Hawaii in Pictures

I wrote a couple posts while I was on my Hawaii trip.  I'd been meaning to write a few more but I realized it's probably not going to happen.  So instead, I'm just going to summarize some of the various experiences we had by showing you a few pictures.

It was a super amazing trip.  Between my phone, our underwater camera and Robyn's fancy camera we took nearly 1000 pictures.  We're hardcore like that.  I was able to narrow it down to the pictures you see below, but even these make for a lot of pictures in one post.  Sorry if it's too overwhelming.  Hawaii is just too awesome for me to even handle.  And two weeks of Hawaii was pretty much the greatest thing I've ever experienced.

If you want to know more about any of the pictures below, just let me know in the comments.  Those of you who are friends with me on facebook have probably already seen these pictures, but you can always look at them again.  It's Hawaii, why would you not want to look again?

Without further ado, here are a few of our experiences in Hawaii.

We went to the Byodo-In Buddhist temple.  It was really beautiful.

The koi pond at the Buddhist temple went into quite the feeding frenzy when food was tossed in.
I got to ring the bell to invite blessings to the visitors of the Buddhist temple. I know I seem like I'm special needs in pretty much every video. I've come to accept it.

I was able to drink from a coconut.  An important item on my bucketlist.

My grandpa helped build this church over 40 years ago.

My dad and I were walking around the church taking all sorts of pictures.  I'm sure the people who go to church there were wondering why the weird tourists were so excited about their church.

We went to the top of Haleakala (the big volcano on Maui) and watched the sunrise from the top.  It was amazing.

We went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.  It was super beautiful.

I saw this crab in Shark's Cove.  (It's a different one than I wrote about in my last blog post.   After that experience I bought disposable underwater camera and went back again the next morning.)

I fought a great battle against this cockroach.

 Robyn started screaming because she saw a cockroach in the dishwasher.  She called me into the kitchen and handed me a bottle of Raid.  I asked her, "do you really want me to spray poison into the dishwasher?"  She gave me a look that said, "If he doesn't die, I will die."  So I started spraying.  This guy took a direct spray to the face for a solid 20 seconds before he finally rolled over and said 'uncle'.  Even then, he was still twitching as I scooped him out with a paper towel.  I have to admit, as much as I love Hawaii, I really appreciate that bugs in Utah don't get that big.

I found this gecko in the house we stayed at.

 One night we were laying in bed and there were 2 geckos crawling across the wall.  Robyn didn't like the fact that lizards were roaming freely throughout the house.  I tried to explain that geckos are our friends because they eat the things we like less.  She tolerated them, but she was not happy when I put one on my arm to take this picture.

This turtle almost swam on top of me.

 I was snorkeling along like a good kid when suddenly I looked to my left and saw this turtle about a foot away.  I totally jumped.  (As much as you can jump when you're snorkeling.) He gave me a look like, "Dude, what's your deal?  I'm just a turtle."  Then he swam along on his merry way.  I managed to snap this picture after he had already passed me.

I saw like a bazillion lizards.  Robyn got tired of me taking pictures of them.

Robyn calls this her mermaid float.

 I don't get the mermaid float.  It's like she's relaxing in a recliner.  When I try to float like that, it's a lot of work to stay in position and keep my head above water.  But she could do it for days.

Iao Valley.  Sooo pretty.

This is the biggest banyan tree in the United States.  Its canopy covers an entire city block.

Don't I look pretty with a flower in my hair?

 The flower jumped out of the tree and landed on me.  If that's not a sign that I should wear it in my ear  I don't know what is.  Robyn didn't seem to agree about what the sign meant.  She told me to take it off and I said I wouldn't until she took a picture.

I really wanted a picture in the sugar cane.  My mom and I went to get pictures while our spouses yelled from the car that it was private property and we could all die.  (Or something like that)

We went to Pearl Harbor.  It was a powerful experience to honor a place where so many lost their lives.

We also went to an LDS temple in Laie.  I learned that Laie, HI was originally founded by mormon missionaries.  Kinda crazy!

We ate at Merriman's and watched the sunset.  The food was amazing and the view was awesome.

We rode a boat out to Molokini

We saw dolphins from the boat at Molokini

We kind of look awesome when we're snorkeling

I really liked this shot I took of my parents at Waimea Bay