The Last Days: Part I

On Tuesday, we met with Cathy's friend Stephanie, who she went to grad school at UNC with. (Hi Steph!) She took us to several lookouts and a really cool beach to watch the sunset. This lookout gave us an incredible view of Diamondhead.
And a great view of the ocean and Honolulu.
Pretty



Honolulu
Diamond Head, the Pacific Ocean, and Honolulu
The road up to the lookout.
Cathy (a bit sunburned!) and Steph!

This is somebody's garden. They can grow the most incredible and frangrent flowers here.
This is the Punchbowl. Many WWII vets are burried here.
The monument at the Punchbowl.
View from another lookout.




I like this one- it looks a bit foggy. (DUSTIN- Tell Lola that fog does indeed happen in Hawaii.)

There will be more pictures soon- I'm sorthing through about 85 of them from Tuesday alone.

Nevermind...

I'm experiencing more technical problems. Pictures will have to wait until my live in computer help hotline (aka Kirk) gets home. Sorry!

We're back!

Stop back for pictures...Cathy is finally up and is updating this very second! She woke up around 10 AM when Kirk (who had to work today- I don't envy him!) called to remind her to put out the recycling. Guess we're back to reality!

Coming Home

We're not ready, but we'll be on our way home tonight. We'll fly all night and be home sometime Thursday.

Cathy will update on our Tuesday and Wednesday activities from Wichita. Tuesday was a great day- We got to hang out Cathy's friend from graduate school. It was great to see Stephanie again (shout out to Steph!) and since she has lived here most her life, she was able to take us to some spots that tourists don't necessarily know about. It was COOL. Cathy will post the pictures from that day tomorrow. Or Friday. Whenever she wakes up. :)

Shout out to Stephanie- and thanks again for showing us around. That was one of the best parts of our trip.

Monday: The North Shore

On Monday we took a scenic drive to the North Shore. It was so pretty seeing the beaches, and you could tell that the waves were higher and less gentle the more north we got. We also saw tons of surfers. Taken from the car.
Also taken from the car...
Hey, did I mention that we were taking pictures from the car? You can see the waves in this one.

We also stopped at Weimea Falls park to see the waterfall. We had lunch at the outdoor restaurant there. The plate lunch was really good, and featured a green salad instead of macaroni. Yum! There were some dangers lurking in the area...

Meet our nemesis.

He likes food.

We were warned that the peacocks actually had a strategy when it came to stealing food. One would jump up on the table and start flapping, and the other would shove the food to the ground. I'm glad we were warned about this, because we were able to shoo them away when they were getting a little *too* close. We did not see anybody else's food get stolen either, but the staff was pretty good at warning everyone.

The hike up to the waterfall was really pretty. Cathy especially liked the leaves on this plant.

The waterfall.

It was closed for swimming that day for some reason, so we were not able to get in the water. It would have been a cool picture, but just seeing the waterfall was really neat.

We also stopped at Puu O Mahuka Heiau, which is a still a sacred spot to native Hawaiians. It was a temple that was sometimes used for human sacrifice. The lava stone walls are all that remain- along with the stunning views! We had to drive over a rather questionable road to get here, but it was worth it for the views alone. The wall.
The center- once the inside of the temple.

We also stopped for shaved ice. It was good! They put ice cream in the bottom of the cone and added shaved ice and syrup. Cathy got cherry and Kirk got coconut and strawberry.

Some lady decided to pose with me while Kirk was taking the picture. We have no idea why.

Mmmmm...cherry.

We were glad we sprung for the yellow holders. It would have been a huge mess without it.

Sunday Afternoon/The Wedding

Before the wedding, Cathy did some light shopping. She's on her cell phone in nearly all of these shots, obviously talking to her people in New York about all these trashy beach shops. Can't a girl get a decent bag in Hawaii?

The Devil Wears it, you know.
She did not see Jessica Simpson. Bummer.
Here's the Duke Kahanamoku statue. There's a webcam right in front of it, so we waved in case anybody was watching. We also called Jeremy and waved at him and his band.
This is the famous International Market- we stopped by here to admire the shops.
They had some pretty fish there too.

Before we knew it, we were at The Wedding! Here's Lisa and her mother coming down the aisle.
This is Lisa, Shane, and the Judge. The wedding was at a hotel garden right by the beach! You can't see it very well, but hotel guests watched the wedding from their balconies. One lady had binoculars. This is Tortie, the grooms turtle/ring bearer. The flower girl pulled him down the aisle in a wagon! So cute.
Shout out to Dr. DeLeitz!
They love turtles, so they had a turtle ice sculpture on the dessert buffet table.

Cathy, in all of her sunburned glory! All of the out of town guests got a lei, which is a tradition. The person who gives you the lei gives you a kiss! (hubba hubba!)
Kirk and his Lei
The party favors- the bag was filled with cookies from the Honolulu Cookie Company.
Kirk and Cathy at the out of town table, aka "The Caucasian Table" as pronounced by the comedian that ran the event.

Some of the CSU library guests.
The cake was pretty, and the bride and groom on top look like Shane and Lisa!
This is the buffet table. You can't see the food, but it was easily the most complete buffet we have ever seen. It included prime rib, crab legs, smoked fish, shrimp, calamari, chicken, mahi-mahi, lots of different Asian salads, rice, jello, green salad, tomatoes, cheese trays, fruit trays, veggie dips with and without fish, marinated tofu chunks, etc, etc, etc.
Cathy, Kirk, some chick, and Shane.

The bridal party and Cathy and Kirk. And Kashif, Katie's husband.

The reception itself was fun and different from what we've seen before. In Hawaii, the wedding reception is more than dinner and dancing- they have formal entertainment. First there was a Chinese rat dance, which is similar to a dollar dance except instead of dancing, a guy in a rat suit runs around and guests stuff cash into his rat mask. Cathy saw the guy waiting outside when she stepped out for a minute...

Cathy: "Um, there's a guy in a bear suit hanging around outside."

Kirk: "What?"

*Rat Suit Guy Runs in and demands money*

It was pretty funny.

The guy in the rat suit gave a short program after he did the dance. We can't recall his name, but he is apparently a famous comedian on the Hawaiian islands, especally Oahu.

After he spoke, there was music from a live band, a powerpoint of the bride and groom, and another speaker who introduced all of the out of town guests. He did about an hour of comedy.

The bride and groom did not throw their boquet/garter- they presented them to a special person. The bride gave hers to her mother and the groom to his best friend.

After all this had taken place, there was no time for dancing. We all wished Lisa and Shane well and went home to sleep off the massive buffet.

Sunday Morning

Saturday: Takin' it easy...

We decided to slow down a bit on Saturday. We'd stayed up late at Karaoke, and we were sore from walking, so we just relaxed on Saturday. We spent the morning snorkeling, which was exciting. We saw a lot of pretty fish and a sea turtle! We had hoped to go to Hanauma Bay, but the park was so busy that the parking lot was full. We moved on the Maki Research Pier that the Snorkel Bob's staff recommended. It was pretty much deserted, so I'm glad we went to the other place instead. Snorkel Bob's was an experience- he seems to be the Dr. Bonner of snorkel products. :) Cathy got a little claustrophobic and had to retreat to the beach while Kirk finished up. This was also the first day that we got sunburned. D'oh.

We decided to take a sunset cruise that night. The shoreline looked really neat from the boat.

Kirk, just before the boat left.

Cathy before dinner was served. The sunburn is not showing up very much yet, but she was a lobster by breakfast.

There was also entertainment on the ship, including different types of hula dancing.

The sunset was also very beautiful. We stopped near Diamond head as it set and we were able to get some decent pictures.

They served a meal with shrimp, steak, and chicken, plus desert and mai-tais. Kirk also had a blue Hawaiian and Cathy tried a Lava Flow. Both were very good.