Hello All,
As many of you know Stacy graduated from UW Whitewater this May so she came out to visit me as a graduation present to herself. Thanks to Dad and Katie we got a hotel room for the first couple days she was out here. We had lots of fun and did lots of things. I'm busy recharging after her vacation here. Enjoy the pictures from her Hawaiian vacation.
Before Stacy got to Hawaii I checked into the hotel and decided to decorate the room. I had balloons, streamers and signs. I went a little crazy but she was surprised which made it all worth it.
I had 11 balloons on the floor since she was part of Class of 2011.
Funny story about these signs. I was first just going to start with the "Aloha and Congrats" sign then I made the other sign. Then I decided to make "Way To Go" and "Class of 2011" signs and the graduation caps and diplomas. See I went crazy. But then I couldn't just have the signs, I had to get balloons and streamers.
That night I went to get Stacy from the airport. This is the picture of us while we waiting for her bags. I made her the yarn lei in Whitewater colors and got the purple kukui nut lei and then I of course had to get the flower lei. She was extra special since she got 3 leis.
On Tuesday afternoon I found out that sign up for our Epidemiology paper for Community Health was at 7 am on Wednesday. So Stacy and I got up super early so I could go sign up for my topic. We got there around 7 and then I found out that the first students got there around 3:45 am. Nursing students are crazy. But there were still plenty of topics to choose from. I picked Fetal Alcoholic Syndrome. Anyway, after signing up for my topic we went to Kailua to Boots & Kimo's for breakfast. They are famous for their pancakes with macademia nut sauce. Stacy and I happened to pick the Green Bay Packer table. The whole restaurant is decorated with football and sports stuff.
Since they are famous for their pancakes with mac nut sauce we of course had to get them. We both got the banana pancakes with mac nut sauce. Let me just tell you they were AMAZING!!!!
Among the sports memorabilia, they also had these 3 giant nutcrackers by the door. We of course had to get our picture in front of them.
After breakfast we went to the Pali Lookout. This picture is looking out towards my school and towards the Kaneohe Marine Corp Base. Kailua is to the right and Kaneohe is to the left.
This picture is looking at Kaneohe.
There are lots of these pictures. We tried to take pictures of the 2 of us everywhere we went. So this is the first of many. It was kinda windy up there. After getting our pictures we went back to the hotel. We then got some coffee and walked to the International Market Place. We were on a mission to get some dresses for the luau that night. We did find some dresses and then headed back to the hotel.
On our way back we stopped to have lunch at Senor Frogs. We enjoyed our drinks and nachos before walking back to the hotel. We just chilled at the hotel while we got ready for the luau.
Wednesday night we got on the bus from Waikiki to head to the luau and got halfway there when they told us it had been cancelled due to rain. So we turned around and headed back to Waikiki. After we got back to the hotel I decided to take Stacy to Pukadogs for dinner. We enjoyed our Hawaiian-style hotdogs and fresh squeezed lemonade and then went back to the hotel. We were able to reschedule our luau for Saturday night. It was something Stacy really wanted to do while she was here.
Thursday was our North Shore day. We drove up through Kaneohe and our first stop was Kualoa Beach which is across from Kualoa Ranch (where they do a lot of filming). Chinaman's Hat is closest behind us and the turtle shaped island is the Marine Corp Base.
Then we had to get a picture with the mountains behind us. We got back in the car and continued up the road.
And then we got stuck behind a tractor. It was too funny because Stacy made the comment about feeling like she was back in Wisconsin.
Our next stop was Sunset Beach. We soaked up some sun until lunch time.
We headed back to Giovanni's Shrimp for lunch. We got the butter lemon shrimp and some macaroni salad. It was a pretty great lunch.
After lunch we went to Lanikea Beach a.k.a. Turtle Beach. We took this picture right before a turtle almost attacked Stacy. It was the funniest thing ever. I'm totally just cracking up right now thinking about it. Since Green Sea Turtles are an endangered species so it is against the law to touch them. In the wild you're supposed to stay at least 6 feet away from them. While we were taking pictures in the water all of a sudden I look behind her and there was a turtle. I "yelled" at her to move and she had this crazy scared look on her face as she moved out of the way. The turtle totally would have ran into her. We must have stood there laughing for several minutes. After admiring the turtles we headed into Haleiwa.
We had to stop and have Matsumoto's. We definitely enjoyed it. After Matsumoto's we drove back to Waikiki. We spent some time down by the pool and then got ready to go out to dinner.
We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We had deep fried macaroni & cheese as appetizers. They were amazing. Stacy had mango and kalua pork pizza and I had four cheese pasta with chicken. We didn't have enough room for cheesecake there but we got some to go.
We walked back along the beach as the sun was setting.
Here's us with the sun setting behind us...
...and then with Diamond Head behind us.
After walking back to the hotel we were ready to eat our cheesecake. Stacy got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake and I got Banana Cream Cheesecake. They were both delicious. I was having lots of fun taking pictures. She was getting annoyed....but it was funny.
Friday was our day at Pearl Harbor. After taking our stuff to my apartment we headed to Pearl Harbor.
We got there early which is good because we got 8:45 tour tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial. After getting our tour tickets we went to get the tickets for the rest of the things at Pearl Harbor but I forgot my ID so I couldn't get my tickets. Since Ford Island is an active navy base you need to have an ID to go over there. So after going to the USS Arizona Memorial we went back to my apartment which isn't that far away. Then we headed back to Pearl Harbor and went on with the rest of our day.
Here's a picture of the USS Arizona Memorial to the right and the USS Missouri to the left.
Here's us on the memorial...
...and in front of the memorial.
After we got back to Pearl Harbor the first thing we did was the USS Bowfin Submarine. This was after we finished going through the submarine. Then we went through the museum and headed over to Ford Island.
The first stop along the way was the USS Missouri Battleship. Before we went up on the battleship we ate lunch at the Pearl Canteen. We found out that 2 of the guns behind us weigh as much as a 747 plane. Crazy right and each of the chain links connected to the anchors weighs around 100 pounds.
After walking around the USS Missouri we got back on the shuttle and headed to the Pacific Aviation Museum. They now have 2 hangars that make up the museum. The second hangar still has the bullet holes from December 7, 1941.
After walking through the Pacific Aviation Museum we decided to go get pedicures. This was Stacy's first time getting a pedicure. She loved it. We went back to the apartment and watched Pearl Harbor that night.
On Saturday morning we got up really early to go swim with the fishes. We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. She really enjoyed it and we saw lots of fish.
This picture took us quite a while to get since we kept laughing and/or smiling. But we finally did get it.
After we were done we got a picture at the top of the bay before leaving.
On Saturday night we drove out to the luau. It was pretty fun. We made flower bracelets and Stacy made a kukui nut bracelet. Stacy also got a souvenir glass with the drink called Purple Sunset which was of course purple.
This was us on the beach in between activities.
At the luau they have a guy playing the conch shell who leads the people to the different activities around the grounds of the luau. Plus he was pretty good to look at.
This is the part of the emu ceremony.
On Sunday morning we went to the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium. Stacy got her souvenirs and I got a new purse.
After the Swap Meet we went up to Wahiawa to the Dole Plantation. When we got there we ate lunch before doing anything. Stacy had a Chili Cheese Pineapple Dog and I had a Kalua Pork, BBQ and Pineapple sandwich. It was a pretty good lunch.
The first thing we did after lunch was the Pineapple Maze. We took pictures after each station. There are 8 different stations. It took us 55 minutes to complete which is the average time to finish the maze. This maze went much better than the last maze I did with Stacy. See she's still smiling at the end. Our last maze was not such a happy ending.
After the maze we went on the Pineapple Express. We had lots of fun and we happened to be in the car that had the most babies.
After the train ride Stacy got her picture taken as Pineapple Penny. Pineapple Pete and Pineapple Penny are the Dole Plantation's mascots. After pictures we had some Dole Whip Floats and walked through the Pineapple Variety Garden and fed the koi fish. We caused a fish riot. After going through the gift shop we headed back to my apartment. We just relaxed at home that night.
On Monday we spent the day at Sea Life Park. It was my graduation gift to her. It was definitely an exciting day.
We did a dolphin encounter while we were there. We were in the first group that went in the water. We got to have 3 pictures each with the dolphins. The dolphins kissed us, then we kissed them and then we got to dance with them. The pictures of us are below.
Stacy gets her kiss.
Then I got mine.
A kiss for the dolphin from me.
Then one from Stacy.
Then we got to dance.
After changing we went to the gift shop and got turtle food. We fed the Green Sea Turtles lettuce, celery and broccoli. There we caused a turtle riot. After feeding the turtles we went to see the Sea Lion Show.
After getting something to eat for lunch we went to see the Dolphin Cove Show. This was the coolest picture because I got all four while out of the water.
After the Dolphin Cove Show we went to the Hawaiian Reef Tank for the Stingray Ballet. The diver was feeding the rays and was kind of swimming in a circle so it looked like a ballet with the rays.
We got a funnel cake to eat while we watched the show at the Hawaiian Theatre. It was very yummy.
After the Hawaiian Theatre show we went to the gift shop and then headed back to the apartment. On the way back we stopped at the lookouts. It was really windy here as you can tell by our hair. It wasn't clear enough so we couldn't see Lanai and Maui.
Such a beautiful coast.
On Tuesday we headed to Waikiki and had lunch at Cheeseburger Waikiki. We got these amazing shakes. Stacy got Strawberry Pineapple and I got Raspberry.
I think she was getting sick of me taking pictures of everything we ate the whole week. But if you just look at my other pictures there are lots of food. After eating lunch we went to the tattoo shop so Stacy could get her new tattoo.
Here's her new tattoo. Its a tribal design of plumeria flowers. After getting her tattoo we went back to my apartment and hung out until I had to take her to the apartment. On Tuesday night I took Stacy back to the airport. This week went by too fast. We did a lot of different things and all I have to say is I'm exhausted but it was totally worth it.
A big Congratulations to Stacy on graduating from college. I'm so proud of you and had lots of fun with you this week.
Sending you warm wishes and aloha kisses :)
