Photos: Assorted Hawaii

anuradha2012 — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:48:00 GMT

Mesmerizing Hawaii....

anuradha2012 — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:41:00 GMT

Hawaii is my favorite travel destination. I just love this paradise. I have been there only once for 2 weeks but I would love to go back there to see the rest of the state that I missed the first time.

My husband and I spent a wonderful 2 weeks in Oahu and the Big Island during the fall of 2009.But the memory of that time passed is still fresh. Whether it was the beautiful clean, untouched beauty of it lands or the clear blue seas or the amazing delicious Polynesian food or the fresh pineapples and macadamia nuts or the happy and friendly locals or the soothing refreshing tiki drinks or the gorgeous sunsets or the clean beautiful white and black sand beaches or the ethnic traditional dances of the luaus…Hawaii has a special place in my heart.

We first flew to Honolulu and spend 3 days there. We stayed at a hotel on Waikiki beach. Honolulu looked like any other city in the continental United States with more greens I think. Other than the occasional slight showers, the weather was perfect. We mostly just walked a lot along the Waikiki shoreline. Did some shopping at the Kalakaua strip and international market..spent time exploring by foot. Most of the time we were on the beach..just laying there,enjoying the weather the ambience and the sea. We even took our breakfast to have on the beach.It was great. The second day we went for the Submarine atlantis ride that took us on the ocean floor.It was a reverting experience, very unique than any other….it was a small submarine accommodating few people at a time which was very comfortable.We had our v own window to look from….this under the sea experience was amazing. We could see the fish,crabs,squids swimming around but the main attraction was however the remains of the world war II aircrafts, ships and tanks. Just seeing these remains seated there since Pearl Harbor took me back in history.

We took a guided tour of Oahu as well that covered all its beautiful beaches,sightseeing hot spots and plantations. We ate a lot of pineapple and items made of pineapple like pineapple icecream and upside down cakes at the dole plantation.We also had various local nuts at another macadamia nut plantation. We got a lot of nuts and Hawaii coffee for our friends back home. This tour also took us to the USS Arizona Memorial. We spent few hours there learning about the Pearl harbor and watching a documentary about it. It was amazing how this ship sat there under the waters.It was a once in a lifetime opportunity definitely to be able to see the pearl harbor history so closely.

Evenings, we took sunset cruises along the Honolulu coastline.It was great watching the gorgeous sunset from the deck. There was a luau in the boat itself and an awesome spread of Polynesian delicacies including an amazing assortment of fresh fruits, poi, kalua pua, salmon, lau lau…the works.

After Oahu we flew to Kona in the big island.This was where our relaxed laid back vacation actually began. We did not include many physical activities in our trip, rather kept it very relaxed -just eating, drinking, afternoons on the hammock and we also did catch up on a lot of quality sleep. We rented a villa by the beach in Kona.It was fully furnished with a kitchen.We also rented a wrangler for driving around the big island.

So it was relaxed walks by the beaches, eating seafood at the quaint local restaurants at the coconut grove marketplace,luaus, a lot of kona coffee and spending time at the local art galleries.My husband indulged in some snorkeling while I laid back at the beach sipping a wonderful local coconut drink.

We spent a day at hilo as well just driving around.It was fantastic.We went to the various waterfalls and the botanical gardens there.The tall beautiful colorful age old trees were breathtaking….

The 3 thrilling experiences that we had in the big island were zip lining,a 45 mins hike to Kilauea volcano and driving up to Mauna kea observatory.

We opted for the kohala zipline experience.It had lesser zip lines as we were told…and the altitude was also comparatively low. It was an exciting experience for me. Usually I am not an extreme sports kinda gal…bungee diving, skydiving all these….not for me:)but the zip line experience was great !!!There were 9 ziplines total I think, also suspension bridges that we had to cross. We had a great time.There were localmade snacks and breaks inbetween and we got an up close and personal feel of the North Kohala mountains.

Another day we drove upto the mauna kea observatories. Was able to view the volcano from far.That day it was a bit foggy and misty up at that elavation so the view was not that clear but still we got to see parts of the red hot lava….amazing. Also while driving down we caught 2 beautiful rainbows in the sky. So clear and pretty. On the drive back we saw the solidified lava rocks all along the roads. It was so strange to see lava like that by the road side.we also saw 1 of the US military bases in Hawaii on our way back.

We went to the Hawaiian volcanic observatory at Kilauea as well. There were craters with smoke coming out everywhere and ofcourse the red hot lava!!!It was such an exciting experience.we actually hiked for an hour or so and were actually standing on the solidified lava!!

It was the best relaxed vacation ever!!! I am usually very particular about what I am going to wear, my make up, hair for nice vacation photos but I guess the laid back life in Hawaii just made me completely at peace with myself…no make up no worries about what to wear…just complete relaxation.

We did not want to come back:)But all good things must come to an end..that way it means something and it stays with you forever.