best friend like Julie and so many other awesome friends in my life. I don't know what I would do without you guys.

Witch Way 5K

Today I ran (jogged/walked) my first 5K in Florida. I haven't attempted to run this much since I lived in Madison. That's partly because all of the runs happen to be on days that I work but I was finally able to make one. The extra motivation came from it being Halloween themed (glow in the dark t-shirt - yay!) and it sponsors the Nature Conservancy. It started and ended in Nance Park in Indialantic, FL. My time was 30:31. There were some pretty neat costumes including a couple people in morph suits. Unfortunately I wasn't dressed up because I came straight from work and I forgot to bring one with me. It was actually a really nice run along the ocean and through some natureish areas and then a short part through some nice neighborhoods. Maybe I'll get motivated to do some more races and even try out something longer than a 5K.

New laptop

So my old laptop has had some issues for a while now. You have to balance something on the power cord and position it at a particular angle for it to connect, it has practically no battery life, and sometimes the screen goes blank and you have to hit Function + F6 a bunch of times until it finally flickers back to life. I figured it was probably time to get a new laptop even though I'm still very attached to my old one. Devin had ordered me a new one a while ago after I said yes and then I got it in the mail and took one look at it and instantly disliked it. Devin, being the understanding and wonderful husband that he is returned it for me. That was before the screen started blanking out. The black screen gave me the extra motivation to actually get and keep a new laptop. I found one I liked for only $330 at Best Buy and bought it from the store on my way to Zumba. It's a charcoal gray 15.6" display HP with AMD E-Series Processor and 3GB memory. When I got home I turned it on and there were green lines going through a blue screen of death. I turned it off and on again and it did the same thing. Today I took it back to Best Buy and exchanged it for a working computer. Now I'm working on installing all of my programs, software, etc. I haven't come up with a name for this laptop yet but I'm still working on it.

Animal Kingdom

My friend Julie got Devin and me three days at Disney for our wedding and we finally took advantage of our tickets and spent our first day at Animal Kingdom. When we checked in I told her the tickets were a wedding present (which is why they were under Julie's name) and the lady gave us buttons that said, "Happily Ever After." The first thing we did we go to look at the Tree of Life which I love; I wish I could have one in my backyard. I've often thought it would be neat to have a tree of life tattoo. Then after not too long we were off to the Lion King show. The singing was really good and they had acrobat "monkeys" which were fun to watch. I still remember a lot of words from all of the songs even though it's been awhile since I've seen the movie. After the Lion King we headed over to Africa and went on the Kilimanjaro Safari where we saw lots of animals including some giraffes that came pretty close and a baby elephant. We also went on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, visited the Conservation Station, saw the Flights of Wonder show where I got to go onstage and have an owl fly over my head, and I even got Devin to go on the Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain roller coaster with me. The Flights of Wonder show was probably one of my favorites because when they asked for a volunteer with a camera they picked me and I had to try to take a picture of an owl as it whooshed right over my head. Unfortunately I didn't get the picture but it was still really neat. For dinner we left the park and headed to the African buffet that is located in one of the hotels. All of the food was delicious and I ate way to much. Especially since after I had already stuffed myself our server noticed we had our "Happily Ever After" pins on and brought us a special dessert plate which we couldn't even finish. All in all it was an awesome day and it was so nice to have some uninterrupted time with Devin.

Stuffed and Unstrung

Julie, Liz, and I went to go see Stuffed and Unstrung for Julie's birthday. Before the show we headed to Outback to get drinks and dessert (and in Julie's case steak). After some yummy sweet potato fries and cheesecake we headed over to the King Center. The show, which was created by Brian Henson, is an improve comedy group that uses Muppets, and of course I love all things muppets. There were juggling bunnies,

crabs that yodeled about accounting, and hot dogs that sang while working in a pet store. They used my suggestion of "how my zombie ate your mother" as a title for one of their skits. My only criticism is that the audience, which was pretty sparse, was not very creative in their suggestions, although I think the cast did a great job with it. The audience responses were things like sex and pole-dancing - really people? One part of the show that I really loved is that they recreated two of Jim Henson's original skits, I've Grown Accustomed to His Face and Java. It was really neat to see the performers behind (or in this case under) the puppets.

Ripley's and Cirque du Soleil

Devin and I actually spent our day off relaxing and going out (instead of running errands and doing chores). I spent most of the morning napping and trying to get caught up on my rest since I am still trying to kick the end of my month long sinus infection but we spent the afternoon in Orlando. First we headed to Ripley's Odditorium where we saw fertility statues from Africa (supposedly if you touch them you will get pregnant - I did not touch them), a 25 foot high mural of Jimi Hendrix made out of over 8,500 playing cards, a replica of Wall-E made entirely out of

car parts, a rare fossil of a T-Rex lower leg, and of course a shrunken head. Devin's favorite part was all of the weird animals (sheep with two head, cows with too many legs, etc.) and my favorite part was the sculptures made out of parts.

After Ripley's we went to East Side Downtown Disney and visited the Lego Store which had some very impressive lego displays, my favorite being the

giant sea serpent. The we headed over to the West Side to see Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba. As always their show was simply amazing. Amazing use of color and textures in the costumes. Amazing live singers and musicians. And amazing talent from their amazing performers. I love watching the ribbon dancers (I wish I could do that) and watching the trampoline performers and Devin enjoyed watching the bicycle go across the high wire
.

New living room furniture

Last month Devin and I used some of our wedding money to get new living room furniture. We got a brown microfiber couch, matching love seat, espresso colored coffee table, and two end tables all for under $1000. We both really like the couch because it is really comfy. It doesn't normally look like the picture because normally there's stuff scattered all over the place but it's hard to admire the new furniture when it's piled under books, papers, and laundry. Under one of the end tables we have a vase from the wedding filled with the shell and kakui nut leis we got in Hawaii and under the other table we have a piece of pottery we got in Nicaragua. The "painting" over the couch is a picture we took of boiling mud in Nicaragua that we had printed on canvas. We are planning to add two smaller pictures on either side of it from our other adventures.

Home of the Gators

Devin and I took a day trip up to Gainesville today. I had told my University of Florida Physicians team that I worked with at Epic that I would come visit them and finally 2 1/2 years later I finally am. We left first thing in the morning and made it there in time to meet up with my team for lunch. Only Denise and Pam were able to come but I did get to see Javi as well. It was great to catch up with them and hear how things were going. The team just finished getting up all of their ambulatory clinics, yay! Both Denise and Pam got married (and so did I) and I got to see some of their wedding pictures. Pam even gave me a mouse pad with their logo

which they hadn't decided on in the year I was on the project.

After lunch Devin and I went to the Florida Museum of Natural

History to see the butterflies and other exhibits. The butterfly rain forest has somewhere between 60 and 80 different species and was awesome. My favorite one was shades of green, blue, and purple and I also liked the giant moth which I can't remember the name of. I had a butterfly land on me which was really neat. The other special exhibit the museum had was Wild Music which explores th ebiological origins of music. They had different instruments from around the world, different sounds from nature that are replicated in music, and different areas to make and record music. I recorded myself singing the theme from Fraggle

Rock, anyone surprised?

I was in the Florida Today

The Florida Today put in a picture of me feeding a marsh rabbit at the Florida Wildlife Hospital & Sanctuary. Normally the bunny would be wrapped up in the washcloth in a "bunny burrito" so that it can't run away but this bunny cooperated for his photo shoot and stood still which I gave him some Pedialyte. We'll slowly start to introduce it to milk and hopefully it will start eating lettuce on its own and get released. We release them back into the wild once they weigh over 180 grams.

I adopted a puppy!!!

So I have been looking at adopting a puppy for approximately forever, at least since high school. I couldn't adopt one in college, I couldn't adopt one while I worked at Epic, I didn't want to adopt when I was first settling down in Florida, but fiiiinally I am ready for a puppy. I'm always looking at PetFinder.com for cute animals and I saw an adorable fluffy dog at the shelter near us. Today was my first day off in a long time so Devin and I went to the beach, got shaved ice, and then stopped at the South Animal Care and Adoption Center (aka Animal Shelter). The place was overrun with kittens but we went to go look at the dogs. At first we didn't see the dog I had seen online but we asked about him and were taken to a back area. We visited with him in an outside pen and he ran right up to us, sat in our laps, and was such a loving dog. He also didn't bark at all the other dogs in the kennels so I was instantly in love and we adopted him. He still needs to be neutered and we have an appointment in August to remove his dangley bits. He was listed as a Shih Tzu but I think he might be a mix because he's larger than most Shih Tzus I've seen and also colored differently. The shelter thinks he's about 5 years old. I'm not sure what is back story is but he settled in very quickly at our house, is already potty trained, has been really good about not chewing things up (other than dog toys), and he seems to be getting along well with Grant. I haven't settled on a name for him yet but so far I'm considering Sprocket, Gizmo, and Riley. Yay for puppies!!!

I'm not old enough to be 27

I can't believe that I am 27 years old. That is uncomfortably close to being 30 and 27 sounds like your supposed to be grown up which I am most definitely not. To start off my birthday I went to work at the Florida Wildlife Hospital. It was pretty much a normal day until lunch. Devin brought me sushi for lunch and we went and ate together at a nearby park. When I got got back to the Wildlife Hospital they had a cookies 'n creme cake for me which was delicious. In the afternoon we got in four marsh rabbits which I decided were my birthday bunnies because I love bunnies even though most of the other staff don't like taking care of them. Someone also found a bagworm moth which looks like a bunch of tiny sticks stuck together which was really interesting. After I got home from work I ate dinner and Devin had made me some amazing chili enchiladas. For dessert he made me a tequila key lime cheesecake which is one of the best desserts I have ever had and is what I will be requesting as my birthday cake for every birthday from now on. Julie came over after she got off of work and we lit off some fireworks which was fun. Julie didn't set off fireworks as a kid so it was interesting to see her reactions. After we lit off some spinners, snakes, and fountains we went to see the new Pirates movie, On Stranger Tides. I liked it but Devin said it almost made him fall asleep in the middle.

St. Augustine day trip

Now that I am working 50 hours a week, 7 days a week, I'm really starting to miss having days off. I rarely see Devin and we don't have any days we get to spend together anymore so I really miss him. I asked Sue for a day off from the Wildlife Hospital and I got to take a Thursday off to spend with Devin. I have been wanting to visit St. Augustine again so we headed up there first thing after a late breakfast and spent the day there. It was 2 hour drive and when we got there we were hungry so we ate at the Old Drug Store and had some delicious root beer floats. Then we wandered around St. George Street and looked at all of the different local shops. We stopped at a winery and Devin tried some carrot wine and I tried some guava. I thought his was disgusting and he didn't like mine so we didn't end up getting any. After we wandered the length of the street we went to the Pirate & Treasure Museum. We got a treasure map and had to find 12 different hidden spots. We didn't find them all the first time through but we went back and found them all. I really liked the museum and my favorite part was probably the pirate's treasure chest. After the museum we headed to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (an old Spanish fort). That was really interesting as well and one of the park rangers who was dressed in Spanish garb did a fantastic talk about the reason behind the clothing of the time period. Next we were off to the St. Augustine Lighthouse where we climbed 219 steps up to the top. We had a good view and Devin gave me my birthday present, a gold ring that I can wear instead of my diamonds when I'm working at the wildlife hospital. We also went to the lighthouse's museum which had some old lenses and talked about lighthouse life. After that we grabbed a quick dinner and went on our ghost tour we booked earlier in the day. We didn't see anything supernatural but I did take lots of pictures and it was fun to hear the stories about the different haunted buildings and cemeteries. I was so great to have a day off.

Helicopter ride and a luau

Devin and I got a slow start to the morning. We're taking it easy since it's one of our last days of vacation before it's back to work. We were up early enough to take pictures of the beautiful sunrise which only takes about 5 minutes in Hawaii. After that we were planning on heading to the beach but it started pouring outside. We finally got to meet Darcelle, the woman we are renting from, when we took out the recycling this morning. She has an adorable golden retriever rescue named Friday. Devin finished reading his book and I wrote postcards while we waited for the rain to let up. Then it was off to the post office. We also stopped by the Laie Hawaii Temple to take pictures and went to the visitor center where we learned a little bit about the temple. Devin and I thought it was going to be more of an ancient temple but it was a Mormon temple. While we were there we got a call from Josh saying they had some openings for a helicopter ride so we hurried over to the Turtle Bay Resort again. After a brief safely briefing we flying over the island. Devin and I were up front with the pilot and there was another couple in the back seat. We saw a 1,000 foot waterfall, where part of Jurassic Park was filmed, Diamond Head Crater, and flew over the stadium. You could see all of the coral reefs when we flew along the coast and our pilot said he had seen whales out on an earlier tour.

Earlier in the week we made reservations for the Paradise Cove Luau. When we got there both

Devin and I got leis made of shells and Mai Tais. The free drinks we got as part of our admission were probably some of the worst drinks I have ever consumed; that was some cheap, cheap alcohol. While we waited for dinner we participated in the different activities they had including making a fresh flower headband and anklet, practiced our fire knife skills (we weren't very good), watched someone climb a coconut tree who showered us with flower petals, throwing

spears (Devin did really well), and practiced the hula (only I did that). They had a demonstration where they showed us how they used nets to

harvest fish, we watched the Royal Court procession and the unearthing of the traditional underground-roasted pig and then it was time to eat. Devin said that the pork was the best food he had in Hawaii but I did not partake. While we

ate we watched the luau show. Twice I got to go onstage and dance with the Hawaiian dancers which was a lot of fun. My favorite part of the show was the Samoan fire knife dance. It was really impressive

to see how fast he could whip around the fireballs without getting hit with them. We were both completely exhausted after the luau and I fell asleep in the car while Devin drove home.

Waimea Valley and Turtle Bay

We enjoyed Kono's so much that we went back for breakfast this morning and it was delicious. I had the breakfast burrito this time. They also had the most amazing vanilla macadamia nut coffee. We spent the entire morning at Waimea Valley. They valley has a trail that leads to a waterfall with lots of botanical gardens and trails going through the different area. The valley also had some neat archeological sites and we got to see a fishing shrine and some remains of walls that once used to hold domestic animals. Some of the animals we saw included a really brightly colored lizard, peacocks, pigeons, some songbirds, and moorhens. The moorhens were my favorite because they are indigenous and they had baby chicks. Devin and I spent a lot of time looking at all of the different garden areas. I think we both liked the hibiscus garden and the bird of paradise garden. We reached the waterfall and there was a small pool at the base of the waterfall that you could go swimming in but sadly neither Devin or I had our bathing suits. I waded a bit while Devin took pictures. I almost went swimming in my clothes but there was a cool breeze and I would have been freezing afterwords.

Deb and Jodi, my Sea Scape Motel coworkers, bought us a Turtle Bay gift certificate for our wedding we we went to the Turtle Bay resort for the evening. First, we hit the beach. They had a really nice beach and the snorkeling was really good; we saw lots of fish including my favorite, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, which I chased around a lot trying to get a good picture. There we also a lot of spiny urchins, including one that had

died and left a big pile of spines behind. I wanted to take a picture of it but after I went and got the

camera and swam back out I couldn't find it again. After we got tired we hit one of the restaurants which had a really nice view of the ocean. Devin and I tried out a couple of their specialty beverages and had dinner. I think any tropical location should have lots and lots of

rummy drinks including bahama mamas which they didn't but the drinks they did have were still very good. There were some stray cats wandering around including the most pathetic cat I have seen in my entire life. I asked on of the waitresses about him and she said that he has been at the resort forever, his name is Alien, and he was recently found in a hole after having been missing for a while. The sunset was beautiful and it felt very much like Hawaii with the tiki torches burning, surfers on the waves, and lovely sunset over the ocean.

Busy day south side

Devin and I tried to get an early start today but we didn't want to get out of bed. We were still out the door early enough to miss the atrocious Honolulu traffic and make it to Diamond Head before it got too hot. There was a definite path all the way up to the top of the mountain and it felt very touristy but it was still a really nice view at the peak. At the beginning of the trail I saw a mongoose run across the path and I got really excited but Devin didn't get to see it. After we hiked back down we headed to a Farmer's Market that we passed on the way to the trail. It was really neat to see lots of the local produce and we got to sample lots of different foods. We ended up buying some delicious dressing for macaroni salads and also a loaf of taro bread. We sat under some nearby trees and ate the entire loaf of bread before we headed over to the Waikiki Aquarium.

The Aquarium was fairly small but it still had a lot of different things to see. My favorites were the jellyfish, seeing the humuhumunukunukuapua'a swimming around, and the Hawaiian monk seals.

After the aquarium we drove over to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS

Arizona Memorial. We had some time before our tour so we walked through the Pear Harbor museums. It had displays and videos from survivors and veterans that were there when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was really, really depressing to see and I can't believe how horrible people can be to one another.

The day went by way too fast and we made it to Hanauma Bay about an hour before closing time. Because we got there so late we didn't have to pay for parking. The snorkeling there was good and we saw lots of butterfly fish, trigger fish, and parrot fish.

Devin and I were both exhausted and I fell asleep in the car on the way home. Devin stopped at Surfin Tacos to pick up some dinner on the way home and we ate and went to sleep.

Dole plantation and letterboxing

Today we headed to the historical town of Haleiwa to do some letterboxing. We didn't find the first two stamps but we did find the third. Lucky for us it was right by the Matsumoto Grocery Store which has amazing shaved ice. Devin and I split a pineapple, papaya, and another flavor shaved ice. I wish we had had time to go back on one of the other days to get some more shaved ice.

After we were done eating our shaved ice we headed to the Dole Plantation. We wandered around the gardens for a little bit and looked at the different pineapples. There are a lot of different varieties of pineapple.

They also had a koi pond that a heron was eying optimistically. Then we entered the three acre botanical maze. In the maze there were eight stations you had to find with different stencils. After about an hour and some assistance from our fellow maze wanderers we found all eight. We were planning on eating at the Dole Plantation but they didn't have any good vegetarian options so we just drove in the direction of home and hoped to find something. Lucky for us we found a cheap and

amazingly delicious little restaurant in the North Shore Marketplace called Kono's. Both Devin and my meals were amazing and the staff there were really nice.

Almost as soon as we got back to our vacation house Devin fell asleep. We has been out in the sun for a long time while we were trying to figure out the maze and I think it tuckered him out. I read some more of my Hawaiian myths book and then headed to bed as well.

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time

After an adventure filled day yesterday, we took today to do nothing. We ate breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe an then went back to sleep, listened to the waves, and read until noon. We drove over to Kualoa Regional Beach Park to relax and see Chinaman's Hat (aka Molokii). The island was formed when Hi'iaka, the goddess of lightning, fought and slayed Mokoli'i, the Mo'o dragon, and when she threw is dismembered tail away it landed in the ocean and became this island. I went snorkeling and Devin read on the beach and w
atched me to make sure I didn't drown. The water was a little stirred up but I saw some nice groups of coral and lots of different types of fish including bullethead parrotfish, sergeant majors, whitespotted toby, brown surgeonfish, foot long yellowstripe goatfish, and others that I haven't figured out what they are yet. We ate a picnic lunch of PB&Js on the beach and then headed out to do some shopping. I wanted a book on Hawaiian folklore so we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and hit the gift shops where I found Hawaiian Myths of the Earth, Sea, and Sky. We also stopped to look at some roadside vendors who had tiki carvings, jewelery, and woven hats and purses. When we got back to the vacation house we sat outside and read and when it got cooler outside we went in and Devin made us grilled cheese and spaghettios for dinner. We watched the first part of Blue Crush, a movie filmed in Hawaii, but the DVD skipped so I went to bed and Devin read some more.

Waterfall hike and sailboat ride

Devin and I are still adjusting to the time change and so we were up before the sun today. We ate leftovers from the Hukilau Cafe for breakfast and spent the early morning hours looking through and enjoying all of the pictures from the wedding that people have posted.

The tour bus picked us up at the Hilton in Waikiki and we joined 7 other passengers and our tour guide Brian. He told us a little about Hawaiian history as we drove to Pali Lookout. The lookout is

over a 985 foot cliff and is where King Kamehameha and his warriors defeated the O'ahu in 1795 by driving them over the cliffs, thereby, uniting the Hawaiian islands. We took pictures of the wonderful view and then boarded the bus again to drive to our hiking spot. We hiked through the rainforest of the Koolau Mountain Range on our way to the Likeke Waterfall. One of the first things we got to do was swing on a vine Tarzan style which was one of my favorite parts. On our hike we saw kukui

nuts, hala trees, sword ferns, holly, orchids, hau trees, birds nest ferns, African tulip trees, chickens, and a noisy bird called a white-rumped shama. Sadly, most of the plants and animals we saw are invasive, but the are still very beautiful. We also saw a old water tower (used for the golf course) that was used in the TV show Lost for the Dharma initiative research station. On the way back to the hotel we drove through downtown Honolulu and we saw the Iolani Palace which is the only palace in the US, a statue of Queen Lydia Lili'uokalani who was the last reigning monarch in Hawaii, and the Hawaii Convention Center which was also used in the filming of Lost.

After we returned from our hike we ate lunch at a Chinese Buffet which was delicious and I ate way to much. It was a busy day for us because right after that we headed to the Marina to meet Tom who is captain of the Ishi, a 55 foot sailboat. He works for the University of Hawaii doing research as well as doing eco tours. We waited on the boat for a while for a friend of his to join us and he showed me a couple of chords

on the Ukulele and played a couple of songs. After we left, almost as soon as we were in open water, we saw a pod of humpback whales. This is the first time I have ever seen whales in the wild. We kept sailing until we reached Turtle Bay. The water was about 20 - 25 feet deep and fairly clear. We jumped into the water to go snorkeling and saw schools of trigger fish, yellow tang, other tropical fish, but best of all sea turtles! I dove down to take a closer look and they just looked at me not concerned at all about my presence. After getting out of the water I was cold so I curled up and took a nap (it was also about 11pm Florida time). Devin did some fishing but didn't catch anything. We stayed on the boat listening to Tom play the ukulele and watched the sun set which was beautiful. Then we headed back in to the marina. Tom had some great recommendations for places to go in Waikiki but Devin and I were both exhausted so we drove straight home and went to bed.

Scavenger hunt and Shark's Cove

We woke up around 2:00am because we're still on Florida time so we took some time to update Facebook (very important of course) and check out what we were going to be doing for the week. We started with breakfast at the Hukilau Cafe (not the same as the one in 50 First Dates but they did have the movie poster hung up and Drew Barymore's autograph on a picture from the movie). We met another couple there from Salt Lake City that told us the food was really good and it was. Devin had the LocoMoco which was featrured in the 2009 Food Network magazine as best in Hawaii. Both of our breakfasts were very good. After breakfast we went to the grocery store to pick up PB&J supplies and some other food for the trip. We dropped the food off at our vacation house and then spent some time exploring the beach in front of where we are staying. There isn't a sandy beach but there are lots of rocks that form small tidal pools. We found sea glass and some shells among the rocks and tons of different animals in the water. There were camouflaged gobies, other small fish, a couple of types of crabs and hermit crabs, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and something with an eel-like tail that was hiding under a rock. I had lots of fun taking pictures of everything.

Then we headed out to the Turtle Bay Resort were my friends

from the Sea Scape, Deb and Jodi, set up a scavenger hunt for us. We found Pete, the valet, and told him "Blondi sent us", had him talk pigeon for us, took a picture with him, and he directed us over to the concierge desk. The concierge had a envelope for us with two candy leis and a gift

certificate for us. We then headed over to the helicopter tours to say hi to Deb's friend Josh and chatted with him and played with his super cute puppy.

Then it was off to the beach for some swimming at Shark's Cove at Pupukea Beach Park. The water was a little rough so we only went in the shallow area but we saw lots of fish including a 3 foot trumpet fish, wrasse, and the Hawaiian state fish, humuhumunukunukuapuaa. We also saw spiny sea urchins, coral, and crabs. We had PB&Js on the beach and then we headed to Walmart to pickup some things we forgot to bring. We went back to our vacation house and fell asleep before even having dinner.

Come to Hawaii with me

The morning after our wedding we left the Port D' Hiver for Hawaii. Unfortunately we left a little late and in our sleep deprived state we also forgot a bag at the hotel so we had to go back and get it resulting in us switching to a later flight. It was a loooooooooong day of travel. We had a two and a half hour flight to Dallas, TX with an hour long layover. We told the flight attendant on our first flight that we were on our honeymoon and she gave us free chocolate chip cookies. :) The upside to travelling through Texas is that Devin got to get some really good BBQ and I had some delicious macaroni and cheese. Our next flight was eight hours long. Both Devin and I slept through bits and pieces, only to wake up and find that we still had a really long way to go. The second in flight movie was Fantastic Mr. Fox, which despite having an all star cast was really, really bad. We spent part of the trip playing Uno. After a long day we finally started to fly over the Hawaiian islands and we landed in Honolulu. The airport there was really nice and had a beautiful outside garden. We headed to National car rental to pick up our car and they upgraded us to a Mustang convertible for our honeymoon (Devin is very excited about this). We drove an hour to get to our vacation house and stopped at the Crouching Lion to eat along the way. The food was very yummy but we were excited to see our place and get some sleep. We crashed as soon as we unloaded all of our stuff.