Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a year of some major change and excitement in our lives and as cliche as it sounds, I'm really not sure how 2014 is going to top it, but we're ready and waiting with open arms! The completion of Paul's grad school classes, my new job, and of course our wedding and the weddings of some of our very closest friends and family were our major hi-lights of the year. We ended 2013 with a delayed week-long honeymoon to Hawaii and had an absolutely amazing time. Since I want to be able to re-read this for years to come and remember our vacation I'm going to split it into a few {probably very long} posts. So, you're stuck with Hawaii memories for the next few posts. Try not to hate us as the temperature in Wisconsin hovers slightly above and mostly below zero!
So, here it goes. Hawaii trip part 1. We left on a Monday and though we didn't have to leave the house until 5:30 at the very latest I was wide awake at 2:30. Talk about a long day. Paul's aunt and uncle gave us the great idea to take a picture next to the sign at the bank that displays the temperature. We both decided that 14 degrees was too darn cold to get out of the car that early in the morning. Little did we know it would be even colder when we got home!
Without shame I pulled out the "We're on our honeymoon are there any upgrades you can give us?" line at the check-in counter. The lady laughed at me and said that no, that doesn't actually happen in real life. Bummer. Our flights to Hawaii went absolutely perfectly. Everything was on time which is almost unheard of whenever I travel. Our only issue happened in Madison as we were hardly even through security when Paul realized he had lost 2 of his 3 boarding passes. I'd just like to point out that this was after I offered to put them in my purse for safe keeping not even 5 minutes earlier. He was confident he could keep track of them without any problems...famous last words. No worries, we found them and were on our way. We flew to Chicago, then to Honolulu, and finally to Kona.
We arrived at night once it was already dark which was kind of a bummer. Neither of us were expecting it to get dark so early and we were both tired and kind of crabby at that point so the lack of ocean view didn't help. Then we started driving down the hi-way with the glowing yellow street lights. My husband is color blind. Yellow lights are not helpful. I seriously thought we were going to crash as he was telling me over and over that he really couldn't see very well. I was in charge of giving directions to turn onto streets that I couldn't pronounce. So, I made them up. Made total sense to me! Paul on the other hand was NOT amused. Apparently Khaki, Kiwi, and Queen Latifah are NOT the same as Kuakini, Kaiwi, and Queen Kaahumanu. My bad.
Tuesday was brew day. We went to the Kona Brewing Company for a tour and lunch. Fun fact - any Kona beer that you drink from a bottle is actually bottled on the mainland, not on the island.
After the brewery we went to the Greenwell Coffee Farm. It turns out there's A LOT of work that goes into making coffee. Definitely not a job I'd want. The lady giving the tour made a point to tell us that they get snow in Hawaii after we told her we're from Wisconsin. This is something they're pretty proud of since we heard that fact multiple times on our trip. Paul and I just secretly laughed each time they'd tell us they get up to 12 inches a year at the top of just one mountain and it all melts within an hour. Sorry Hawaii, you don't know what snow is.
Original coffee bean tree on the farm
Pointsettia TREES
We spent a good majority of the afternoon planning out the rest of our week then went to Huggo's on the Rocks for dinner. It was a restaurant that faced the ocean and most of the seating was in beach chairs in the sand. My kind of dining! We saw a whale jumping out of the ocean and though we only saw its tail, it was still pretty awesome.
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