The joys of a sunset cruise

Well here we are embarking for our sunset cruise its Sunday March 29, oh yeah my birthday. How cool was it that it was my birthday while we were in Hawaii?! Actually the weather cooperated and we had a wonderfully sunny afternoon to get on the boat and go for a tour of the Napali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii.

The Napali Coast is a set of cliffs along the water and they are hike able but there is no road so the best way to see the coast is by boat. We left for the cruise at 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived back to land by 7 it was really wonderful. I will say only a few things and then give pictures because the beauty of God's creation can not be expressed in words. And even pictures don't give it justice. The picture at the top was taken literally seconds before I got drenched with water. Oh yes I spent most of the cruise cover in water we hit a decent wave and whoosh, Cindy got soaked!

Sorry for the bleach white belly of Tim's, he couldn't help it he wanted sun so bad!

We saw 8-12 beautiful humpback whales. They babies were growing up almost ready to leave for the summer and so when they breached although they were smaller than mom they are still big. We got close enough to the one pictured ad trying to get it on film did our best but wow it was really neat to see the wonders of God's creation!

Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri

The WWII Memorial for the Arizona is a really humble place to visit. I have felt really emotional about Pearl Harbor and all things military related for a while now and so to visit the Arizona was truly a blessing. The men/boys who dies that day were just there getting ready for a normal Sunday morning and wham things went bad. Have you watched the movie with Ben Afflack in it? The morning that the Japanese attack when the planes fly in over the boy playing with the ball and the mother hanging laundry its real. That's the hardest part for me. Its real it happened and it caused a lot of things in this nation to change. So we visited the Arizona and I was a bit on the cold side. Dressed for the tropical weather not remembering to factor in the wind so I really was a bit cold but still very emotional. If you ever have the chance to visit you really should. While we were there we bought a commemorative Pearl harbor book which had some stories in the back about men who survived the attack and we met two of the men who were featured int eh book. I shook a hand of a man who survived Pearl harbor lived to tell his story and will be honored for his heroism for the rest of his existence and hereafter. After the Arizona we went and explored the USS Missouri- the battleship that in WWII the Japanese boarded and surrendered on. We took a guided tour and for those of you who have ever toured a battleship before those things are monstrous. They are their own floating city. It was really cool to see the guns and the ammo and be in the command room and see how it all goes down during war. Also we heard the story of when the Japanese surrendered to General MacArthur and I just have to say I have a new found respect for General MacArthur he was a no holds barred kind of guy. We don't wait for the Japanese they wait for us. We will not wear our dress clothes to this thing we will wear our work clothes we are at war. It was pretty cool to see the documentation that was signed. To hear the story you don't hear in high school history class and so enjoy history. So thank you to the men and women who serve in our Armed Forces today I appreciate you in so many ways!

First Comments on Hawaii

So now that I have been home for a week and have my feet some what back under me I will try to account a little bit about my vacation. I need to do a some what decent job so in a few months from now when I really can't remember anything at all I am able to refer back here and remember!

To start I am not a huge fan of flying, it doesn't scare me per say its just not fun for me either. Here we are ready to leave for vacation from the Cleveland airport. We had to get up by 4 a.m. to be to the airport on time to get through security and such. So our flying day started at 4 a.m. eastern standard time and ended in Hawaii at 9:00 p.m. Hawaiian time which is six hours different than eastern standard time. We were tired and ready for some dinner and then bed. You don't get food served on the plane any more you have pay $10 for the sandwich they were serving, at least drinks were free though and we had brought some snacks for the plane ride. SO we land in Hawaii in the dark and the rain and are ready for our ride to the Hotel. We flew in Honolulu on the Island of Oahu and spend three days on this Island. While we were there we saw Waikiki Beach, and let me tell you the different kinds of people who are there are just crazy. A group of 6-8 girls who were as white as I am with coconut bras on and grass skirts. Dark Hawaii natives carrying their surf boards in their bikinis. And a bunch of tourists, me one of them, who are buying flip flops and other trinkets just for the heck of it.

We also went to Diamond Head, the volcano crater that blew its top a long time ago, and hike the one mile up and saw amazing sights and really felt the awesomeness of God's creation! The American Army also had some bunkers from way back that they had set up in the mountain to look out of enemy ships so we were able to go into one of them and look out at the ocean. There is a beautiful lighthouse that we saw down below and so we just had to take a picture of that. I think that Tim ended up with 1300 or more pictures from the trip so we have a lit of little random things that Tim thought we should get pictures of! I got my first sun burn hiking diamond head. A small spot on my neck, because although I was trying for a tan I did not it to come on all at once and be a burn. So only a small portion of my neck got burnt, not to bad for being out in the sun of Hawaii. A little side note here that although Hawaii has sun, it also has clouds and lots of them. Because of the mountain systems on the Islands they each have their own climate and so on and even their own climates around the islands. Its was very different from what I had imagines in my head. Well I think I will end this update here and tell you about the Arizona WWII Memorial another day and include with that the USS Missouri.

I'll be back!

I am not gone I was away on vacation for a bit and have some fun pictures to share and stories to tell but am getting the family back together the kids missed mom and dad a lot so I am doing family things for a bit. Will blog soon I promise.